wfn.org | [ACNS] The gift of a cross: symbolism is rich at opening

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

ACNS 3980     |     MIDDLE EAST      |	   27 MAY 2005

The gift of a cross: symbolism is rich at opening prayer service

Photographs for this item are available here:

http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/articles/39/75/acns3980.cfm

The wood of olive trees uprooted near Bethlehem during the ongoing
Israeli-Palestinian crisis is transformed into an emblem of hope and
reconciliation.

On the shore of the Aegean Sea, a small craft delivered a cross of olive
wood from Bethlehem at morning prayer on the first day of the Conference on
World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) near Athens. It came as a gift from the
Christian churches of Jerusalem, a reminder of the birthplace of
Christianity and the contemporary struggles of the people there. An
ecumenical delegation from Jerusalem also presented cross-shaped pendants
for each participant. The crosses, large and small, had been fashioned from
olive trees uprooted in and around the city of Bethlehem, from Palestinian
land that was confiscated as barriers were constructed.

As the cross was lifted ashore, a throng of worshippers greeted the
delegation from Jerusalem with liturgical chants and litanies, and then
processed behind the cross from the seashore to the worship tent, singing a
song based on the CWME theme, "Come Holy Spirit, heal and reconcile!"

The Right Rev. Riah Abu Al-Assal, Anglican bishop of Jerusalem and the Holy
Land, brought greetings from the Christians of the Holy Land as well as
"from all who are working to make peace in the Middle East" .

Bishop Al-Assal presented the cross as "the symbol of our salvation, our
redemption. Even among the many different traditions of Christianity, I can
find no Christian controversy about it. We agree that through the cross,
through pain, through suffering and death, God in Jesus Christ reconciled
the world to himself. And God has entrusted us with a wonderful ministry of
reconciliation. Our mission and evangelism will never be realized until we
achieve reconciliation, with God and among ourselves."

He warned against a naïve peacemaking that fails to recognize the
importance of struggling against evil and seeking justice. But "in
struggling against the powers of evil," the bishop concluded, "we need
always to resort to the weapons of God, never to the weapons of the
evil-doers. Otherwise, we will be defeated."

As olive oil was used to illuminate a traditional lamp in the tent, worship
leader Ruth Bottoms, an ordained Baptist minister from the United Kingdom
and moderator of the conference, recalled the olive branch borne to Noah by
a dove, and the oil of anointing that served as a biblical sign of God's
power in healing and reconciliation.

The symbolism of the olive tree is rich in Jewish and Christian tradition,
yet it is also significant in the pre-Christian culture of Athens.
Classical mythology holds that Athena became the patron goddess of the city
through the gift of an olive tree, which remains the emblem of Athens to
this day. The history of Christian mission preserves many such examples of
the transformation of religious imagery.

As the CWME gathers in prayer this week at the foot of the Bethlehem cross,
they bear witness to the potential for transformation symbolized in a cross
of olive wood: from brutal uprooting to the healing of communities, from
suffering to hope, from violent conflict to the possibility of reconciliation.

Theodore Gill is senior editor of WCC Publications in Geneva, Switzerland,
and an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

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