wfn.org | Living Stones Pilgrimage, New Book on the Holy Land

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

The Middle East Council of Churches
Press Release

Living Stones Pilgrimage - With the Christians of the Holy Land

by Alison Hilliard and Betty Bailey

Do you want to read a guidebook about the Holy Land that is different
from all others?  Do you want to know what the Christian communities are
truly doing in this land as the new millennium approaches?

Our new book is a unique companion for Christian pilgrims and tourists
in the Holy Land, enabling them to experience the reality of Palestinian
Christian life today.  It is the first supplementary guidebook published
to date which presents Holy Land Christians to the world with the
support of all the local traditional churches.

"The local Christian community, your brothers and sisters, wish to
invite you to their land, to share with you their narrative and their
heritage, to help you discover the land in which our common faith is
still rooted.  This book is designed to help you to respond to that
invitation as you seek to experience the living faith of Jesus Christ in
this holy land."
       His Beatitude Michel Sabbah
       Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem

"This book is a guide to living Christianity in the Holy Land, aiming
to facilitate your contact with local Christians and to introduce you to
some church traditions and practices you may not be familiar with."
       Dr Harry Hagopian, KSL
       Middle East Council of Churches - Jerusalem

"This is a guidebook with a difference.  It is more concerned with
people than places.  It is an invitation, not merely an explanation. It
is written with a passion that stirs the heart of the reader.  Its
purpose is to transform Christian visitors into pilgrims by luring them
off the tourist track into the company of Palestinian fellow-believers
who trace their roots to the disciples of Jesus."
       Fr Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, OP
       Ecole Biblique,  Jerusalem

Alison Hilliard is Head of Religion at the BBC World Service in London.
She has lived in Jerusalem, and reports frequently for BBC Radio and
Television from Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

Betty Bailey is an ordained United Church of Christ minister from the
United States, who has lived in Bethlehem and served in the Holy Land.

You are invited to our book launch that will take place under the
auspices of HB Archbishop Torkom Manoogian at the Seminary Hall of the
Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem on 1 March 1999 at 4:00 PM.
The speakers are Patriarch Michel Sabbah, Archbishop Paul Sayyah and Dr
Harry Hagopian.  Both co-authors of the book, as well as the publishers
Cassell plc - London, will be present.

*** For all further details, contact the MECC Jerusalem Liaison Office
at 02-6284493 ***