wfn.org | Message from Dean of St George's College Jerusalem

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

ACNS 2923 - MIDDLE EAST - 30 March 2002

Message from Dean of St George's College Jerusalem

Good Friday 2002

The Liturgy at St. George's Cathedral in Jerusalem has just ended. I
listened to the lessons as they were read and tried to picture myself in the
places and with the people that were mentioned. At one level it was a
wonderful feeling to be so familiar with the places, but another feeling
quickly dominated as I thought about the people. Those disciples surely felt
the same kind of despair that I feel today. They had put their hope in Jesus
and risked their lives that they were right. That is not an unusual
observation to hear, but it has a completely different power in the context
of today's events.

Three weeks of demolition and carnage in West Bank towns by Israel. I attach
a photo from Bethlehem to show you what it was like. (This is the main road
through Bethlehem, but south of the city centre. It was taken an hour or two
after most troops withdrew and left only snipers on rooftops.) Then there
were two or three suicide bombers culminating with twenty-one deaths in
Netanya. My own hopes had been put in a combination of the Saudi Peace
Initiative and General Zinni's presence, hopes that the United States was
applying more pressure than the public would know. Yesterday the Arab Summit
passed the Peace Initiative even as Israel began a fresh occupation of West
Bank towns. The hotels around us are now at capacity with expatriates who
have been evacuated from Ramallah. Tanks have surrounded Arafat's compound
and breached its walls. Arafat is going to be "isolated". Most of us here
are helplessly waiting on the massacre to begin. That is Israel's answer to
the Peace Initiative: retaliation is more important. Zinni has failed. The
United States has failed. Reason has failed. What hope is there? Will the
blood of another two or three hundred Palestinians atone for the twenty-one
Israelis? Did the twenty-one Israelis atone for the hundreds of Palestinians
in the previous three weeks? Will the certain suicide bombers after this
military offensive solve anything?

There is no hope. Our hope has been crucified. When reason and international
pressure fail, there is nothing left. Perhaps we are looking in the wrong
direction for hope. Certainly I do not want to look to either Arafat or
Sharon, and apparently I cannot look to the United States either. Surely I
can look to God, but God has to work through people. Has God forsaken us
all? Is there some way somewhere that all this can be redeemed? We are
surrounded by death, and not simply by bodies. Is God able to bring new
life? Will there be Easter this year?

Dean Ross Jones
St George's College Jerusalem

Photograph available at http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/

_______________________________________________
The ACNSlist is published by the Anglican Communion Office, London.

Please send QUESTIONS or COMMENTS to acnslist@anglicancommunion.org