wfn.org | ACNS3493 Diocese of Jerusalem School Book Campaign draws to a

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ACNS 3493     |     JERUSALEM	  |	1 JULY 2003

Diocese of Jerusalem School Book Campaign draws to a close

[ACNS source: Development Office, Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem]

Dear Friends,

Salaam and greetings to you from Jerusalem. Welcome to the last month of the
Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem Book Campaign.

The Diocese of Jerusalem has a powerful educational ministry, witnessing the
love of Christ to almost 6000 students this academic year. We believe that
children are the future, and that a quality education gives them the tools
that will enable them to become productive and creative members of society.

The School Book Campaign aims to provide a sizable addition of books to the
libraries, in each of ten Diocesan schools. The campaign has profiled a
different school each month, for the current academic year. This month we
will introduce St John's Episcopal School in Haifa, Israel.

We ask that you make a commitment to sponsor a certain. This is an ideal way
to make a link between Sunday school classes, Church school classrooms,
youth groups or individual families and the children of the Holy Land. Five
pounds or ten dollars will buy a book.

We have an additional goal, in that we hope that you will develop your
personal relationship with the children of the Diocese of Jerusalem, and
that this will evolve into a long term and sustainable friendship.

St John's Episcopal School
Four teachers in St John's School's staff lounge gather in a huddle as
computer science teacher Simon Sabbah shows off a 20 to 30-year-old class
photo. One teacher laughs as she spots a childhood photo of her husband, a
former student at the school.

Sabbah is compiling this and other photos for an historical project
conducted by the Israeli teachers union, which chose St John's as one of 100
Israeli schools to partake in the program. In the process, a new generation
of teachers and students is learning what old-timers have known for years -
that St John's School and the Anglican Church have had an extensive legacy
in this Mediterranean coastal city.

"The church and the school grew up together," explained the Revd Canon
Shehadeh Shehadeh, priest at St Luke's Episcopal Church in Haifa and
chairman of St John's School, while sitting in the school's teachers' lounge
last month. "We were the first school in Haifa, when there were only 100
Jewish people in Haifa."

These days, the Christian school contains more than 400 students, one-third
of whom are Muslim and a few who are Druze, and it has plans to expand even
further. Unlike most Anglican schools in the Holy Land, St John's is not run
by the diocese but by the local Anglican parishes in Haifa - a feature that
allows people who know the region to manage the school's operations, Fr
Shehadeh said.

The school's Christian emphasis means that students not only learn the Three
R's, and subjects such as history and computer science; they also engage in
religious education classes and attend chapel every day.

On a Wednesday afternoon last month, hundreds of enthusiastic students
donned in light blue tops and blue jeans filed into the Church of St John
the Evangelist for their chapel time. A recently restored pipe organ dating
from the 1890s stands in the 68-year-old church. However, students on this
day sang modern worship tunes to the sound of an electronic keyboard,
reciting words emblazoned on a projector screen in front of them. Later,
they listened to a talk by a teacher who read some Scripture passages.

"The aim behind it is not to convert Muslims to Christianity, but to make
Muslims and Christians aware of ethics," Fr Shehadeh said of the chapel
services and religious education classes. "Every student knows that our aim
is not for them to be converted. We make them aware of the true message of
the gospel and the salvation of Jesus Christ to everyone."

Unlike most major cities in Israel, Christians make up the majority of
Haifa's Palestinian population. More than 60 percent of the some 35,000
Arabs in Haifa are Christian, the majority being Greek Catholics. Haifa
contains no Muslim schools, so the city's Muslim population mainly depends
upon public schools or local Christian schools like St John's. Many of these
schools were built by overseas mission organisations during the late 19th
and early 20th centuries.

Traditionally, Haifa had a majority Arab population, but that all changed
when thousands of Palestinians left the Mediterranean port city during the
Arab-Israeli War of 1948. Today, some 90 per cent of Haifa's 250,000 to
300,000 people are of Jewish descent. Fr Shehadeh estimates that if the
Palestinians had not fled or been driven out of their homes in 1948, his
congregation at St Luke's Church would contain some 11,000 Anglicans rather
than the 280 who worship there today.

Haifa generally is known as a city where Palestinian and Jewish residents
coexist in peace. However, local Palestinians still face myriad challenges,
according to school officials.

"When it comes to minorities, we have to prove ourselves more than others in
society," Fr Shehadeh said. "In a decade or two, it will be difficult for a
non-Jew to exist respectfully in this society."

As a result, there is a temptation for Christians to go to other
predominately Christian nations, such as Australia, the United States or
Canada, where they can adapt relatively easily to the new culture, he said.

Economic woes are yet another challenge facing the local population. St
John's School only receives 60 per cent support from the Israeli Ministry of
Education, so it must subsidise additional costs through tuition fees.

"It makes it hard for many of the parents of students who are poor," Fr
Shehadeh said, though he added that the school offers financial support
programs for needy students.

The school spends more money per student than most Israeli schools, and St
John's continues to maintain the reputation as one of the top schools in
Haifa, he said. Most teachers have at least a bachelor's degree, and all of
them are paid the standard rate that teachers receive in Israel.

The school not only benefits from the leadership of director Akram Haddad,
but also from school advisers Hannah Abu Hannah and Wajeeh Awad. Abu Hannah
is a retired teacher, poet and writer; Awad is a lecturer, counsellor and
coordinator for the Arab College for Education in Israel in Haifa.

St John's high reputation means the school cannot accommodate all the
parents who want to enrol their children there. However, the school hopes to
expand within the next few years to help meet the increasing demand. Fr
Shehadeh says he hopes to build new elementary classrooms next to the
school's kindergarten, which stands a few city blocks away from the rest of
the school near St Luke's Church.

If approved, the St Luke's campus would hold kindergarten through third
grade classes, and the current campus would hold the remaining classes.
Eventually, Fr Shehadeh says he would love to build a high school, but he
described the project as a long-term goal that would take lots of planning.

Meanwhile, there is plenty of other work to do, according to school
officials.

"Our ultimate aim is to educate students who can live in this modern life
and manage in this ever-changing world," said Awad, who not only serves as
one of the school's directors, but also used to be a headmaster at St
John's.

The type of preparation Awad describes does not happen in a purely academic
setting at St John's School. At the end of the day, one of the most
endearing features of the school is the sense of community it provides,
school officials say.

"The school is known as the family of St John, and we don't carry the name
only among the teachers," said Fr Shehadeh. "We don't only talk about love;
we show them our love, and we try to solve most problems with our Christian
presence."

We accept direct transfers to our account in Jerusalem, checks through the
post, or offer contact with organisations that support our work, in your
home community. Please contact me for banking information.

Thank you for your support of this exciting project. With my warm regards,

Nancy J. Dinsmore
Development Officer
Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem

PO Box 19122
Jerusalem 91191

Fax: 972 2 627 3847
Email: devedjer@netvision.net.il

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