​​This Sunday is the 7th (and last) Sunday of Easter. Some churches celebrate the Feast of the Ascension today, transferring it from the Thursday before, on which it always falls.

This Sunday was also designated in 2013 by the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada as “Jerusalem and Holy Land Sunday” in solidarity with the Episcopal (Anglican) Diocese of Jerusalem, which covers Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

There are a lot of complicated layers to our relationship with this land.

Of course, it is where most of the Biblical narratives take place, particularly the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

It is a land considered sacred by many faith traditions, including the three “Abrahamic” Faiths – Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

It is a land with a long history of conflict and violence.

It is a land that Western Imperial Powers have interfered with, occupied, destabilized and controlled in various ways over the years.

It is a land in which the modern State of Israel was established in the aftermath of the Holocaust and the atrocities of antisemitism taken to their horrific extremes.

It is a land where most Anglicans, and more generally Christians, are Palestinian.

It is a complicated and messy web of relationships that we have with this place.

However, what is not complicated is the decades-long oppression of the Palestinian people, taken to its horrific extreme in the current situation in Gaza – starvation, dispossession, destruction and death.

Antisemitism has a long history in our culture and in the Church. It is, unfortunately, still alive and well today.

However, guarding against this, we must stand with those Jesus identifies with – the hungry, hurting and oppressed, regardless of culture, race or faith. As the Rev. Munther Isaac, a Palestinian Lutheran pastor in Bethlehem, said in his 2023 Christmas sermon, “If Jesus were to be born today, he would be born under the rubble in Gaza.”

On this seventh Sunday of Easter, I invite you to pray for the Diocese of Jerusalem, the Holy Land, and the peoples and lands it covers. Pray for peace. Pray for justice. Pray for the suffering and dying. May our prayers become courageous actions.

 

Thanks be to God!

CG+

 

Read Archbishop John’s pastoral letter on Gaza here:

https://www.vancouver.anglican.ca/news/archbishops-letter-on-gaza

 This year, the Companions of the Diocese of Jerusalem are raising funds to support the Princess Basma Rehabilitation Centre in Jerusalem. More specifically, the funds will go towards training a doctor to work with children of Gaza and the West Bank to cope with the physical traumas of war. Follow the link to learn more or support:

https://tinyurl.com/b2tzrp4y