Dear Friends and Colleagues,

PINontheGo for Thursday 29 January offered links to an article and a blog featuring the Presiding Bishop's interfaith model pilgrimage called for in GC2012's Resolution B019.  It also offered links to some accounts of other things happening on the ground in Palestine/Israel during the pilgrimage.

The Palestine Israel Network, in its founding statement, dedicated itself to establishing a network 'advocating for a more robust Episcopal Church witness for justice and peace for our Palestinian and Israeli brothers and sisters.'  We based this on

• our baptismal covenant 'to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being';
• the July 2005 call of Palestinian Civil Society for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions; and
• the call of Palestinian Christians expressed in the December 2009 Kairos Palestine Document.

In a faithful response to our founding call, former and present members of the EPF Palestine Israel Network steering committee, its work groups and founding members, invite you, sister and brother Episcopalians, to join us in signing this statement of conscience:

 During the Christmas just past, most of us will have sung:

"Oh, little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie"

or

"o come ye, o come ye to Bethlehem"

But Bethlehem has not lain still for many years and few people want to go there anymore. Sadly, many of those who sang those lines prefer to think about a dreamy Christmas pageant Bethlehem over the stark reality that their holy land is a place besieged....

We are people of the Episcopal Church who have learned some truths about Palestine and Israel and have tried to speak out about the decades of massive and egregious injustices thrown down upon Palestinians.... 

But when we have come home from our time in Palestine and Israel and sought to share our understanding and experiences we realized that our understanding often differs from commonly held perceptions and misinformation about the region. Moreover, we have been too often rebuffed, put off, patronized, and scolded by our Church for our efforts. We perceive that the Church is reluctant to hear us because the truth we bring home from Palestine/Israel is an inconvenient one. It is not in line with the dominant narrative and it forces confrontation with a troubling reality: that the occupying power over Palestinians is a state of Israel that does not comport with their myth of Israel. This truth about the occupation disturbs the ecumenical expediency that some have chosen.  

We write this today to widely share what we have learned in our time in Palestine/Israel, and to call people of the Church to rebuff what is merely convenient and stand with us against injustice.

If you'd like to get these emails and you are not an EPF or EPF PIN member or are not an Episcopalian, check this link and check off to get the PIN complimentary list.  Note also that you can contact members of the steering committee by clicking on their name in the sidebar.

Please remember to 'like' us on Facebook and comment on the postings in the community section of the PIN website. 

Episcopal Peace Fellowship
PO Box 15, Claysburg, PA 16625

312-922-8628

epf@epfnational.org

epfnational.org