Posted in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Church, Ecumenism, Europe, LWF, Latin America/Carribean, Middle East, North America, Youth, Youth participation on May 22, 2008 | No Comments »
The Lutheran World Federation is about community. People from all over the world who belong to a host of churches on all continents say: We belong together. I care what happens to sister or brother in a far away country. We are connected in Jesus Christ.
That is really not a new idea. Christians from the [...]
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Posted in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America/Carribean, Middle East, North America, Poverty, Poverty/Affluence, UN, Youth, Youth participation on April 4, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Yesterday, Francis and I went to the Presentation of the World Youth Report 2007. For the main website of LWF (www.lutheranworld.org) I put together a formal report. Here is it:
“There has never been a generation that was more likely to volunteer and be involved in community causes than this one,” said Patience W. Stephens, the [...]
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Posted in Justice, Middle East on November 27, 2007 | No Comments »
Only 45 minutes from my home, in Annapolis, Maryland, leaders from Israel and Palestine, along with ministers from other states, will meet and begin their conference on the future of Palestine and Israel and the entire region. The expectations for this meeting are low, but the hope is that this will help jump start a new round [...]
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In 2002, after calls from local churches in Jerusalem, the World Council of Churches started a new program that would serve as a witness and help create an international ecumenical presence for peace and justice in the Holy Land.
The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) has brought over 300 people to the [...]
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Posted in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Church, Ecumenism, Faith, Latin America/Carribean, Life, Middle East, North America, Youth, Youth participation on August 2, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Yesterday, Simone posted about her experiences at the Interfaith Seminar in Bossey. Here is how she reflected on these experiences:
“Interfaith encounter should not be something exceptional today. Most of our societies are plural and people of different faiths live close to one another. Some of us study with people of other faiths, live with them [...]
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Posted in Justice, Life, Middle East on July 15, 2007 | 1 Comment »
The Israelis have made it incredibly difficult to move from place to place in the West Bank, often adding hours and hours to a basic trip to a neighboring town. Mohammed, a Palestinian friend of mine who works at Augusta Victoria hospital, has to pass through 7 permanent checkpoints and [...]
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Not only has the wall restricted the movements of Palestinians within Palestine, but so have checkpoints. This combination, along with other things, serves to divide Palestinians, in an effort to minimize opposition to the occupation.
At permanent checkpoints, all those traveling though must present their documents. Israeli’s are let through immediately, and [...]
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“A land [Palestine] without a people…” This is part of a popular saying used as justifying the foundation of the current state of Israel. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Although never its own, independent state, Palestine has been continuously inhabited- in recent times mainly by Christian and Muslim Arabs.
When [...]
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I wonder what feelings emerge as people think of this word and what it means. Is occupation always bad? Are there examples of occupations that have been successful or worthwhile? Or, is it always an evil that we should resist, whether we are the occupiers or the occupied? How would you feel if you lived [...]
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