Christian development organizations in Europe

Eye witness perspectives on Middle East peace

Jerusalem, the holy city and city of daily life for two peoples and three religions. Photo: Jenny Bolliger/EAPPI

The Anglican primate of Ireland, directors of Christian development organizations in Europe and church leaders in Jerusalem have acted and spoken on peace for Israel and Palestine based on what each of them has seen on the ground.

A directors' delegation from APRODEV - the Association of World Council of Churches (WCC) related Development Organizations in Europe - who visited Gaza during the World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel, have urged Ministers of Foreign Affairs in the European Union (EU) to also go there and "witness for themselves the denigrating circumstances in which the people of Gaza live."

The delegation members, all of whom are EU citizens, "were particularly disappointed by the inappropriateness and ineffectiveness of the European Union policies to achieve peace," according to an APRODEV press release on the visit.

The Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland Alan E. T. Harper has followed up on his own visit to Israel and Palestine by endorsing the WCC's Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The Holy Land visit of Irish church leaders had also inspired a liturgy that was widely used in Ireland and beyond during the World Week for Peace.

Archbishop Harper is the 8th Anglican bishop and the first in Ireland to endorse EAPPI. In a letter of 2 June he wrote: "I am very willing publicly to endorse the work of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel and wish to salute the brave and important work of the Ecumenical Accompaniers on the ground."

Also this month, the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem decided that they should re-issue their statement of September 2006 on "the Status of Jerusalem" as, even today, it sums up what they see as "the only way forward if there is to be peace in this land."

"Jerusalem, holy city and city of daily life for two peoples and three religions Jerusalem, heritage of humanity and holy city, is also the city of daily life for her inhabitants, both Palestinians and Israelis, Jews, Christians and Muslim, and for all who are linked to them by family ties as well as for those for whom Jerusalem is the location of their prayer, of their schools, hospitals and work places," the statement says.