Swords into Plowshares

World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel

The World Council of Churches invites member churches and related organizations to join a week of advocacy and action for a just peace in Palestine and Israel on May 29 - June 4. Congregations and individuals around the globe who share the hope of justice are invited to take peaceful actions to create a common international public witness.

Participants are encourage to plan activities around three main areas:

• Praying with churches living under occupation, using a special prayer from Jerusalem.
• Educating about actions that make for peace, and about facts on the ground that do not create peace.
• Advocating with political leaders using ecumenical policies that promote peace with justice.

Learn about the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ministries and policies related to Israel and Palestine.

Easter blessings

Christ is risen!

The staff of the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations and the staff of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program wish you a blessed Easter.

May you experience afresh the joy and wonder and hope of resurrection.

May you receive strength and grace to live in love - walking humbly with God, seeking justice, acting in kindness - this day and every day.

 

Côte d''Ivoire: UN peacekeepers begin clearing explosives after election conflict

Côte d''Ivoire: UN peacekeepers begin clearing explosives after election conflict.

On Empowering Women through Art in South Sudan

Honna Eichler reflects on the ministry of Milcah Lalam of RECONCILE International in Sudan. They met during the 55th session of  Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations. Honna writes:

“With art there is no barrier.” These words concluded a brief interview I had with Milcah Lalam, a woman from South Sudan who provides psychosocial rehabilitation for communities within this newly formed country.

Milcah works through RECONCILE International, an organization that is attempting to pick up the pieces in Sudan after the recent civil war, which killed nearly 2 million people and devastated the country. The basic aim of RECONCILE is to “equip communities with knowledge and skills for peace-building.”

Read Honna's whole story.

A trip down memory lane

There were gulls in the background - or so they told me. I could only see a building.

This evening brought my second Skype presentation on behalf of the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations.

The Agape House Campus Ministry at the University of Illinois in Chicago invited me to join them for a conversation on The Theology and Praxis of Doing Good. The conversation specifically explored how we live our faith in the public sphere.

I had the opportunity to share what the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations does: equipping Presbyterians for global discipleship and advocating for peace and justice in the name of Jesus in the United Nations community guided by policies of the General Assembly.

I talked about my faith journey and my call to minstry. I shared that it is crucial to remember and proclaim and live that Christians engage in ministry in the public sphere out of our faith in Jesus Christ.

The group talked about opportunities for living their faith. They identified a number of ideas:

• watching the interactions between people to ensure that people are treating one another with dignity and respect
• participating in campus groups that work for social justice
• advocating for state legislation
• supporting the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America and similar organizations
• taking part in events such as the CROP Walk

The conversation provided me the opportunity to reflect on how and why I have engaged in ministry in the public sphere - and to do so in a familiar place - I had been a field education student in campus ministry based at Agape House when I was a student. It was great to return - at least in a virtual sense.

Hopefully this fall or early winter, Agape House will bring a group to New York for a seminar. There may well be gulls over the East River.

Your gifts make possible the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations.

Accompanying Clark: A Brief Tour of Hebron

Check out Accompanying Clark: A Brief Tour of Hebron

Clark Scalera reflects on his service in Hebron with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. Clark is a Presbyterian minister who served in Hebron from October to December of last year.

Get home safe

It happens almost every night.

I shut off the computer,
turn out the light,
and leave the office.

I walk down the hall to the elevator
and push the call button.

When the cab arrives, I push "1" and head downstairs.

Hector is always there to see me out.

Sometimes we talk about weather or family.
Often we talk sports.
[Conversations got interesting when
my Steelers beat his Jets.]

Then I head for the door,
and I hear Hector's final words:
always the same
always in the same, kind voice:

"Good night, Marko.
Get home safe."

Get home safe.

We live in a world where so many have not a home but
a tent in a refugee camp
a blanket in the back of a car
a cot in a shelter
a mattress in a brothel
a root of a tree
a spot on a subway grate;

a world where so many homes endure unsafe situations:
domestic violence
sex trafficking
war
exploitation
persecution
occupation

In such a world, Hector's words come as
a blessing
a benediction
a prayer that the day may soon dawn . . .
and a challenge that we work for that day . . .
when
every one has a home
every home is safe
and we all travel there safely.

Get home safe.

May it be so.

Northminster Presbyterian Church puts mission into practice

The Northminster Presbyterian Church visited the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations on Saturday, April 16.

The group had the opportunity to tie mission into advocacy practice.  The group from Northminster had spent days doing mission work close to New York City, including some hands on work like painting.

The use of paint took another form of mission when the group completed participated in making Red Hands for the Red Hand’s Campaign to end the use of child soldiers.

The group also had the opportunity to learn about Presbyterian Mission partners in different countries and educate each other about the work of Presbyterians around the world and far off places.

Later in the day, the group visited the United Nations headquarters and spent some time in the United Nations meditation room. 

Contact the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations to schedule a seminar.

Your gifts make possible the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations.

 

Remembering September 11

What did your congregation do on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 or Sunday, September 16, 2001? What Scriptures did you read? What did you sing? How did you pray? 

What has helped people through the years as they have dealt with the events of Sepetmber 11, 2001? In worship? In study?

What resources for pastoral care and support have been useful?

And what (if anything) do you plan to do this year to mark this tenth anniversary?

In a few months we'll observe the tenth anniversary of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. This year, that anniversary happens to fall on a Sunday. Several of us at the Presbyterian Center have been meeting to collect and prepare resources for congregations to use on and around that date. What would you suggest be included?

From thinking the Faith, Praying the Faith, Living the Faith, written by the PC(USA) Office of Theology and Worship.

via presbyterian.typepad.com

And what (if anything) do you plan to do this year to mark this tenth anniversary?

Easter Message 2011 from the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem

14 Apr 2011  

Alleluia! Christ is Risen. He is Risen Indeed. Alleluia!

We, the Heads of Churches of the Holy City of Jerusalem bring you our greetings and our joy in the celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Christians find their joy is secure in the hope of the promise of eternal life which our Lord has won for all who believe. However, when we in Jerusalem, the city of redemption, see the suffering of our Christian brothers and sisters in Egypt, Iraq and elsewhere in our region our joy becomes more solemn. We find sadness competes with the joy of Easter as we witness the violence which has erupted in the face of peaceful demonstrations by people throughout the Arab world these past months.

We Christians are watching in prayer the developments in the Middle East. We also pray that the reforms would lead to modern civil society where freedom of expression, freedom of religion, human rights — including the rights of those who are considered being a minority in numbers — are respected. We call upon all people of faith and good will to pursue peace while at the same time we recognize that peace cannot be bought at the price of silence and submission to corruption and injustice.

The violence, when it erupts, reminds us that the cross of Christ is ever present for the faithful followers of the Prince of Peace. The crucifixion is an ongoing reality for many of our clergy and people who continue to seek to live with mutual understanding and co-operation with their neighbors.

We urge all Christians to pray for reconciliation among people in the Holy Land, where the deteriorating situation makes peace and justice seem further away than ever before. We ask the Churches around the world to stand with us in giving voice to those who are silenced, in breaking down walls that separate us from one another and in building bridges of goodwill between people.

We pray for the leaders of the nations, and for those who demonstrate for change, to use wisdom and their best judgment to serve the needs of their people and to promote peaceful solutions to change for a better future for all of God’s children. Our Lord died for the sins of the whole world that all people will see in his example how violence only leads to death and destruction. In his resurrection we experience his victory over violence and death and we embrace a vision of the future in which all people live together in harmony.

This vision gives us hope to renew our faith in the face of despair. Christians all over the world celebrate the victory over death which is ours as a gift from God who has compassion and mercy for all of his creation. We share our joy in the resurrection with you. The cross is ever before us day by day and the cross is empty. New life has come. Christ is risen. We are risen. Alleluia. Thanks be to God.

+Patriarch Theophilos III, Greek Orthodox Patriarch
+Patriarch Fouad Twal, Latin Patriarch
+Patriarch Torkom II Manoogian, Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Patriarch
+Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, ofm, Custos of the Holy Land
+Archbishop Anba Abraham, Coptic Orthodox Patriarch, Jerusalem
+Archbishop Swerios Malki Murad, Syrian Orthodox Patriarch
+Archbishop Joseph-Jules Zerey, Greek-Melkite-Catholic Patriarch
+Archbishop Abouna Matthias, Ethiopian Orthodox Patriarch
+Archbishop Paul Sayyah, Maronite Patriarchal Exarch
+Bishop Suheil Dawani, Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East
+Bishop Munib Younan, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land
+Bishop Pierre Malki, Syrian Catholic Patriarchal Exarch
+Fr. Rafael Minassian, Armenian Catholic Patriarchal Exarch