The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem is an anomaly in our global church. Unlike our domestic dioceses, which rarely even extend beyond interstate lines, the Jerusalem diocese includes the territory of five separate countries or territories: Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Israel. It’s made up of 28 congregations with more than 7,000 members, as well as more than 30 institutions, such as schools, hospitals, and clinics.
It is a diocese that, by its very existence, transgresses the boundaries of nation and tribe, and the very divisions that lead to injustice, poverty, and war.
Whenever violence breaks out in the Middle East, Bishop Hosam Naoum is called upon to care for those in his diocese—indeed, all people in the region—who are at risk of losing their safety, their homes, or their very lives.
This week, he wrote in the wake of the outbreak of yet another war:
In the face of such overwhelming force, we recall the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9). Today, that calling feels heavier than ever before. When the “spirit of fear” threatens to consume our hearts, we must anchor ourselves in the “spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).
For many of us, our nation’s attack upon Iran brings up conflicting feelings. We can deplore war while naming the oppressive nature of the Iranian leadership, which in the past weeks has massacred tens of thousands of its own citizens.
Yet as Christians, we are called to enter even the hardest conflicts with a profound commitment to nonviolence, or at the very least a commitment to exhaust all nonviolent possibilities before taking up arms. We know that violence begets more violence. Even as we pray for those in danger today, we hold onto the fear of expansion and escalation. We believe that the rule of law is an essential part of justice and human flourishing. We also know that diplomacy and relationships that transcend nation and party are what allow us to see the image of God even in our adversaries, and to act accordingly.
Bishop Naoum continues:
I call upon the global church to join us in urgent, unceasing prayer. We implore God to protect the innocent—the mothers, the children, and the elderly—who are caught in the crossfire of this “Operation Epic Fury” and the subsequent “crushing responses.” We pray specifically for a “sound mind” for the leaders of the United States, Israel, and Iran, that they might recognize the futility of this bloodshed and turn back from the precipice of a global catastrophe.
One call is clear: we must respond to the expanding violence in the Middle East by turning to God in prayer. We must join our Christian siblings in the Diocese of Jerusalem, and all God’s children of many faiths, who now face yet another season of suffering and loss, even as we pray for all soldiers and sailors in harm’s way.
May the pain of this moment remind us of Jesus’ call to us—all of us—to be peacemakers.
Faithfully,
