WASHINGTON — Two churches in the Washington area are working closely with the Alliance of Baptists to develop a Christian response to the plight of Palestinians — a task they said has taken on greater urgency as a fragile ceasefire between Gaza and Israel continues to hold.
The main effort by Calvary Baptist Church in Washington and Ravensworth Baptist Church in suburban Annandale, Va., surrounds the Kairos Document, released in 2009 by Christians living and working in Palestine and calling on the rest of the world to support them and work for justice.
On a recent trip to Israel, members of Ravensworth Baptist Church met with Abuna Elias Chacaour, Archbishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, in his Haifa office. (Photo courtesy of Ravensworth Baptist Church) |
Based on a similar document written in South Africa at the time of apartheid, the Kairos website states, “As Palestinian Christians we hope that this document will provide the turning point to focus the efforts of all peace-loving peoples in the world, especially our Christian sisters and brothers. We hope also that it will be welcomed positively and will receive strong support, as was the South Africa Kairos Document launched in 1985, which, at that time proved to be a tool in the struggle against oppression and occupation. We believe that liberation from occupation is in the interest of all peoples in the region because the problem is not just a political one, but one in which human beings are destroyed.”
Alliance of Baptists president Carol Blythe noted this process began at the group’s spring convocation in Austin, Texas.
“At our annual meeting, the Alliance of Baptists discussed a statement, which was responding to the Kairos Palestine Document,” she said. “At that meeting, a variety of viewpoints about the statement, a variety of viewpoints about the situation in Palestine and Israel and a variety of viewpoints about how the Alliance should respond to the document were shared on the floor. We did not, at that meeting, come to consensus on how we as an organization would respond. It was clear to me, though, that the membership wanted to continue the dialogue to discern how the Alliance could respond to the call of Christians living in Palestine as expressed in document.”
Subsequently, the Alliance and partner churches Calvary and Ravensworth began creating a network of interested Christians in the Washington and Baltimore area. On Feb. 3, the Alliance’s Community for Justice in Palestine and Israel will meet at Calvary with the network to discuss a response to the Kairos Document.
G.J. Tarazi, a Palestinian Christian who is a member at Ravensworth and serves on the Alliance’s governing board, said he backs the effort because of the organization’s commitment to justice as part of its covenant.
“In addition to my personal connection to this issue, I believe we, as the Alliance of Baptists, are uniquely positioned to have a strong prophetic voice in solidarity with Palestinians,” he said. “We are very vocal in our stance about justice. Our Community for Justice in Palestine and Israel is established on these building blocks. This community has declared that we seek to follow the model of first-century Jesus by ‘speaking truth to power’ in 21st-century Palestine and Israel. The pursuit of justice will be based on building meaningful relationships between and among all people.”
Blythe added, “My hope is this gathered group in the Baltimore/D.C. metro area will help us find a path for responding to the Kairos Palestine 2009 Document. The Alliance of Baptists are committed in their covenant and mission statement to pursue justice with and for those who are oppressed. To take that commitment seriously means talking together about calls for justice such as the one set forth in Kairos Palestine 2009 and discerning how we will respond.”
On Nov. 21, eight days of fighting between Israel and Hamas forces in Gaza ended with a ceasefire. Almost 175 Palestinians died in the conflict, which also killed five Israelis. Hanna Massad, pastor of Gaza Baptist Church who lives in exile because of tensions in the region, told the Baptist World Alliance almost 40 percent of the Palestinians killed were children.
The Gaza church suffered minor damage when the nearby main police station was bombed, Massad said. One of the church’s members — Salem Boulos Swaylem — died of a heart attack when an air attack destroyed a building by which he was standing. The 45-year-old man was the father of four daughters and a son, the BWA reported.
Gaza Baptist Church, with about 70 members, is one of only three Christian congregations in Gaza, where the total Christian community numbers about 2,000, the BWA said.
Baptists in Israel were largely unaffected by the war. Bader Mansour, executive secretary of the Association of Baptist Churches in Israel, told the BWA that “Baptists in Israel were far from this round of violence, as they are concentrated in the north of Israel and the violence was mostly in the south of Israel and the Gaza Strip.”
He said Israeli Baptists, who are mostly of Palestinian origin, were praying for their counterparts in Gaza and for their homeland. “We continue to pray for justice and freedom for the Palestinians and peace and security for Israel,” Mansour said.
In an email to BWA president John Upton, Lebanese Baptist leader Nabil Costa said the Gaza Baptist congregation and its members “are in need of help.”
Costa, executive director of the Lebanese Baptist Society and a BWA vice president, said he had met with leaders of British Baptists’ BMS World Mission, which has offered financial support to the Gaza church.
“Thank you for keeping them in your prayers,” Costa told Upton, who also is executive director of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, “It seems this area will continue to be turbulent and unstable.”
Leah Grundset Davis ([email protected]), associate pastor for congregational life at Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, is a Religious Herald contributing writer. Additional information was provided by Eron Henry, associate director of communications for the Baptist World Alliance.