Holy Sites, Holy People: A Lenten Journey

Fr Fadi Diab

Brendan Metcalfe, CEO, Friends of the Holy Land writes:

Friends of the Holy Land are pleased to present 'Holy Sites, Holy People: A Lenten Journey' - a series of spiritual videos created by the Christian communities in Palestine.

The series comprises six videos, each of which features a holy site in the Palestinian Territories. The videos are introduced by Fr Fadi Diab who as well as being the Rector of St Andrew's Episcopal Church Ramallah, is the Chairman of the local ecumenical Committee of Christian volunteers who help guide the work of Friends of the Holy Land in country. The aim of each video is to bring to you the Biblical text and historical context of the featured site together with the lived experience of the local Christian community not only in their current grave circumstances but also over more than the past 75 years.

We begin this journey in the City of Bethlehem. As Fr Fadi comments: "This city where our Lord Jesus was born, the city which gave love and hope to the world is now a sad, hopeless city, vacant of its visitors."

Revd Dr Munther Isaac explains further the many challenges facing the community of Bethlehem today: "…many new checkpoints, close to 900 new gates, can you think of that in a small area like the West Bank? This means that travelling from place to another now takes hours" he goes on to say that for the church the biggest challenge is responding to people's fears for the future "with all these restrictions and with a bad economy people are leaving…..as a result the church is focussing its efforts to help people survive". Friends of the Holy Land is working with churches through many programmes to come together in charity to help the community have "sumud" (resilience) and the comfort of God.

We hope as you walk with our brothers and sisters through this Lenten Season, you will pray for them and continue to advocate for peace and justice in the Lands of the Holy One.

The filming and other work necessary to complete this series was undertaken in the very difficult conditions imposed by the current tightened occupation of the West Bank as a result of the war and the current ceasefire. We are grateful to the Global Partnerships Office of the Episcopal Church (USA) for their help in funding as well as the very dedicated team mentioned by Fr Fadi Diab at the conclusion of the video.

We hope these videos will inspire you to support our Lenten Appeal - Hope is Rising from the Ashes - as with your help we rebuild

See the video series here: www.friendsoftheholyland.org.uk/prayer