In the short time I’ve been in Israel/Palestine I’ve met some remarkable people. Many of them work in grassroots organisations that try from the ground up to improve life for people. One of these is Basma who is director of the Al-Basmah Centre, run by the Arab Women’s Union in Beit Sahour, in the greaterContinue reading “Practical grassroots support”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
A future not theirs
Full disclosure: I’ve not yet been to Gaza, though hope to visit in the Autumn. Following last week’s aerial bombardment, I’ve been reading and thinking about the place a lot. And I want to focus on the children. As I said in my last blog, Gaza is a tiny strip of land with a borderContinue reading “A future not theirs”
Collateral Damage
Since this blog was written on Saturday 6th August, more children and women have been killed in Gaza and rockets fired from Gaza have reached the edge of west Jerusalem. More collateral damage. Five year old Alaa Qaddoum was killed on Friday during an Israeli assassination strike against a leader of Islamic Jihad. The GazaContinue reading “Collateral Damage”
Hospitality and House of Grace
Hospitality and House of Grace are synonymous. Not only are there coffee and water and sweet treats as a visitor, but hospitality is at the heart of the vision of the House of Grace itself, opened to receive former prisoners transitioning to life ‘on the outside’ by Kamil and Agnes Shehade in 1982. Growing up,Continue reading “Hospitality and House of Grace”
Jesus appears at Lake Tiberias
This blog is an adaptation of a sermon preached May 1st 2022 in St Andrew’s Galilee. Hearing the gospel story of the disciples encountering Jesus while fishing in Galilee on a morning in May in Galilee gives a fresh complexion to it! As part of my preparation for today I decided on Thursday to goContinue reading “Jesus appears at Lake Tiberias”
Empty and full…
Empty and full… A week past Friday I was in Jerusalem for the first time for several years. The old city was quiet. I went with Bart McKettrick and Gordon McKenzie who are members of the board of the Church of Scotland’s Tabeetha School, along with me. Gordon had never been to Jerusalem before andContinue reading “Empty and full…”
Reality and hope
Are you tempted to rush forward from Good Friday to Easter Sunday? To get all that talk of death out of the way? The Christian calendar seems to facilitate this. Not many traditions linger on what has been described as the long hiatus of Holy Saturday. And yet, to make sense of faith and lifeContinue reading “Reality and hope”
Shalom and Salaam
At 6 am Lion’s Gate, Jerusalem, 15th April 2022. Families, many with young children were leaving the Al Aqsa Mosque. The atmosphere was calm. Children carried their balloons and bubble machines. At 6.30am the atmosphere changed. Everyone had a mobile phone in hand, so they knew at once there had been some kind of trouble.Continue reading “Shalom and Salaam”
Leaders and servants
Leadership style is very much in the news. President Zalensky’s brave, down to earth, chair carrying, among-the-people style contrasts with President Putin’s long table and paranoid detachment. And UK government leaders’ sense of entitlement and privileged rule breaking leaves the rest of us reeling, angry and hurt. Those, especially, who followed the rules during lockdownContinue reading “Leaders and servants”
Friends and enemies
What does it mean to betray someone or something? Judas is often portrayed as betrayer, as almost a pantomime villain. But is this fair? We only have what the gospel writers tell us about Judas, of course, and they paint him in a pretty unsympathetic light. There is a hint of scapegoating or ‘othering’ aboutContinue reading “Friends and enemies”
Stepping out of the boat... 