In the meanwhile, we offer this excerpt from a speech Archbishop Stephen Cottrell of the Diocese of York delivered at Lambeth Palace on Nov. 18 after he returned from a visit to the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem. He offered some reflections on Christian unity and interfaith relations in the current global context:

“And if we allow the ideologies of hatred and separation, and the dehumanizing of one set of people, then what will this do to our own humanity, and who might we choose to turn on, and who will turn on us?  The tectonic plates are shifting, and there is a real danger that the values, standards and rights we have cherished will be eroded and overridden to our shame and detriment.

“In each of the holy sites I visited, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and of course at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, I was received with joyful and gracious hospitality, by Orthodox and Roman Catholic sisters and brothers alike. This is the spiritual and theological foundation upon which our vision for peace must be built: for as Christians, as we come closer to Christ, we also come closer to each other. We see the face of Christ in each other. Or if we find that too hard, see the face of others reflected in the eyes of Christ, who looks on each of us with the same steadfast, tender and compassionate gaze of love. For it is Jesus Christ himself who makes the hero of some of his most famous stories people of another faith: a good Samaritan, a Syro –Phoenician woman, a Roman centurion, and the one leper who comes back and says thank you is a Samaritan too. We must also, therefore, see and honour the image of God in our sisters and brothers of other faith communities.

“It is this theological vision which is what our world needs and is the greatest bulwark against the erosion of human rights and human dignity, which is the image of God and the face of Christ in every human person. This is the Christian vision, and the recovery of that vision in our social and political discourse can enable us, as those great women in Ramallah asked us, to hunger and search for justice and build peace in the land of the Holy One  – and in our own neighbourhoods as well, where we see an increase in antisemitism and Islamophobia and where we are less and less trusting of each other, and this threatens to tear us apart.

“I know our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters will have themes in their own traditions that seek to bring us together, not in a way that dissolves our difference of belief, but that recognizes we all need to flourish.”

Archbishop Cottrell’s entire speech describing his experiences during his visit to the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem at this difficult time can be read on his website.

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Archdeacon Zoorob serves in the only Anglican parish in Lebanon, All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Beirut, which has two congregations, an international English-speaking community and an Arabic-speaking congregation, who are mostly Palestinian. The parish also includes St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Center, located in a town on the edge of Beirut, which provides education, vocational training and care for about 50 special needs children with various cognitive disabilities at no cost to their families.

The archdeacon came to Canada to visit family after Christmas and graciously took time for a brief interview with Crosstalk after the service at the Cathedral.

While all of Lebanon is affected by the war in Israel and Gaza, Archdeacon Zoorob has felt its impact very directly because his home village of Alma el-Chaab is adjacent to the border where Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging rocket fire. Several houses in Alma have been destroyed and the archdeacon’s family’s home was damaged. Most of the residents have fled to Beirut.

The war weighs heavily on the diocese and especially on Archbishop Hosam Naoum, as he worries about how to meet the needs of the people not only in Gaza but in Lebanon. “We’re doing a lot to help the people there,” the archdeacon said, noting that the Diocese runs the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza, which is still open even though it was hit by airstrikes in October.

“Our diocese is thankful for the help of Christians and all the people, all the dioceses around the world,” he said. “We are calling out for peace….Wars and bloodshed are not good for anyone. … We pray for every family that lost dear ones. We don’t want this to happen to anyone….As a church we cannot declare the love of God unless we apply this on a daily basis to everyone.”

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