— THE LIVING STONES OF THE HOLY LAND TRUST _________________________________________________ Registered Charity No. 1081204 'An ecumenical trust seeking to promote contacts between Christian Communities in Britain and those in the Holy Land and neighbouring countries.’ You are permitted to redistribute or reproduce all or part of the contents of the Yearbook in any form as long as it is for personal or academic purposes and non-commercial use only and that you acknowledge and cite appropriately the source of the material. You are not permitted to distribute or commercially exploit the content without the written permission of the copyright owner, nor are you permitted to transmit or store the content on any other website or other form of electronic retrieval system. The Living Stones of the Holy Land Trust makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the contents in its publications. However, the opinions and views expressed in its publications are those of the contributors and are not necessarily those of The Living Stones of the Holy Land Trust. The Living Stones of the Holy Land Trust Yearbook and its content are copyright of © The Living Stones of the Holy Land Trust. All rights reserved. [email protected] 1 Living Stones of the Holy Land Trust Yearbook 2019 2 Contributors Living StoneS Yearbook 2016 i Living Stones of the Holy Land Trust Yearbook 2016 ii Contributors Living StoneS Yearbook 2016 The inter-relationship between religion and politics in the Middle East Living StoneS of the hoLY Land truSt Registered charity no. 1081204 iii Living Stones of the Holy Land Trust Yearbook 2016 © Living Stones of the Holy Land Trust 2016 all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Living Stones Yearbook 2016 First published 2017 by Living Stones of the Holy Land Trust (regd. Charity no. 1081204) www.livingstonesonline.org.uk ISbN 978 09552088 7 4 Managing Editor Leonard Harrow Editors Mary Grey Duncan Macpherson anthony o’Mahony Colin South Produced by Melisende Uk Ltd Printed and bound in england by 4edge Ltd iv Contributors to the memory of JaMIL YoUSIF BullaTa 1934-2016 v Living Stones of the Holy Land Trust Yearbook 2016 vi Contributors CoNTeNTS Editorial xi Contributors xv Jamil bullata 1 PalEstinian Christians: PrEsEnt situation and futurE ChallEngEs —Sr Bridget Tighe 3 hEbrEw sPEaking CatholiCs in modErn israEl: idEntity within thE Transnational ChurCh and soCio-PolitiCal statE —Emily Tavcar 23 an ExPloration of issuEs surrounding AngliCan/JEwish rElations in thE uk in thE light of thE israEl/PalEstinE ConfliCt —Andrew Ashdown 44 kEnnEth Cragg as an AngliCan ThEologian of islam —Christopher Brown 62 kEnnEth Cragg, CharlEs malik and dag hammarskJöld—somE thoughts on thE quEstion of mystiCism and thE ‘PubliC squarE’ —David Derrick 92 EastErn orthodoxy and muslim-Christian rElations bEtwEEn EuroPE and thE middlE East: o ClémEnt’s PErsPECtivEs on thEology and ECClEsiology in thE Christian EnCountEr with islam —Stefanie Hugh-Donovan 121 thE faithful PrEsEnCE of thE syrian orthodox in a ChallEnging miliEu: Sayfophobia, CitizEnshiP, idPs 1915-2015, and bEyond. —Aziz Abdul-Nour 139 thE PrEsEnt Crisis in iraqi Christian idEntity —Suha Rassam 199 vii Living Stones of the Holy Land Trust Yearbook 2016 is thErE an End in sight rE thE dEstruCtion of ChurChEs and monastEriEs in iraq? —Erica C D Hunter 214 ChurCh-statE rElations in thE soviEt rEPubliC of ArmEnia during thE CatholiCatE of gEvorg VI Ch’orEkCh’ian (1945-1954) and his suCCEssor, VazgEn i PalChian (1955-1994) —Vrej Nerses Nersessian 226 viii Contributors Living StoneS of the hoLY Land truSt ‘an ecumenical trust seeking to promote contacts between Christian communities in britain and those in the Holy Land and neighbouring countries.’ Our SPIRITUAL PATRONS include In the Middle East: archbishop elias Chacour, Melkite archbishop of Galilee bishop Suheil Dawani, anglican bishop in Jerusalem Hb Patriarch Gregorius III, Melkite Patriarch of antioch bishop Giantos-boulos Marcuzzo, Latin Patriarchal Vicar for Israel Patriarch emeritus Michel Sabbah, formerly Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Hb Patriarch Fouad Twal, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem archbishop Theodosios of Sebastia, Greek orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem (Nizar Hanna) Elsewhere: archbishop Yegishe Gizirian, armenian Church rt revd and rt Hon The Lord Hope of Thornes, formerly archbishop of York Cardinal Cormac Murphy o’Connor, formerly archbishop of Westminster archbishop Vincent Nichols, archbishop of Westminster Canon Paul oestreicher, anglican and Society of Friends revd kathleen richardson, baroness richardson of Calow, former President of Methodist Conference and Moderator of the Free Church Federal Council bishop Desmond Tutu, former archbishop of Cape Town The Most reverend kallistos, Metropolitan of Diokleia (Timothy Ware) ix Living Stones of the Holy Land Trust Yearbook 2016 CommuniCationS www.livingstonesonline.org.uk Communications with the Chair or Editor can be made through: [email protected] or [email protected] All enquiries regarding subscriptions to the Honorary Treasurer: [email protected] note It is appreciated that articles derive from authors in a range of disciplines and demonstrate a variety in approach. The spelling of some specialised terms, local place-names and proper names in particular may vary considerably according to the contributor and discipline. These variations, however, should cause no problems to readers. Submissions for inclusion in the Yearbook are welcome and papers for consideration should be sent to [email protected]. Notes for submission of papers and house style are available upon request from the editor. x Contributors eDITorIaL This Yearbook 2016 appears early in 2017. We apologise for its tardy appearance but this was due mainly to the late inclusion of material the editors felt to be important and which the shifting picture in the region also exacerbated. This also means the Yearbook is a larger production that normal. every editorial of the Yearbook seems to begin with a lamentation for the situation of our area of interest. This edition is certainly no exception to that. The events of the last year in europe and the US will and are having an effect on the situation in the Middle east. at the time of writing the Iraqi government and its coalition allies are beginning the action to recover the city of Mosul. The grinding down of Syria next door continues. What local outcomes will emerge and the policies of the international players remain unclear. The actions of the Israeli government and its settlement policies, along with the presently ambiguous developing policy of the new american administration, add to the whole atmosphere of apprehension throughout the region. a one-state solution is not a solution. The Yearbook discusses three main spheres: the events associated Israel/Palestine, the Western reaction mainly herein though the filter of the anglican Church and the ongoing agony of the Christian community in Iraq and its diaspora. However, we must open with a tribute to Jamil bullata, to whom this edition is dedicated. Jamil was well known to Living Stones, a long-standing member and its Treasurer for many years. His wisdom, support and good humour are sorely missed. He made an outstanding xi Living Stones of the Holy Land Trust Yearbook 2016 contribution to many organisations associated with the pursuit of justice and freedom in the Middle east. Sr bridget Tighe’s paper, ‘Palestinian Christians: present situation and future challenges’, is a review of the reality of life faced by Palestinians Christian who live in the occupied Territories and the Gaza Strip. The steady loss of control and ‘enclavisation’ in the occupied areas is a depressing story. It is likely that in the not too distant future there will be no Christians in Gaza. Is there more that can be done apart from prayer and hope? In a strange contrast, emily Tavcar in her contribution, ‘Hebrew Speaking Catholics in Modern Israel: Identity within the Transnational Church and Socio-Political State’, points out that the population of Christians in some parts of the Middle east is growing, due to an influx of Christian migrant workers and refugees in Israel. Many are unaware of the established Hebrew-speaking Catholic community of Israel, especially the Saint James Vicariate, which welcomes these new Israeli Catholics. This is creating a dynamic, multicultural community of the faithful. andrew ashdown’s ‘an exploration of issues surrounding anglican/ Jewish relations in the Uk in the light of the Israel/Palestine conflict’ is to be presented in two parts across two issues of the Yearbook. In the first part in this volumer evd ashdown looks at anglican/Jewish relations in the United kingdom, outlines a brief history of Jewish/ Christian relations and causes of mistrust, Zionism, and the influence of the Holocaust on Jewish theology and identity. Christopher brown looks at a major thinker and figure in the perception of Islam in a Christian context in his ‘kenneth Cragg as an anglican Theologian of Islam’. He discusses Cragg’s faith and work, his place in anglican thinking, his appreciation of Islam, political theology and his role as an anglican theologian and scholar of Islam. The influence ofk enneth Cragg is maintained in David Derrick’s paper ‘kenneth Cragg, Charles Malik and Dag Hammarskjöld—some thoughts on the question of mysticism and the “public square”’. especially interesting is the relationship of Malik with Cragg and Cragg’s deep and longstanding interest in Hammarskjöld’s poetry and thought. The ‘european’ perspective is maintained by Stefanie Hugh- Donovan’s contribution on ‘eastern orthodoxy and Muslim-Christian xii Contributors relations between europe and the Middle east: o Clément’s perspectives on theology and ecclesiology in the Christian encounter with Islam’.