Page 1 elcjhl e-pistle News from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land Salaam and grace to you from Jerusalem, City of Peace Fall-Winter 2009 Inside: • Women as peace makers • It’s olive season! • Asian Lutherans discuss daily bread • Faith leaders declare ‘Kairos’ time is now Calendar: • Aug. 29, 31 ELCJHL academic year begins ELCJHL Bishop Munib A. Younan met with 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus • Sept. 18-20 Rosh at the headquarters of Grameen (“Village”) Bank in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on the topic of microfi nance Hashanah in September. Pictured above are, from left, Yunus, Younan, LWF Deputy General Secretary Chan- • Sept. 20-24 Eid al Fitr dran Martin and Executive Director of RDRS Bangladesh Kamaluddin Akbar. (Photo: RDRS) • Sept. 27-28 Yom Younan joins faith leaders in Bangladesh to affi rm Kippur • Oct. 3-9 Sukkot religious freedom, peaceful coexistence • Nov. 27 Eid al Adha ELCJHL Bishop Rev. Dr. Munib Younan was The three-day consultation, “Interfaith Diapraxis: one of some 50 religious leaders to gather in Ra- Building Communities of Solidarity and Mutual jendrapur, Bangladesh, to discuss putting faith into Interest across Faith Boundaries,” aimed to refl ect action across religious boundaries. The Lutheran on and affi rm the importance of religious freedom World Federation Department for Mission and De- in any process of peaceful coexistence. The group velopment organized the Sept. 8-10, 2009, event, drafted the “Dhaka Statement on Interfaith Diaprax- which was hosted by RDRS Bangladesh in coopera- is,” which is available at http://tiny.cc/Dhaka. You tion with the Bangladesh Lutheran Church and the can read more about the consultation at http://tiny. Bangladesh Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church. cc/Diapraxis. X ELCJHL women gather, consider their role as peace makers Women in the Bible often defi ed social traditions on the story of Abigail, who saved her household in order to follow God and chose the way of peace in by overruling her husband’s foolish decision not to diffi cult circumstances. cooperate with King David (1 Samuel 25). Bishop This was one of the messages at the ELCJHL Younan followed with a lecture on the retreat theme, women’s retreat in September. More than 40 women “Women builders of peace.” Peace begins inside and and ELCJHL staff members participated in the Sept. spreads to all aspects of life, he said. 20-21, 2009, retreat at Haddad Tourism Village in “Only when Christ gives me inner peace, it over- Jenin. Bishop Munib Younan commended those in comes hatred and anger and then I can be the builder attendance for supporting local tourism. of peace,” he said. One Bible study, led by Suad Younan, focused Please see Women, p.4 Page 2 ELCJHL schools hold annual Reformation Day celebration station. The Lutheran School of Beit Sahour brought the Reformation to life through a theat- rical production about Luther’s theological journey, as well as tested the student’s knowledge in a trivia game. Talitha Kumi’s talented musi- cians accompanied the students through hymns and spirituals. This annual tradition allows students to learn about Luther’s work by Anna Johnson and through a fun and infor- MUSICIANS at Talitha Rachel Zarnke Dr. Charlie Haddad, raised their hands. But mative event. The day Kumi School contrib- Eighth graders from ELCJHL Director of throughout the day it be- reinforces the students’ uted their skills to the four ELCJHL schools Education, asked the came evident that they understanding of Prot- the ELCJHL schools’ gathered at Talitha Kumi students in an opening knew more than most estant values that under- annual Reformation to celebrate the 492 assembly who had heard people about Luther and gird ELCJHL education- Day celebration, held years since Martin Lu- of Luther before they the Reformation. al ministries. X on Oct. 29, 2009, at the ther posted his 95 theses started learning about Wearing colored T- Anna Johnson is a in Beit Jala school. (A. his life and ministry in shirts bearing the Ref- volunteer through the Johnson photo) in Wittenberg, Germany. About 120 students par- their Christian education ormation logo, students ELCA’s “Young Adults ticipated in the fi fth an- classes in preparation rotated through six ac- in Global Mission” nual Reformation Day for the celebration. Only tivities throughout the (YAGM) program. She celebrations. a handful of students day. Dar Al-Kalima is a member of Zion School’s sport station Lutheran in Iowa City, New school planned for Ramallah introduced participants Iowa. by Anna Johnson to the fundamentals of Rachel Zarnke is a Located in the heart of Ramallah, the Lutheran table tennis, jump rope volunteer at Dar al-Ka- School of Hope has provided quality education for and basketball. Hope lima school through the more than 30 years. The school, which educates both School provided infor- ELCA’s YAGM program. girls and boys, brings together Muslims and Chris- mation about Luther and She is a member of Au- tians and encourages interreligious dialogue. the Reformation through gustana Lutheran in The ELCJHL is in the process of building a new a PowerPoint presenta- Chicago, Illinois. school that will house up to three times more stu- tion, as well as stimulat- Dar al-Kalima teacher dents than the current school, in response to the ed inter-school mingling Tony Nassar contributed growing need and demand. Funding has already at a games and songs to this article. been obtained to begin the fi rst phase of the project, which will allow the school to move its current stu- Good tawjihi scores refl ect dent body of approximately 500 students to the new facility within two years. quality ELCJHL education by Anna Johnson The next phase of the project, not yet funded, will ELCJHL schools performed very well on the include fi nishing a part of the basement to include elcjhl e-pistle 2008-09 tawjihi exams. Tawjihi, the secondary important facilities such as a shelter, music room is a publication of the Evan- education exam given throughout Palestine, is gelical Lutheran Church in and art room. Eventually, with phases three and four, used in determining college entrance qualifi ca- Jordan and the Holy Land. the school will accommodate up to 1,500 students tions. Students in ELCJHL schools scored above PO Box 14076 and will include a theater, recreation center, sports Muristan Road average for private schools in Palestine. The center, playgrounds and more classrooms for school Jersalem 91140 Evangelical Lutheran School in Beit Sahour, the Israel and community use. The new facility will help the School of Hope in Ramallah and the Talitha Kumi Your comments, critiques school provide quality education to more students School each had a student rank in the top 10 stu- and questions are welcome and continue its mission of building bridges in a so- dents in their district. Tawjihi exam results refl ect at: [email protected]. ciety infl uenced by the occupation’s oppressive mea- the dedication to quality education that the Lu- X sures and confl icts. The new school with its modern theran schools embody. X facilities will be open to the community as well. X Page 3 Talitha Kumi students, German congregation harvest olives Occupation threatens but does not derail an annual tradition at the Augusta Victoria Hospital by Bernhard Scheurenbrand It has been a long tradition that students and staff members of Talitha Kumi School have picked the olives of the Augusta Victoria Hospital compound in East Jerusalem. It is said the olive trees were planted by German evangelical deaconesses in 1910 and harvested by them for many years. In those years it used to be an exciting event for the all the students. Generations of students remember these joyful trips to Jerusalem. Although made more diffi cult these days by a sep- aration wall and permit process, the journey was still eagerly undertaken by students, school volunteers and members of the German-speaking congregation during the most recent olive harvest. In mixed groups of volunteers and students they started their work at Augusta Victoria, enjoying the cold-pressed in the old olive press of Beit Jala. In Volunteers of all sizes marvelous view of the Judean desert to the Dead Sea. spite of being less productive than an industrial ap- helped pick olives at Picking from below, picking from above, climbing proach, this traditional method results in an extraor- the Augusta Victoria the trees, thousands of olives fell on the plastic and dinary high quality and taste. Hospital campus in were fi nally collected in buckets. Again and again Talitha Kumi staff and volunteers will fi ll hand- the fall. students started to chat in English with the German made carafes from Hebron with this olive oil and sell volunteers. To their disappointment, they did not them. The revenue will contribute to Talitha Kumi’s succeed, for their teacher had instructed them to re- ministry, including benefi ting children of families spond exclusively in German. unable to cover school fees. The more than 1,000 kg of olives were taken to Beit Jala, where they were sorted, washed and fi nally See Olives, p. 6 Americans, Palestinians plant hope, trees in Al-Walaja by Yoann Uehlinger northwest of Bethlehem. Surrounded on all sides by Olive trees produce Americans and Palestinians wielded tools together Israeli settlements, the village has suffered from the fruit about four years af- to plant 50 olive trees last November as part of the Israeli occupation. Much of its land was confi scated ter planting but aren’t re- “Planting New Hope” project. The Nov. 16, 2009, for construction of the separation wall and many of ally productive until the event came after many months of preparation by its trees uprooted by bulldozers.