Sunday, February 28, 2010. 10:10 AM
Peacemaking in the Holy City: A Conversation with Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem
Bishop Dawani
The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith
The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III, host
Cathedral Dean Samuel T. Lloyd III and the Rt. Rev. Suheil Salman Dawani, Episcopal bishop in Jerusalem, discuss prospects for peace in the Middle East, and life among the Christian minority in the region where Christianity originated.
Dawani comments that today the greatest gift of the small community of Anglicans in the region “is a ministry of reconciliation, the same mission given to the disciples.… We work in a spirit of humility and servanthood to him who died on the cross, to build and strengthen relationships among Christians, Muslims, and Jews.”
The indigenous Arab Christian community originated at Pentecost, described in the Book of Acts, Dawani explains. The first Episcopal bishop in Jerusalem was installed considerably later, in 1841, several decades after missionaries of the Church of England began to serve in the region. The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, serves the geographical area of Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.
Dawani talks about the Diocesan Department for Peace, Reconciliation, and Interfaith Dialogue, which he announced when he was installed as bishop in 2007. Because of the distinctive legacy of Anglicanism, churches of the Anglican Communion often serve as mediators. Anglicanism is rooted in the via media, the middle way. The concept of the via media originated under Queen Elizabeth I, after violence caused when the Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1500s.
In the Holy Land today, Christians today make up less than 1 percent of the population. According to Dawani, the Christian population in the Holy Land has plummeted in recent decades. Young Christian Arabs seek higher education outside the strife-torn region, and they never return home.
The Episcopal Diocese in Jerusalem claims only 7,000 members, but it has twelve schools and a network of hospitals and rehabilitation centers. The student population of the diocesan schools is 70 percent Muslim and 30 percent Christian, illustrating the cultural ties of Arab practitioners of the two faiths.
Interfaith work of the diocese includes Judaism as well as Christianity and Islam. The Kids4Peace program, housed at St. George’s College in Jerusalem, brings together children from all three Abrahamic religions to experience relationships together. Since 2002, the program has hosted camps and other inviting programs in the Middle East as well as the United States and Canada.
“If you look to the struggle now in our region, sometimes it takes a religious shape,” Dawani says. “But I believe that unfortunately religion has been used as a means for conflict.… Religion must be part of the solution … especially in our region.”
About Suheil Salman Dawani
Suheil Salman Dawani is the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem and former canon pastor to the Arabic congregation at St. George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem. Overseeing a multicultural, multiethnic diocese spread across five countries, the Right Reverend Suheil Dawani is a strong advocate for peace and reconciliation in the Middle East. He works with the Archbishop of Canterbury on interfaith issues, as well as encourages leaders of other church bodies in Israel to ensure that Christianity is a moderate and mediating influence in a region torn by anxiety and unrest.