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The Right to Live and Be Honoured
Allow me to take you backstage at a recent meeting of those planning the second annual Interfaith March for Justice, Equality and Peace in Jerusalem, set for June this year. My colleague Muriel Pearson participated in last year’s march, held within days of ‘flag day’ and its aggressive passage through the streets of the Old…
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At the Beginning of Lent 2024
Stewart Gillan and Muriel Pearson Woodcut image by Margaret Adams Parker ‘Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of the yoke,to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house;when…
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Christmas by Night
Like the noir sound produced from the trumpet of Miles Davis on ‘Blue in Green’ (Kind of Blue, 1959), Christmas has been muted in Bethlehem this year. Observed in grief, with over 20,000 dead in Gaza, all festivities were cancelled for Advent and Christmastide. I’m sure you heard. ‘Christ in the rubble,’ by Kelly Latimore,…
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All Saints, All Souls, All In
Homeros beyond the barrier. Painting by Sobhi Qouta, Gaza, 2023 All Saints has come in a time of war, with shocking loss of life in Israel and Gaza, and on the West Bank. There is great grief in the land, sudden and aggravated, for Jews, Christians and Muslims. Day after day it grinds on, taking…
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Unexpected journey home
Listening to Faure’s Requiem will not bring you closer to Gaza or Israel, but it might bring you closer to yourself. Hearing it as a lament not for one person but for hundreds, running to thousands since 7 October. Kyrie eleison, the voices sing. Lord have mercy. Yes, upon us all. Many of you, in…