Canon Iyad Qumri – well known to many across the Episcopal Church for leading pilgrimages in and around Jerusalem – will visit the Diocese of Los Angeles March 8-13 and join a March 9 Sunday-afternoon panel discussion on Christians living in Israel and Palestine, followed by dinner. All are invited.
“Iyad’s many friends and cousins all over the diocese will be excited he’s coming to visit,” Bishop John Harvey Taylor told The News. “We hope our conversation and dinner will be a pilgrim reunion as well as an opportunity for the pilgrimage-curious to learn more about visiting holy sites in Israel and Palestine while exploring contemporary issues. While it’s been hard to visit in recent months, pilgrims are beginning to make arrangements for their next trips. This is a perfect time to learn from a premier expect about the land of the Holy One.”
All are welcome for both the 4 p.m. panel at St. Paul’s Commons, 840 Echo Park Ave., Los Angeles, and dinner following in Qumri’s honor. Reservations are requested by emailing bishopsoffice@ladiocese.org. There is no cost to attend, but a $20-per-person donation toward the dinner will be deeply appreciated.
Qumri also will be available for visits and consultations throughout the week that he is in Los Angeles.
Qumri is a lay leader in the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem with which the Diocese of Los Angeles has shares a longstanding companion-diocese relationship.
Named an honorary canon of the Diocese of Los Angeles in 2008, Qumri has recently resumed leading pilgrimages that were curtailed by violent conflict in the Middle East.
Licensed by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, Qumri is an Arab Palestinian Christian guide with a wealth of knowledge of the biblical, cultural, social, and political contexts of the Holy Land. A resident of Jericho, he launched his profession with guidance from the Rev. Canon John Peterson, a former secretary general of the Anglican Communion.
More about Qumri and the pilgrimages he leads is here.