Holy and living God, we know you only by your story. Yahweh, Christ, Allah – you live in our hearts by faith feeding on remembrance of narratives our forebears handed down.
In your holy city of Jerusalem, in the second century after Christ, the Romans drove the Jews and Christians out. But a remnant remained who remembered the stories of Jesus’s life, teachings, Passion, death, and Resurrection.
They were Palestinians. They never left Palestine. And they remembered the stories. They remembered the places the mighty events had occurred. When the Romans returned and showed their friendlier faces – when they became eager to find evidence of the faith their predecessors had tried to wipe off the face of the earth – as you know, gracious God, because your Holy Spirit was making it possible — when the Romans returned in humbler clothes, the Palestinian Christians told them where to look. All those years later, the Palestinians remembered the stories and guarded the faith.
And in the centuries since, they have nurtured your holy church in the Holy Land. Like our hosts at New Ground, they have been bridge-building encouragers of dialogue across difference. Today, gracious Lord, perhaps 45,000 Palestinian Christians remain in Palestine, less than 1% of the population of the West Bank and Gaza, down from nearly 10% a century ago. Still remembering the faith, keeping the faith, and taking awful risks for the faith. In the last year, Palestinian Christians have suffered devastating losses in Gaza. Yet they remain cornerstone Christians, Holy One – foundational Christians, the only home-town Christians in Christendom.
Home-town Christians, and yet Christians without a national home. We ask your blessing on them tonight and on all people in Israel and Palestine. Especially those who work for peace, freedom, justice, and national self-determination for all people. Amen.
[My prayer for Palestinian Christians Wednesday night at St. Paul’s Commons, Echo Park at “Remembering Sacred Lives,” a remembrance of the lives lost in Israel and Palestine since Oct. 7, 2023. Organized by New Ground, which fosters Jewish-Muslim, Israeli-Arab dialog and relationship, the event featured a memorial installation displaying every available name of a fatality in the terrorist attacks and Gaza war. Aziza Hasan is New Ground’s founding executive director. Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles interfaith minister Tasneem F Noor helped organize the program.]
