Introduction The Presbyterian Church (USA) has been engaged in a decade-long struggle to divest from companies that are profiting from the Israeli
Keep Reading
A Palestinian American Christian Woman I was born, the youngest of four children, into a Presbyterian (Church of Scotland) family in Jerusalem, Palestine, in 1939. My birth year marked the end of the first uprising of Palestinians against their British
Keep Reading
An Advent Conversation with Chosen? As Walter Brueggemann says on the very first page of his recent book Chosen?, “Reading the Bible with reference to any contemporary issue is at best tricky and hazardous.” Reading the Bible in Advent in light of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is both natural and dangerous.
MoreAn Excerpt from Walter Brueggemann’s 2015 Book Excerpted with Permission from Westminster John Knox Press. pp. xiii-xvii, 57 Read Rev. Laura Mariko Cheifetz’s Conversation with Chosen? here! Introduction The seemingly insolvable conflict between the state of Israel and the Palestinian people requires our best thinking, our steadfast courage, and a
More“A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”…The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman Samaria?” – John 4:7-8 The Golan Heights tower above the northern region of the Galilee
MoreIn those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered…All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the
More“A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” -Isaiah 11:1 My 81-year-old mother worries every time I go because “It’s just not safe over there.” “Ma,” I respond, “according to the statistics it is more dangerous for me to
MoreArticle Originally Published by the Office of Public Witness Grace and peace to you this Advent season. During this time when we turn our attention and our hope toward Bethlehem and the Holy Land where the Prince of Peace was born, we cannot ignore the continuing and escalating violence in
MoreIs There Shalom in the Land? This article was originally published in the Advent 2015 issue of the Presbyterian Hunger Program’s PHP Post, available at http://www.pcusa.org/resource/phppostadvent2015/. “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.” – Jeremiah
MoreOpening Editorial for an Advent and Christmas Issue on Middle East Struggles Former President Jimmy Carter has recently made public that stage four melanoma is no longer present in his 91-year-old body. Thus he maintains as strong a pace as he can, a prescient productivity which by any measure has
MoreWalking Where How Jesus Walked “From search for wealth and power and scorn of truth and right; From trust in bombs that shower destruction through the night; From pride of race and station and blindness to your way; Deliver every nation, Eternal God, we pray.” I listened to the notes
MorePrayers for for Jerusalem, Gaza, Israel, the Greater Middle East…Iran….Pakistan… Cuba…North Korea…Nigeria…and our trouble spots in the US. This is not an article exactly, but nor is it a digital Christmas card. Let’s call it a Christmas letter. We do wish all our readers a Merry Christmas (or a Happy
More
Unbound Social