Recently in Christchurch, a 40m banner inscribed with 10,001 names of Palestinian children killed in Gaza formed a visual expression of Christian and community solidarity and a call for justice in peace. From pre-schoolers to pensioners, about 75 people joined for portions of a 36km walk on Saturday 9 March. The distance symbolically mirrors the Read more
Wars always bring pressure to canonise one side and to demonise the other. It has been no different in the war between Israel and Hamas. People both in the antagonists and in their normal allies are pressed to make a choice. To choose Israel is to see its war against Hamas as just in all Read more
Stop the war! The war in the Holy Land must stop. Now. Please. Just stop. In a joint statement, Bishops from New Zealand’s two biggest Christian Churches – Catholic and Anglican – are begging the warring factions in the Holy Land to stop. Stop the war with the accompanying acts of violence it executes, the Read more
Hamas’s Israeli child hostages (some pictured) have a champion in the Jerusalem Catholic Patriarch. He says he’s willing to offer himself to Hamas in exchange for the children being held in Gaza. Pope Francis’ representative in the Holy Land, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, made the comment on Monday during a video conference. Child hostages About 12 Read more
A New Zealand-based Christian church group are desperately attempting to flee Israel as they feel the vibrations of daily rocket attacks from their hotel. Fifty-four members of the Connection City Church Assemblies of God were on a Holy Land tour when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched a surprise attack, killing hundreds and wounding thousands. “I’m Read more
Christian and political leaders have spoken of their shock at Israeli police’s attack on mourners during a Palestinian-Christian journalist’s funeral. Thousands of people were following the funeral in East Jerusalem last Friday when police charged, attacking mourners with various weapons. Those carrying Al Jazeera television reporter Shereen Abu Aqleh’s coffin almost dropped it during the Read more
Israel has decided to remove the U.S.-based evangelical Christian station GOD TV from the Israeli cable television provider HOT due to claims that it was trying to evangelize Jews. Asher Biton, chairman of Israel’s Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council, said he told the station last Thursday that it has seven days to halt broadcasting. The Read more
Two UK church leaders have written to the Israeli Ambassador and the British Prime Minister, criticising Israel’s government’s proposed plan to annex Palestinian land this year. The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, both oppose Israel’s plans for Israeli armed forces to unilaterally annex parts of the West Read more
The Holy See is concerned about an Israeli plan to unilaterally annex a large portion of land in the West Bank, said a Vatican statement. “The Holy See is following the situation closely and expresses concern about any future actions that could further compromise dialogue,” said the statement released May 20. The Vatican press office Read more
In what appears to be a rare public rebuke of U.S. foreign policy, the Vatican issued a statement Thursday, reaffirming its support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and calling on Israel to reside “within the borders recognized by the international community”. ”The communique follows this week’s controversial announcement that the U.S. government is reversing Read more