Christian women worldwide participate in this day of prayer each year and, this year, the focus was on Palestine.

The theme "I Beg You … Bear With One Another in Love" was based on Ephesians 4:1-7 which calls people to bear with each other in love, despite all difficulties and oppression.

Palestinian women prepared the prayers and symbols used at last Friday's day of prayer. Participants invited the world to pray for peace, justice and freedom of religion and freedom of movement.

Their words and vision were shared with Christian women and men worldwide participating in the Palestinian women's carefully planned unified prayer service.

The annual event, led by an international and ecumenical Christian movement, involves people from various denominations who celebrate together in one another's churches.

Act of God

Reverend Kim Wright, chaplain at Taranaki Diocesan School for Girls in Stratford, says - given the situation for them at present - the fact that the Palestinian women prepared this year's service is incredibly meaningful.

"The decision as to which country's women will prepare the service is made years in advance, so when that decision was made, it wasn't with a knowledge of what would be happening in Palestine right now.

"So for it to have happened in this way, to happen this year, alongside what is happening in Palestine right now, for me that is an act of God in itself."

The prayer service

The service shared three Palestinian Christian women's stories, all of which witnessed the power of bearing together in love through three generations of Palestinian women's experiences.

This year a Palestinian born in Germany, Halima Aziz, produced the feature artwork (pictured) used throughout the international service.

Her picture of an olive tree - a Christian symbol of everlasting life - called "Praying Palestinian Women" depicts three Palestinian women sitting under an olive tree joined in prayer.

"It's not new, this idea of women joining together in prayer" Wright says.

Powerful prayer

Prayer is a powerful tool everyone can access, Wright says.

"The more we pray, the more we replace darkness with light ... we can make a difference for others."

The World Day of Prayer means many people pray on the same day for the same thing using the same service, she says.

"There is power in unity ... it is really meaningful and brings us together in love and faith."

Source

• The Horowhenua Chronicle
• The Horowhenua Chronicle

"It has been the capital of the Israeli people since ancient times," said the President. "It's undeniable, it's just a fact."

Christians in Bethlehem responded to the news by burning photos of the American president. They held signs saying: "Jerusalem, Palestine's heart, is not up to negotiations."

This may come as a surprise to many in the West. We probably assume that Palestine's Christians prefer the democratic Israelis to their Islamist-heavy countrymen. Sadly, that's not the case.

In 2003, Israel began enclosing Bethlehem behind a 23-foot concrete wall. Its purpose was to keep suicide bombers from crossing out of the West Bank and into Israel during the Intifada.

But even after the worst unrest settled, the wall kept growing. And Christians living in the town, who have never taken up arms against Israel, are suffering for it.

As Hanan Nasrallah, a Palestinian employee of the Catholic Relief Services, put it: "The separation wall… cuts family from each other.

"People get humiliated at checkpoints. People do not have many opportunities to improve their living standards. So, therefore, Christians who can afford to, are trying to leave this country."

It's not just families that are being split up, either. The wall also runs through the neighbouring village of Beit Jala, which is 80 percent Christian.

Upon completion, it will cut off a Salesian monastery from its sister-convent and the rest of the local Christian community.

The plight of Beit Jala's Christians prompted Cardinal Vincent Nichols to write a letter to William Hague in 2012, asking him to appeal to Tel Aviv directly.

And this doesn't even touch on those Palestinian Christians displaced from their historic homes by encroaching settlements, or those terrorised by "price tag attacks" carried out by radical Israeli nationalists.

These are not acts of the Israeli government, though it is the government's responsibility - both morally and under international law - to respect the rights of Palestinians, whatever their religion. Continue reading

• Michael Davis is the Catholic Herald's US editor

The Hamas government has issued a ban on coeducational schools, which means that the five Christian schools on the strip, two Catholic and three Protestant, may have to close. Officials insist the decision was not directed at Christians, but they happen to run the only coeducational institutions in the territory.

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, plans to meet Gaza's prime minister to appeal the move. Among other things, presumably he'll point out that these Christian schools serve a largely Muslim population.

For purposes of this column, the way I learned about the situation is almost as revealing as the order itself. As it happens, I received an email from the Israeli embassy to the Holy See, passing along a brief article from the Catholic Herald in the U.K.

Israeli officials clearly felt the story merited attention, and for fairly obvious reasons: It makes Hamas look bad.

It was a small reminder of a larger point: It's often difficult to tell the full story of anti-Christian persecution around the world and a main reason why is the distorting effect of politics, which tends to bring only part of the picture into view. Nowhere is that more clear than the Holy Land.

Many Arab Christians, in tandem with their liberal sympathizers in the West, emphasize the negative impact of Israeli security policies while downplaying Islamic radicalism. On the other side, Israelis and their conservative allies insist that Israel's Christian population is actually growing while pouncing on every perceived Palestinian outrage.

The truth is that Christians face hardships on both sides of the divide, and often for similar reasons. Continue reading

Sources

• John L. Allen Jr in National Catholic Reporter
• Image: The Counter Jihad Report

John L. Allen Jr is a senior columnist for National Catholic Reporter