Dear Brothers and Sisters Pilgrims of Ibillin, 

We waited a long time to have the possibility to meet with the American Ambassador to Israel. The meeting was arranged by some people who are politically minded. I accepted the invitation last Wednesday, at 9:30 I was in the Embassy, at 10:00am the Ambassador arrived.

I went there with many prejudices, after one hour meeting with the Ambassador I discovered a real human being who is capable to listen, I exposed to him my relations with the United States and I emphasized the point of my very good relation with the presbyterian Church. I mentioned that Pilgrims of Ibillin started inside the Presbyterian Church.

I had the time to speak about MEEI, and to mention the importance that we give to have students from all denominations. I ended by telling him how important it is to have young people grow and mature together. We hope soon Jewish students will start joining the school. I emphasized the fact that we don’t need to prepare any room for them. The room is ready and we are waiting, I hope it will happen before the return of the Messiah.

I presented to the Ambassador my book Blood Brothers in English. His first reaction: “I will read this document”. I followed telling the Ambassador about the forgotten and ignored Christian minority in Galilee. I was keen to mention that we are not the product of some missionary who came from the west. We are in Galilee from the very beginning. My ancestors related to Christ as being their Countryman. We are the Living Stones, it is of great importance for any outsider being a Pilger or a Tourist, to draw the attention to the importance of the witness of Christians for the Risen Lord. I told the Ambassador that our slogan between two hard parties, Muslim and Jewish, for a long time, we did not hear about any mention of the Importance of love, forgiveness or for sharing. I told him that our Alumni are now about 10,800 young Muslims and Christians. I commission them the day of their graduation to have courage and to keep the faith that they have a common denominator. They were all born babies. The one who created them said that “this is very good”.

I ended with inviting the Ambassador to visit the school and to interact with our staff and students. He immediately replied: I want to come and visit you.

We issued the invitation for any time the Ambassador decides next September when the students are in the school. We pray and hope to see him among us. All he knew about Christians are the few Christians in the West Bank, his contact was, so far, with local evangelical Christians.

I came back home relaxed and grateful because the man I discovered was much more openminded than the image I had about him. I mentioned to him that there is no terrorist nation, and no righteous nation. I hope I drew the attention of the existence of the Christians in Galilee being the Living Stones and the descendants of the very first Christians.

We hope and pray that he will have our attention and we will have his attention, despite all that we think about the President, we are convinced that there is no totally wicked person. We need to discover the human being behind ambassadors and presidents as behind priests and bishops.

We are faithful to our faith and we have the courage to share our history with any one who might be ready to consider and to discover that there is always a hidden side in each one’s experience.

I wanted to share this good news with you and with our Pilgrims of Ibillin, in order to encourage you to keep the faith alive and never to allow ourselves to go into despair.

Fraternally yours with gratitude,

Abuna Elias Chacour
Archbishop Emeritus of Galilee