Month: September 2020

Pilgrims is hosting a conversation with Usama Nicola of Wi’am and Dr. Celene Lillie

If you are registered, you will receive a secure link. Check this site for the recording of the webinar to be held Saturday, October 31, 12 noon (Eastern Time) – a Webinar via Zoom. Usama Nicola, Celene Lillie, and Brenda Mehos were leading the October Pilgrimage now cancelled due to COVID-19. This webinar is an hour long “virtual hike” while we hope to reschedule the pilgrimage in May 2021.

Webinar Donations will be shared with Wil’am: The Palestinian Conflict Transformation Center

Registration FULL for October 31 Zoom Webinar

“Resistance in Battir- Then and Now”

Walk with Us Through Time to the West Bank Village Battir, an UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

The Battir Valley is thick with presence, holding memories from ancient to modern times.  The Roman road in the bowl of the valley, dotted with ancient tombs, weaves through ancient olive groves still tended by the nearby Palestinians.  The village of Battir holds the remnants of the last stronghold of the Bar Kokhba revolt and the plaque commemorating the Romans who crushed it in 135 CE, while the terraced hills, predating that time, still flourish with the gardens of the people who live there.   

In the not-so-distant past, the people of Battir drew on their amazing creativity to save the village during the war in 1948—and this creative resistance in the face of overwhelming forces that threaten their land continues to this day.  Please join us as we learn together about the 2000 year history of this beautiful land and it’s amazing people who have much to teach us about the power of creative, nonviolent resistance.

Meet our Webinar Leaders, Usama Nicola and Dr. Celene Lillie

Usama Nicola is the Citizens Diplomacy Project coordinator along with Zoughbi at Wi’am in Bethlehem (The Palestinian Conflict Transformation Center). Wi’am is one of our Peace Partner organizations and our West Bank tour planner. Since its inception, Wi’am has offered alternative tourist programs with opportunities for individuals and groups to visit the Holy places (Holy Stones) and the people (Living Stones) and as an introduction to the socio-economic and political conditions (Rolling Stones).

Celene Lillie completed her Masters of Divinity and Ph.D. at Union Theological Seminary in New York City and is a historian of early Christian texts. She currently works as an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, University of Oklahoma, and The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. She lectures nationally, most often with the Jesus Seminar, and has recently been named as the inaugural Dean of the Westar Academy. Celene is the author of several books including The Rape of Eve: The Transformation of Roman Ideology in Three Early Christian Retellings of Genesis.

Register for October 31 Zoom Webinar

Click the Register button (above) for the October 31 Zoom Webinar and receive a secure registration and link for the event. Donations collected from the webinar will be split between Pilgrims and Wi’am: Palestinian Center for Conflict Transformation, Bethlehem, who is suffering greatly from the cancellation of tourism right now.

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Einas Abu Hjoul

So many of Mar Elias’s students go on to college and successful careers thanks in part to their fine education at MEEI.  COVID-19 has created challenges for everyone and has put on hold young people’s dreams and ambitions.  Here is a short essay by Einas about what she’s been doing since graduating from MEEI and her current state of uncertainty due to the pandemic.

My name is Einas Abu Hjoul. I graduated from Mar Elias high school in 2016. During my senior year, I started thinking more seriously about my future.  Like  many students after graduating from Mar Elias; I took a gap year to study for the Psychometric exam ( for the Pilgrims audience -this is similar to the SATs in the United States and a high score on this exam is essential for admission to college in Israel, and a certain score is needed for studying in Italy as well, but not as high as the score needed in order to study in Israel, because Italy requires other exams).  While studying for the Psychometric exam, I worked as a private teacher for languages, mathematics and chemistry for high school students. I also worked in a restaurant in Haifa for several months at the same time I was teaching, just to try other work and to deal more with people (it’s not easy!), and I took violin lessons once a week to improve myself.

For as long as I can remember, I thought about studying medicine.  During my gap year, I participated in a volunteer program called Sunshine Project. This program uses the power of play to support the psychosocial and developmental needs of children and their families as they face medical challenges. Our role in the Sunshine Project was to use bed-side services to bring play activities to every child in the hospital ward regardless of age, illness or background.

At the end of this year, I started to think about the possibility of studying abroad, I looked for good universities, and for a good place where I could spend the 6 years necessary to complete college and a medical degree, so I chose Italy, despite my family’s urging to choose a different country since the education system in Italy is very difficult. 

I took an Italian Language course for 3 months in Florence, Italy, to study the language and to see how it is to live in Italy. It was an amazing experience. When I went back home, I took a preparation course for the entrance exam for the universities in Italy (like the IMAT for the students who want to study in English).

In September 2018, I completed two exams, the language exam and the entrance exam for medical school in Rome. A month later, I received notice that I had been accepted. From that moment onwards I experienced a cornucopia of emotions. I moved to Italy at the beginning of November 2018 after I got my study visa, and started a totally new, different experience.

I started at Sapienza University of Rome (Sapienza Università di Roma). It is one of the largest European universities and one of the oldest in history, founded in 1303. It was really hard at the beginning: I was alone, I started studying medicine in my fourth language, Italian, which is totally different from my mother language (Arabic), and this made my studies even harder.

Then I started to meet Italian students.  I had my group of friends who helped me a lot and I lived with Italian girls, who helped me improve my language. Another obstacle was the method of exams, all the exams are oral exams, a totally new experience for me.

I learned to live and enjoy the Italian life; a quiet life and with good food, quite different from the stressful life in Israel (especially as an Arab who lives in Israel).

Now I speak Italian well, and I learned the right way to study, it took time and required patience.

As a result of the COVID-19, I had to go back home. This was a very hard time for me; especially in Italy where I felt unsafe because the university was not prepared for such a thing. We did continue online classes but it was more complicated.

Then I started to think about whether it’s better to come back home and just try to study medicine here in Israel which would require me to retake the entrance exam in Israel next year.  I’ve also thought maybe I should just wait out COVID-19 and then continue my studies in Rome. With COVID-19 still with us, I remain in a quandary about my future. 

The Link Between Justice and Peace

By Rev. Susan d’Olive Mozena

Photo: Susan Mozena at the Church of the Beatitudes in Israel

I have been part of Grosse Pointe Memorial Church (PCUSA) since 1969, first as a member, and then as a minister leading the adult education program since 2009. I was aware of Fr. Elias Chacour and Pilgrims of Ibillin through Fr. Chacour’s years-long friendship with our former pastor, Rev. Dr. V. Bruce Rigdon, who had invited Fr. Chacour to visit our congregation. 

Because of his first visit with us, I read Fr. Chacour’s compelling book, Blood Brothers.  In 2015, I jumped at the chance to be part of a Living Stones Pilgrimage, joined by a number of members of our church, and others from around the country. I was attracted to the Mar Elias Educational Institutions (MEEI) because of Fr. Chacour’s life story and his unshakable commitment to interfaith education grounded in the gospel of the love of God in Jesus Christ as a means to advocate for justice and foster peace in that very troubled part of the world. 

I am grateful to serve on the Pilgrims of Ibillin board because of what I experienced, what I learned, during that pilgrimage in 2015.

Pilgrims of Ibillin supports MEEI, and it also supports other “peace partners,” whose work we learned about on our pilgrimage.  Each of those organizations is committed to supporting Palestinian Israeli citizens and Palestinians living in the West Bank, Christians and Muslims alike, whose work is focused on the peaceful pursuit of justice.  I was incredibly moved by the missions of each of Ibillin’s Peace Partners, and I was inspired by the determination of each to make a difference in the difficult life realities of those they serve.

One of our Peace Partners is Wi’am: The Palestinian Conflict Transformation Center in Bethlehem, West Bank, located right next to the very ugly Israeli separation wall and guard tower, which virtually looms over Wi’am’s patio and play yard for the children who spend time there.

Photos from Wi’am …..

Our Pilgrimage group spent a wonderful time at Wi’am, learning from the founder and director , Zoughbi Zoughbi M.A. and Wi’am staff member Usama Nicola, our guide in the West Bank. We happened to be in Bethlehem on Palm Sunday and were invited to worship at Wi’am, presided over by a wonderfully welcoming American Roman Catholic priest who was leading a tour of Catholics from several different countries who were committed to social justice. It was incredibly powerful to participate in the Palm Sunday liturgy in the birthplace of Jesus Christ, sharing the peace with sister and brother Christians from many different places, in several languages: “The peace of Christ be with you.” “And also with you.” All of that happened right next to that wall and that guard tower.

Photo: West Bank wall and guard tower

Seated near the front, I could easily see the detail of what was on the communion table.  It was an olive wood depiction of the wall and the tower, with the familiar figures of the Christmas creche in front, Bethlehem now and Bethlehem then.

Photos: Olive wood creche with wall and tower

And, I could see the artistic detail of the parament hanging from the lectern, a depiction of Jacob and Esau, two brothers who had been broken apart by covetousness over issues of birthright, and then eventually reconciled.  What had been broken became healed. 

Photos: Parament pictures

At the end of the Palm Sunday service, the liturgist assisting the priest knocked the olive wood wall down, leaving the creche intact.

As we made our way through our pilgrimage, visiting people, sites and organizations in Israel and the West Bank, what I saw and heard from Muslim and Christian Palestinians provided me with vivid images and conversations that convinced me that without justice for Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank, peace is not truly attainable and sustainable.  That is why I serve on the Pilgrims of Ibillin board.

Pilgrims of Ibillin sent the October 2020 Pilgrims’ Post newsletter to our community via email this week. View the full newsletter here:

October 2020 Pilgrims’ Post

The October 2020 newsletter provides updates for:

• Pilgrims executive search
• Announcement and details of October 31, 12 noon (Eastern), Pilgrims Webinar via Zoom with Usama Nicola and Dr. Celene Lillie
• Interview with Abuna Chacour – An article by Femininza
• Updates from Peace Partners, MEEI, Hope School, and West Bank Village of Zababdeh

Contact Us

To receive updates and news from Pilgrims of Ibillin, please contact us through the link (above) and provide your email and contact information. Thank you for your interest and support in our mission to foster peace and justice in Israel and Palestine through education.

Donate to Pilgrims and our Peace Partners

Pilgrims President Peter Henry wrote a letter to Pilgrims in the August 2020 Update. Click on the link to see the full email: https://conta.cc/3hBMT4M

Among the many aspects of life that defines our current moment is change. Pilgrims of Ibillin is part of that change. In addition to wanting to thank you for your financial support of Pilgrims, I am also writing today to tell you that our executive director, Laurie Lyter Bright, is leaving Pilgrims August 31. We are grateful for her two and a half years of leadership with us and wish her well.

The Board of Directors of Pilgrims has already secured some interim, transitional leadership. I am pleased to tell you that Brenda Mehos, a member of our board who has made several trips to Ibillin and who has a long history of supporting a just peace in Palestine and Israel, has agreed to be our Interim Executive Director through the end of December. This will allow the board to conclude our ongoing work with a consultant about next steps for our ED position. With the continuing help of our able administrative support staff member, Angela Cummins, Pilgrims will be in good hands during the transition. If you have names or ideas of how to fill our ED position, please contact me.

Gifts to Peace Partners Make Significant Impact
I also wanted to make you aware of the significant impact that Pilgrims has had on the work of MEEI and our peace partners in 2020. Thanks to the generous giving of our friends like you, as well as a generous bequest, we have been able to fund special, COVID-related technology upgrades at MEEI and we have also enabled the school to complete several long-range, capital needs projects that included updating teacher work spaces and renovating the middle school (the original high school, one of the oldest buildings on campus). We also sent all of our peace partner grants early so that they would have money to assist them in their work during a time when funds might have been tight.
Again, thank you for your past support of Pilgrims and we look forward to continuing our partnership in fostering peace and justice in Israel and Palestine. If you have questions about our ongoing work or would like to know more about the work of the board of directors, please contact me with the information listed below. You can also reach out to Brenda Mehos with the contact information below.

Grace and peace,

The Rev. Dr. Peter J. M. Henry
President of the Board of Directors of Pilgrims of Ibillin
Davidson College Presbyterian Church
P.O. Box 337
Davidson, NC 28036
(313) 600-7370 | Peter.henry@ptsem.edu

Donate to Pilgrims and Peace Partners

Contact Pilgrims of Ibillin

Brenda Mehos
Interim Executive Director, Pilgrims of Ibillin
brenda@pilgrimsofibillin.org
www.pilgrimsofibillin.org
phone: (303) 928-0923