Congratulations to the Mar Elias High School students who took FIRST PLACE nationally in a computer-programming competition (“Hackathon”) on June 6th. Five stand-out students, making up the Mar Elias team, came in first among 29 schools from all over Israel! Also big congratulations to their computer teacher, Elias Nimer. We are so proud of all of you!
Don’t miss this play, if you live anywhere near New York City!
“MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE”
The compelling and controversial play “My Name Is Rachel Corrie” returns for an Off-Broadway run in New York City for 10 performances at Culture Project’s Lynn Redgrave Theater. The play is taken from the writings of Rachel Corrie, edited by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner.
For ticket information call Ovation Tix at 1.866.811.4111 or visit Culture Project’s website at http://cultureproject.org/current/rachel-corrie/. The one-woman play stars Charlotte Hemmings, daughter of iconic English actor David Hemmings (Blow Up, Gangs of New York, Gladiator), making her New York stage debut. Presented by Sawtooth Productions LLC.
“Extraordinary power…funny, passionate, bristling with idealism and luminously intelligent.” Time Out (London)
“You feel that you have not just had a night at the theater: You have encountered an extraordinary woman [in this] stunning account of one woman’s passionate response … theater can’t change the world. But what it can do, when it’s as good as this, is to send us out enriched by other people’s passionate concern.” The Guardian (London)
“Here is a play where the real dialogue begins when the curtain comes down. MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE is theater that not only stirs our hearts but sticks in our heads.” Newsweek
“The play shrewdly does not show Corrie dying; it shows her living, in all her funny, lively, melancholy and manipulative immediacy… Her words bear witness to the deracinating madness of war, a hysteria that infects not only those doing the fighting but also those ambitious to do the saving.” The New Yorker “An impassioned eulogy…it’s hard not to be impressed – and also somewhat frightened – by the description of her as a two-year-old looking across Capital Lake in Washington State and announcing,‘This is the wide world, and I’m coming to it.’” The New York Times
On March 16, 2003, Rachel Corrie, a twenty-three-year-old American, was killed in Gaza as she was trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home. MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE is a one-woman play composed from Rachel’s own journals, letters and emails – creating a portrait of a messy, articulate, Salvador Dali-loving chain-smoker (with a passion for the music of Pat Benatar), who left her home and school in Olympia, Washington, to work as an activist in the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In three sold-out London runs since it’s Royal Court premiere, the piece has been surrounded by both controversy and impassioned proponents, and has raised an unprecedented call to support political work and the difficult discourse it creates.
Registration is open for two pilgrimages led by Pilgrims of Ibillin in 2015:
If you’ve read Blood Brothers by Father Elias Chacour or followed the unique Mar Elias Schools he founded in Ibillin, Israel, don’t miss this opportunity! For a study tour that’s more than a tourist experience of Israel/Palestine, please join us! Contact the tour leader at jdeming7@gmail.com or 608-241-9281. Click on either date for a full itinerary and registration information.
~Stay 4 nights in Ibillin on the campus of the Mar Elias Educational Institutions (located between Haifa, Akko, and Nazareth). Walk where Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, but get to know his brothers, sisters, and neighbors in today’s Galilee as well. Visit Abuna Chacour’s native village of Biram, and Jesus’ native “village” of Nazareth. Meet with Abuna if his schedule permits. Talk with students in Mar Elias classes and over meals together in the Guesthouse.
~ Share an overnight with a family in Zababdeh and visit upper West Bank programs (Canaan Fair Trade Olive Factory, St. George Melkite Church ministries in Zababdeh) and holy sites (Sebastia, Jacob’s Well, Church of the Ten Lepers).
~ Stay 6 nights in Bethlehem and visit sites in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Hebron, and the Dead Sea. Meet leaders of Wi’am, the Diyar Consortium, B’Tselem, OCHA, ICAHD, and the Tent of Nations. Experience the Holy Land as “the Fifth Gospel.” Visit Ramle, meet Dalia Landau, co-founder, and leaders of The Open House in Ramle (story found in The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan).
~ Leave with new stories to share, realities to ponder, and Facebook friends to keep!
Click here for a full brochure for May pilgrimage. This pilgrimage will begin in Ibillin and end in Bethlehem.
Click here for a full brochure for October Pilgrimage. The fall pilgrimage will begin in Bethlehem and end in Ibillin.
By John Hobbins, co-founder, International Book Club.
For a wonderful article about the January 7th Skype meeting of the Oshkosh and Ibillin Book Clubs, read this article from the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, written by Bethany Lerch, and Oshkosh native who has volunteered in Palestine.
Ten- and 11-year-olds in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and 15- to 18-year-olds in Ibillin, Israel read the same book in English, “Chains” by Laurie Halse Anderson, a piece of historical fiction that pivots on the difference between inner and outer freedom, and then skyped about it.
Isabel and Curzon, the main characters of the book, are slaves of African descent caught in the Revolutionary War in 1776 in New York City (a fifth of whose population was slave at the time),
Isabel and Curzon are strong-willed kids, brave as lions, the only truly free people in the narrative. Yet they are slaves, owned by other human beings, mistreated and abused.
“We identify with Isabel and Curzon,” many said, both in Oshkosh and Ibillin.
As Martin Luther affirmed, a truly free person is subject to none and yet is still able to be the most dutiful servant of all. A life of rigor and purpose hangs precisely in that balance.
From “Chains,” by Laurie Halse Anderson:
” You must find your road through the valley of darkness that will lead you to the river Jordan …. Everything that stands between you and freedom is the river Jordan.”
“Look at me,” he said. I bent down a little, bringing my face level with his. He tilted my chin to the side so he could examine the brand on my cheek. I tried to pull away, but he held fast.
“A scar is a sign of strength,” he said quietly. “The sign of a survivor.”
He leaned forward and lightly kissed my cheek, right on the branding mark. His lips felt like a tired butterfly that landed once, then fluttered away. I stepped back and touched the cheek. The men were returning to the barricades. Other servants had formed a line for the pump. Grandfather winked and handed me the buckets.
“Look hard for your river Jordan, my child. You’ll find it.”
“River Jordan is chilly and cold, Hallelujah / Chills the body but not the soul. Hallelujah.”
– Negro Spiritual
The reading program across continents is supported by Pilgrims of Ibillin, the Rotary clubs of Oshkosh, and the OASD (Oshkosh Area School District).
lbillin, December 2014
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Pilgrims of Ibillin,
While I served as Archbishop in Galilee, I always sent an Annual Christmas Greeting; it was always a feeling of communion and of deep gratitude. This year it is somehow different; I am writing to you as a retired Archbishop. Indeed, I decided over a year and a half ago to retire and go back to my natural milieu. In fact I am most privileged to be back at Mar Elias Educational Institutions, where one never gets older but we mature constantly. I was pleased and grateful to give up the honor of serving as Archbishop.
Now every morning when I open the entrance door of my residence, I see the trees, I see the small mountain behind the church, and I see also the arrival of the students, and I pray “Thank you Lord for this day”. That is why I am writing to you, to say thank you, brothers and sisters, for your solidarity and, very specially, for your prayers.
You have been and are still an important factor in my faith in peace. Among my dear dreams would be to see you again in Galilee. We always have a place for you. Our students are most happy to meet with you personally and have an exchange about the present and the future. In case it is difficult for you to come over, I would be most delighted to have a possibility to see you again, whether in Europe or in America or in Australia or in Africa. Wherever you live, you contributed to form my dream, and for that, I say “Thank You”.
As a retired Archbishop, I have full control over my days, which is not to say I am jobless. My office is open to anybody who comes, and many do come individually or in groups. I make sure that I have enough time to pray and read. How could you want a happier life for me? It is much more that I deserve. Imagine me standing at the entrance of my residence, watching literally hundreds of cars coming every day, and very intensely so when there is a parents’ meeting. In fact, we create a travel jam that goes as far as the center of the village. For me, it is not merely a car phenomenon, but it is so many hundreds of parents, Christians and Muslims, Jews and Druze, who stream to the school. We are grateful, happy and concerned to give these people the best image of themselves being all alike: Born babies in the image and the likeness of God himself.
Isn’t that the main message of Christmas: “Be not afraid, I bring you good tidings of great joy, a savior has been born to you”? This is what I wish to remind you very humbly.
My dear brothers and sisters, do not stop witnessing the birth of “The Prince of Peace”, and please pray for us, here in the Holy Land, to hear the calling of the angels: “Glory be to God in the highest and peace on earth to men and women on whom His favor rests” (Luke 2:14).
“Christ is born – do praise him, Christ has come to our world – do glorify him”.
Sincerely,
Ahuna Elias Chacour Archbishop em. Of Galilee
Check out the wonderful blog written by members of the 19-person Living Stones Pilgrimage group as we toured Palestine and Israel in October. It was perhaps not the easiest time to visit the Holy Land. But we could not have been welcomed more warmly. In a year when many groups either cancelled their trips or visited Israel/Palestine with far fewer pilgrims than planned, we were amazed to be able to do everything we had planned on — and even did it in the order we expected.
Although we visited Biblical holy sites throughout our journey, the most memorable moments all came in encounters with Peacemakers — an amazing array of Palestinian Christians and Muslims in the West Bank and Jewish, Christian, and Muslim leaders in Israel. We didn’t meet one person with a rosy outlook on Israel’s or Palestine’s future, but every single person we met offered reasons to be hopeful. Grassroots programs emphasize arts and culture — and insist on treating every human being as child of God, worthy of respect. They insist on beauty, on gardens, on play, on music. Simply getting up every day and going to school or work is an act of both resistance and hope. “How can you remain hopeful?” we continually asked. “What other choice is there?” came the answers. Nonviolence and positive daily activities are investments in a brighter tomorrow.
Read the group’s blog here: http://2014livingstonespilgrimage.wordpress.com
Why not consider joining Pilgrims of Ibillin in a 2015 Living Stones tour? Plans are in the works now for 2 pilgrimages next year: in May and in October. Watch the website for details soon, or contact Joan Deming for more information.
Hear this world-renowned priest, peacemaker, and author address
“What are the Things that Make for Peace?”
To our friends in Washington, DC: A special invitation. If you live nearby, please come to one or more of these events! If you have friends or family in the area, please forward this invitation to them. All events are free, and free-will offerings will be received to support scholarships at the Mar Elias Educational Institutions in Ibillin, founded by Father Chacour.
Wednesday, October 1 – 7:00pm
Saturday, October 4 – 7:00pm NOTE: This is a change of time from what was first announced.
Sunday, October 5
About Archbishop Chacour:
Elias Chacour was born in 1939 in the village of Biram in the Upper Galilee in Palestine, to a Palestinian Christian family. At the age of eight, he experienced the tragedy of his people when he was evicted, along with his whole village, in the Jewish War of Independence. He became a refugee in his own country.
In 1965, he was ordained a Melkite Catholic priest and was assigned to a parish in the small village of Ibillin in Galilee. While serving as priest and pastor, he quickly saw the need for reconciliation and education in the face of poverty and conflict. He founded a Kindergarten in 1970, followed by a library, community center, elementary school, and high school. Three thousand students from age three to eighteen now attend these highly rated schools, coming from a 50-mile radius around Ibillin. The students and faculty include Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Druze. More than 50% of the students are girls. They come to MEEI for a superior education and to demonstrate the possibility of living together with mutual respect in the midst of great diversity.
Archbishop Chacour was the first Israeli Arab to graduate from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he received a Master’s Degree in Bible and Talmudic Studies in 1968. In 1971, he obtained a Ph.D. in Ecumenical Theology at the University of Geneva.
Archbishop Chacour is the author of Blood Brothers and We Belong to the Land, telling the stories of his life and ministry in Ibillin. He has received numerous honorary degrees and awards, including the World Methodist Peace Award, the Marcel Rudloff Peace and Tolerance Award at Strasbourg, and the Niwano Peace Prize, Tokyo-Japan.
In February 2006, he was consecrated as Archbishop of the Melkite Catholic Church of Haifa, Akko, Nazareth and all Galilee. As archbishop, he pursued his passions of caring for the oppressed and working for reconciliation among peoples, especially the diverse and historically complex interests of the people of the Middle East. “I want to be a moderating voice in the conflict that has spilled too much blood.” In January 2014, in his 75th year, Abuna Chacour retired and returned to his home in Ibillin where he is reveling in having time to pray, read, write, meet with visitors, and travel to share his peacemaking vision.
For information: Rev. Joan Deming, Pilgrims of Ibillin, jdeming7@gmail.com or 608-235-1046.
6 July 2014
Friends, Brothers and Sisters.
Are you still able to bear with me despite my long period of silence? I know, you would certainly say yes…
In fact, I am still here. I am coming back to a normal way of life after eight long years of church administration. Instead of being a man of prayer and of spiritual concern, as Archbishop I was cornered to become an administrator. To make a long story short, now I am retired because I have reached 75 years of age. I am supposed to be a jobless man but the reality is that I became busier than before (but no more in administration).
I spend my time reading – an average of at least five hours a day – and writing as much as I can concentrate. I started writing a book on The Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount about Jesus Christ, the Man from Galilee. I keep learning more about him. I relate to him as being one among my many parishioners from Galilee. It was an honor to have Him as a member of my community but I tell you he is not easy to deal with. He would never budge. To accompany Him means to follow him, not to invite him to follow us. Since he is the light of the world, If we insisted to go first, we would be following our own shadow and he would be waiting for us to adjust, as the Father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son waited for his wayward son to come to his senses.
My experience as the Archbishop of Galilee taught me that in order to say anything about The Man from Galilee, Jesus Christ, one has to plunge into the active silence of prayer and meditation. This is what I do abundantly since I retired and came home to Ibillin. I think it is impossible to write anything meaningful about Christ that is not the fruit of a special relation with him. That we can obtain only with prayer and fasting. It is so marvelous that I wish every one of you Pilgrims of Ibillin to be given this unique experience of the presence of the Lord in your own life. It is possible. The way to that privilege is to pray to the Heavenly Father to reveal himself to you. You will start discovering God’s presence on the face of your neighbors. Until our own dignity shines on the face of our neighbor, we would never see our own dignity.
In Ibillin, I restarted living as a human being. I have time to walk around the campus and to receive guests, including many groups from overseas. In addition, I must care somehow for the Mar Elias Schools. The new generation of MEEI directors face deep challenges, but they bring vision and wisdom to their complex task. As a gift to MEEI in my retirement, I hope to build a museum for the schools in the village Ibillin. We want to document the history of MEEI, making it the first school in the country to have a museum for itself. In fact, the school has a story and a history to tell the wider community.
Presently the school is doing as fine as things could be fine. However, we face the very serious problem of drastic cuts in the meager subsidy from the State of Israel. This year the cuts amounted to 19% of the MEEI budget. This makes things extremely complicated as we try to pay the monthly salaries for teachers. This cut leaves us with a monthly deficit of at least 250 thousand shekels (almost $75,000). The only ways to manage this situation seem to be either to raise the tuition that parents must pay, or to reduce the hours of learning in the school.
This is a complex situation. If we raise tuition, parents will have a problem paying the tuition we imposed on them, and many among the parents would become our enemies. Why should we allow ourselves to become the enemies of those we try to help? However, if we make the school day shorter to save money we would send the children home around eleven in the morning. Meanwhile their mates at the governmental (public) schools are given enough subsidies to keep the children until 2:30 PM. We are confused about what to do! This is not a unique problem to MEEI but affects all the Christian schools alike in Galilee. As leaders of the Christian schools contemplate the problems together, we are even considering whether to go on strike or to close some schools. There is yet no final resolution what to do. We will be grateful for your prayers as we struggle with this difficult challenge.
I am living in Ibillin as I was before I accepted to become the archbishop of Galilee. I am still the archbishop emeritus of the same diocese of Galilee. My e-mail address is still the same: chacoure@netvision.net.il
My telephone at the office is 972 4 8432108 my cell is 054 771 72 90.
The way to my heart – you know it well – is always wide opened and welcoming.
Yours sincerely
Abuna Elias Chacour
PS – A note from Pilgrims of Ibillin: If you can consider an extra donation to Pilgrims of Ibillin at this time for the purpose of helping provide scholarships for low-income students at Mar Elias, you can truly offer help and hope. Click here to make a secure donation by credit card. Or send your check, made out to Pilgrims of Ibillin, ℅ Cho Kwan, CPA; 311 Oak St, Suite 111; Oakland, CA 94607-4602.
Examples of tuition needs:
Registration is open! If you’ve read Blood Brothers by Father Elias Chacour or followed the unique Mar Elias Schools he founded in Ibillin, Israel, don’t miss this opportunity! For a study tour that’s more than a tourist experience of Israel/Palestine, please join us! Contact the tour leader at jdeming7@gmail.com or 608-241-9281. Click here for brochure and registration form.
~ Stay 6 nights in Bethlehem and visit sites in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Hebron, and the Dead Sea. Meet leaders of Wi’am, the Diyar Consortium, B’Tselem, OCHA, ICAHD, and the Tent of Nations. Experience the Holy Land as “the Fifth Gospel.”
~ Share an overnight with a family in Zababdeh and visit upper West Bank programs (Seraj Libraries, Canaan Fair Trade Olive Factory, St. George Melkite Church ministries in Zababdeh) and holy sites (Jacob’s Well, Church of the Ten Lepers).
~Stay 4 nights in Ibillin on the campus of the Mar Elias Educational Institutions (located between Haifa, Akko, and Nazareth). Walk where Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, but get to know his brothers, sisters, and neighbors in today’s Galilee as well. Visit Abuna Chacour’s native village of Biram, and Jesus’ native “village” of Nazareth. Meet with Abuna if his schedule permits. Talk with students in Mar Elias classes. Meet Dalia Landau, co-founder, and leaders of The Open House in Ramle (story found in The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan). Leave with new stories to share, realities to ponder, and Facebook friends to keep! Click here for a full brochure.
Cost: $1750 program fee to Pilgrims of Ibillin (including $500 registration); pay airfare separately to our travel agent: about $1300 for the New York-Tel Aviv round trip plus the cost of your connecting flight from wherever you live to New York.
Registration deadline is June 7, but space is limited so register early. Contact Joan Deming for more information: jdeming7@gmail.com or 608-241-9281.
http://www.imemc.org/article/66547
Thursday December 12, 2013 09:06
by Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies Report
For the first time since Israel was established in the historic land of Palestine, in 1948, and the resulting destruction and displacement of hundreds of villages and towns, there, a group of Palestinians managed to set up a Christmas tree in the displaced village of Kufur Birim, in the Galilee.
The Sonara News Agency has reported that, despite the extreme cold and snowstorms, especially in mountain areas, and despite repeated empty promises by Israeli officials, including the Minister of Minorities, the remaining displaced villagers were never allowed back.
Four months ago, a group of young Palestinians started sleeping in the village, as part of an extended campaign to affirm their right in their own lands, and recently installed a Christmas tree in the yard of a local church, affirming their Right of Return following 65 years of displacement.
Talking to the Sonara News Agency, Zatam Zahra, a member of one of the displaced families, said that this Christmas tree, the first in 65 years, is a symbol for the Right of Return for all refugees displaced from their lands, villages and towns.
He added that the tree is also a symbol of hope to the millions of externally displaced refugees living in dozens of refugee camps in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and several Arab countries.
“We demand a solution to Kufur Birim refugees”, he said. “The Right of Return is a right not only to the living, but also to the dead”.
~ author’s email saed@imemc.org
