Assembly Session – Resolution on Peace and Justice in Palestine and Israel

ACC & ELCIC

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June 30, 2023

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Leaders of Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) and Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) came together at Assembly 2023 at the Friday, June 30 afternoon session, to discuss the complex political situation in Palestine and Israel and introduce a proposed resolution.

The session and discussion is a result of many months of listening to partner voices and reflecting on existing statements by the World Council of Churches and the Anglican Communion, and review of reports from Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations. It also comes after a visit to the Holy Land by the two leaders ELCIC National Bishop Susan Johnson and ACC Archbishop Linda Nicholls in which they listened carefully to the worry, frustration, and challenges of Palestinian Christians and Muslims in the Occupied Territories.

The Assembly 2023 resolution on Peace in Palestine and Israel emerges at a critical time in the long trajectory of violent conflict between Palestinians and Israelis over the past 75 years, said Andrea Mann, ACC director of Global Relations during an introduction on the resolution.

“The November 2022 federal election in Israel, resulting in a coalition government, have empowered ultranationalist religious and political radicals in new and worrisome ways for Palestinians and Israelis,” she continued. “Palestinians have grown increasingly disenchanted with the Palestinian Authority which has proven ineffectual at protecting its citizens and lands from harm, and in providing leadership for peace-making.”

ELCIC Eastern Synod Bishop Michael Pryse shared that the resolution, “is informed by the voices of our partners in the Holy Land – the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem – who are pleading with us to accompany them in prayer and action.”

Both the General Synod and ELCIC Special Convention will consider the resolution in their separate business sessions.

The full resolution can be viewed here:

General Synod Resolution on Peace and Justice in Palestine and Israel (https://assembly.anglicanlutheran.ca/acc/cc/resolutions/a160/)
ELCIC Special Convention Resolution on Peace and Justice in Palestine and Israel (https://elcic.box.com/s/yo6lbtnhir6ak9n92sp5io3jtzxx78sk)

Matthew 10:40-42

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Rewards

40 “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, ⁴²and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

John 15:12-17

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. ¹⁶You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. ¹⁷I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

John 21:15-19

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Jesus and Peter

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” ¹⁷He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” ¹⁹(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

Luke 11:33-36

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Light of the Body

33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a bushel basket; rather, one puts it on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. ³⁴Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but if it is unhealthy, your body is full of darkness. ³⁵Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. ³⁶But if your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.”

Matthew 8:1-4

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Jesus Cleanses a Man

8 When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him, ²and there was a man with a skin disease who came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” ³He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be made clean!” Immediately his skin disease was cleansed. ⁴Then Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”