In Full Communion

Anglicans and Lutherans working together in Canada

MEDIA ADVISORY: National church leaders to discuss role of churches in Palestine-Israel advocacy

April 17, 2023

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OTTAWA – What is the role of Canadian churches in advocacy regarding Palestine? Leaders from the national Anglican, Lutheran, United, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic churches will explore this question and why it matters in a conversation at Saint Paul University in Ottawa on April 27.

The panel discussion, New Developments in Israel-Palestine and the Role of the Churches, will outline how churches in Canada are involved in advocating for and with partners in the region, and next steps in the context of a deteriorating human rights situation.  

WHEN: Thursday, April 27 from 7-9 p.m. ET

WHERE: Amphitheatre at Saint Paul University, 110 Hazel Street, Ottawa, ON

WHAT: An online and in-person panel discussion at Saint Paul University featuring five national church leaders reflecting on the role of the churches in advocacy for Palestine-Israel currently, and consideration of next steps.

WHO:

The Most Rev. Linda Nicholls, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada
The Rev. Susan Johnson, National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
The Right Rev. Dr. Carmen Lansdowne, Moderator of The United Church of Canada
The Rev. Dr. Dorcas Gordon, Principal Emerita, Knox College, The Presbyterian Church in Canada
Carl Hétu, Executive Director of Development and Peace, Caritas Canada (Roman Catholic)

Michel Andraos, Dean of the Faculty of Theology at Saint Paul University, will moderate the panel, and Jonathan Kuttab, Executive Director of Friends of Sabeel North America, will join online to offer an update, from a Palestinian perspective, on the current situation. Brief responses to these reflections will be shared by:

Jane Thirikwa, Global Partnerships Coordinator, KAIROS Canada
Michaël Séguin, Assistant Professor in the Providence School of Transformative Leadership and Spirituality at Saint Paul University, will offer an academic response as someone with expertise in the region.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Anglican Church of Canada (national): Joe Vecsi , Director of Communications, 647-869-5833

Anglican Diocese of Ottawa: Sandra Hamway, Director, Communications and Development, [email protected]

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada: Trina Gallop Blank, Director of Communications, [email protected], 204-984-9172

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

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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.”