Photo, “Jesus in the Rubble: Christmas Canceled in Bethlehem,” taken December 28, 2023 in the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, Occupied Palestinian Territory. From from Democracy Now.
Time:
3:00pm Central Europe & Central Africa (2:00pm UK & Western Africa, 4:00pm East Africa, Arabia, and Eastern Europe, 9:00am USA Eastern, 6:30pm India Time)
Meeting Theme:
For many Christians, questions about Israel and Palestine are deeply intertwined with how we understand Scripture, God’s promises, the church, justice, and the character of God. Yet Palestinian Christians have often found their voices marginalized or absent from these conversations. The Bethlehem Institute for Peace & Justice (BIPJ) seeks to change that by equipping the global church to listen, learn, and engage more faithfully.
In this conversation, Tony Deik will introduce us to BIPJ’s work—from conferences such as Christ at the Checkpoint and Church at the Crossroads, to trips to Palestine and media such as the Across the Divide podcast. He will share why this work feels increasingly urgent, not only in relation to Palestine, but for the church’s witness, theology, and discipleship more broadly.
Tony will also share about his work with Israel-centered theologies and the ways these theological frameworks shape how Christians understand God, Scripture, the land, and the people who live there. Together, we will consider what happens when particular theological assumptions become so deeply embedded that they shape our instincts about who God is for, whose suffering matters, and what kinds of violence or power we can imagine God endorsing—and what it might look like to recover a more Christ-centered imagination.
Questions to reflect on as you come to the meeting:
Why is this work urgent for the church—not only for Palestinians, but for Christians around the world?
Where have you encountered Christian theology about Israel and Palestine that seemed to shape people’s instincts before they had really examined the assumptions underneath it?
What might we learn from Palestinian Christians about reading Scripture, following Jesus, and pursuing peace in a context where theology has profound material consequences?
What happens to our understanding of God when our theology gives us a God who is primarily “for us” and against others?
How might our understandings of sin, salvation, the cross, violence, or biblical “chosenness” prepare us to accept some forms of domination or violence as legitimate?
Facilitators:
