Jerusalem today

 Sixth Monday of Easter

Lectionary Texts:

1 Peter 3:8-22

Psalm 47 (UMH 871)

Thanks to Pat and to April for their responses. While I have a good knowledge of Methodist History, Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ are so historically complex as to be beyond my comprehension. I know that those two denominations are historically related. Both are liberal mainline. Disciples' clergy are more than 50% female, which I think is the highest such percentage among all denominations.

Here's a short list of historically related denominations that all fall into the line of Congregational Polity (no bishops). The opposite of Congregational Polity is Episcopal Polity (bishops). The Greek word for bishop is episkopos.

Congregational, Congregational Christian, The Christian Church, Disciples of Christ (sometimes called Disciples of Christ, Christian. Often called simply Disciples), United Church of Christ. All of these are the results of mergers or splits. The U.C.C. is the result of more mergers than any of the others. 

 

Here's a mistake never to make! Never confuse the United Church of Christ with the Church of Christ. They are at the opposite ends of the theological and every other kind of spectrum. Church of Christ is strict fundamentalist. They also are known for not allowing instrumental music in their churches. Church of Christ and some of the earlier forms of the variously merged congregational denominations go back to a 19th century preacher named Alexander Campbell.

This is normally now travelogue day on the blog. The blog has been in Israel the last three Mondays. We're staying in Israel today but not on the originally planned subject. 

As you may have heard or read, there is violence going on in and around the Temple Mount and in the Arab quarter of the Old City. I can't begin to get into all the complexities of this 73 year conflict. Here is a brief explanation of what's going on now. Jerusalem is a divided city. East Jerusalem is Arab Muslim. West Jerusalem is Jewish. Israeli forces control the whole city except for the top of the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif). East Jerusalem is connected to the West Bank of the Jordan River, which is territory belonging to Arabs but under Israeli occupation. A wall divides the Israel from the West Bank.

Israelis have been planting Jewish settlements beyond the wall the West Bank side. Most recently Israeli police forces have been forcibly evicting Palestinian Arabs from their homes in East Jerusalem. Arabs are protesting these evictions. The conservative Israeli political parties are hoping eventually to incorporate all of the West Bank into Israel, although that is not their official policy. 

In watching this conflict pretty closely for many decades now, I can tell you that my position at this point is that I seem to be against both sides. I believe Israel should exist with the original U.N. drawn borders from 1947. I believe that the Palestinian Arabs should have their own separate nation on the West Bank and in the Gaza strip with their own government and no occupying Israeli forces. This is the "two-state solution." We were very close to achieving it in 1993. Israeli was willing to cede 98% of the territory the Palestinians were demanding, including East Jerusalem. Arafat backed out at the last minute, ostensibly because the Palestinians wanted all of Jerusalem, not just East Jerusalem. 

The outcome of the present violence, like all the rest, will be that the Palestinians will lose. 

I do care for the Christians in Israel and Palestine. Bethlehem used to be a predominantly Christian city (60%). Now it's Christian population is down to about 12%. Both the Armenian (Christian) quarter and the Christian (Arab Christian) quarter in the old city have lost most of their residents over the last 25 years. Many have come to America.

Lord of all three Jerusalem faiths,

We pray for the peace of Jerusalem, that this holiest city see the restoration of peace and a new sense of equality among its peoples. Amen

Faithfully,

Christian