This past weekend we celebrated 170 years of Lutheran mission in the Holy Land, 50 years of the ELCJHL, and 30 years of the Arab Bishopric. It was a weekend full of celebrations and this excerpt comes from Bishop Younan's speech at the joint worship service Sunday afternoon. Since most of you reading this belong to partner churches of the ELCJHL, I have included his message to you and his hopes for the future of the Lutheran church in Palestine and Jordan.

"God calls all churches and Christians to be one, to work together, to witness together, to heal together and to work for justice together. So, the ELCJHL continues to extend its hand to all our brothers and sisters in the churches of Jerusalem and tells them, God calls us to serve with you, to witness with you and to pray and carry the message of love with you, in order that the banner of Christ will be over our land. To our sisters and brothers that live with us and serve the expatriate Christians in Jerusalem, we tell you that our church is at your service, to proclaim the message of Christ. And we tell our evangelical brothers and sisters in the Middle East, and the other church families in the MECC (Middle East Council of Churches), that God has called us for a witness of love together, for the world is waiting to hear from us a single voice speaking a common word of love, justice and service.

We also want to tell the representatives of our partner churches in the world that the ELCJHL wants to carry with you the message of love and join you in our Christian vocations. We will work with you locally and globally for social justice, for gender balance and for addressing such problems as climate change. Our church readily works with you, for we believe that this is an integral part of its living witness and creative diakonia. But allow me, a resident of Jerusalem, to remind you not to forget the Arab Christians in Jerusalem, whose numbers are declining. For what is Jerusalem without those who first carried Christ's message to the world 2,000 years ago?

The church of Christ does not live in shrines but in its people. For this reason, our church hears him when he says, "He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind; to let the oppressed go free" (Luke 4:18).

Christ's message was one of peace and justice. Our church has existed amidst political and economic difficulties, leading many of our members to be displaced and some to emigrate. Our church suffers with all who suffer. We see religious fanaticism and political extremism growing, for the common denominator between both the Israeli and the Palestinian peoples is fear. Our church is afraid that there are those who want to shift the political conflict into religious war. We are afraid that this fear, insecurity and continuous denial of the other results in more hatred, more bloodshed, more violence. But our church wants to be a church with a prophetic vocation. It wants to heal the brokenhearted, to call for release for the prisoners and restoration of sight for the blind. It wants to continue, with God's grace, to work for justice and reconciliation, peace, forgiveness and coexistence with shared responsibility. For this reason, we say to all politicians at this celebration, our nations are tired. It is time to implement justice in which both people can live in their own states with security, freedom, peace and reconciliation. It is time that both people comprehend that their security and freedom are symbiotic. It is time to hear the position, articulated by the Patriarchs and Heads of Local Churches in Jerusalem, that calls for a Jerusalem that is shared between three religions and two nations, Palestine and Israel. Our church will work with all people of good conscience for the Christian, Muslim and Jewish and together seek the common values that allow for justice, peace, forgiveness and the acceptance of the other. Our church desires that future generations may live in freedom and security, and that this Holy Land will be a lighthouse for all. Now is the kairos time for justice and peace in Jerusalem."