Of One Mind?

Last week at the Kairos Bethlehem encounter, the whole gathering seemed to be of one mind. But of course that is never the case and over the week some differences became more apparent.

In one presentation from a European country, there was a challenge to the patriarchal attitudes inherent in the document.

This was vigourously opposed by some of the local Palestinian authors including women. They felt that this was just one more imposition from the outside telling them what to do. Local voices said , “At this point we are just trying to survive. Allow us to tackle these issues in our own way, at our own speed.”

However the representatives of Christian social justice groups and churches were all agreed on the the Kairos document’s call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the Israeli settlements. We were convinced that the relentless increase in settlements, roads and barriers has placed the Palestinian community in an impossible situation

Where else in the world is a whole people barred from using the main highways because of their race? is this not technically an apartheid?

The Kairos document asks the Christian community to act before it is too late. I wonder if Canadian churches will do so. I wonder if we here at Emmanuel will be able to see the world through Palestinian eyes.


Peter