April Newsletter - Easter Message
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Salaam and grace in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and greetings from
the Land of the Holy One. We hope this finds you well.
We warmly welcome Bishop Suheil Dawani as our new Diocesan Bishop and as
the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem. It has been a great pleasure to receive
Bishop Suheil at the Cathedral Church of St. George the Martyr on Palm Sunday.
He said: “It is a happy coincidence that today -Palm Sunday - is the first
day for me as the Diocesan Bishop of the Anglican Church in Jerusalem and
the Middle East, as well as my first journey to the city of Jerusalem as
an Episcopal Bishop.”
We wish Bishop Suheil God’s blessings for his journey with God in this new
and challenging role and for his ministry within the Diocese of Jerusalem.
We also extend our best wishes to Bishop Riah who retired on March 31. May
God bless his future ministry.
This is a very busy time for all of us, most of all for Bishop Suheil, preparing
for Bishop Suheil’s enthronement on April 15, but we are looking forward
to this happy occasion.
Wishing you Christ’s joy as we rise with Him,
Your sisters and brothers in Christ
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Easter Message – Bishop Suheil Dawani
“This is the day which the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be Glad in
it. Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed.
Salaam and warm greetings in the name of our Lord to all our friends and
partners, our brothers and sisters in Christ.
In a few days, we will be celebrating Easter, in Arabic ‘the Great Feast’.
It is the Feast of emptying the graves. “Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed
for us. Let us keep the Feast.
Let us feast,
Let us celebrate,
Let us renew our commitment to Christ.
Easter shows us a world in which God has the last word, not the world of
politics. And that last word has the power of love that proved stronger than
despair. It has the power of forgiveness not rejection, with life not death.
We are called to continue the ministry of love and compassion, to enhance
the ministry of reconciliation. Resurrection means forgiveness, hope and
victory over sin, evil and death. It is victory that Easter is all about.
The disciples’ despair turned into glad discovery and joy. Good Friday turned
into a bright Easter morning with life and joy and a crown, not a cross,
with laughter and victory, not pain.
In our Faith, the suffering, crucifixion and the death of Christ were not
the end of story. They were followed by the joy of the resurrection. And
we are the people of the resurrection.
One of the great themes of Christian theology is Christ the Victor. “Christ
the Victor”. We see that God does not save us from suffering and death. Yet,
He saves us through suffering and death – His own suffering and death. He
gives us strength, courage, and grace.
Easter means that we have a future – a bright future in Christ. Let us together
continue to wave the way of justice and peace. Through the power of the Risen
Lord let us take away the walls of hatred and rejection.
We pray for the birth of the new day when peace and justice will prevail
in Jerusalem and all over the world. It is the resurrection that gives us
bright hope as Christians of the land of the Holy One.
Now, as ever, Jesus Christ is the hope of the world. He is the hope of the
Christians of the Holy Land. According to His wisdom, we shall look positively
to the future. As Christians we shall face the future with a hope that grows
out of our faith in the providence and purpose of God, Jesus Christ.
In this situation of suffering we are in, many people are afraid of what
lies ahead of them. It is especially the young people who feel insecure about
their future. Yet, as Christians we have great hope in our present life and
our future. We should transmit this hope to our new generation through our
concern and our joint efforts to work together in order to preserve the Christian
presence and witness in the land of the Holy One.
Now is the time to unite our voices, our deeds and actions, and to show our
light to the whole world: the light of Jesus that leads the way in this dark
tunnel of turmoil, poverty, despair, unrest and hatred.
Let us celebrate together as one body of Christ in the joy of the resurrection.
Happy Easter,
Bishop Suheil
Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem
http://www.j-diocese.com/DiocesanNews/view.asp?selected=262#slbl262