From the land of Jesus Christ there shone a new light seeking to break through the darkness. It is the light of faith, hope, and love that rise from the heart of Palestinian suffering. Such was the Kairos Palestine’s ‘Moment of Truth’ initiative. Today, we renew the pledge, a group of young women and men of this land, addressing the call to ourselves and all youth, to assume our role, accept our calling and mission in this land, right now and here.
1- A New Call
- From the land of Jesus Christ there shone a new light seeking to break through the darkness. It is the light of faith, hope, and love that rise from the heart of Palestinian suffering. Such was the Kairos Palestine’s ‘Moment of Truth’ initiative. Today, we renew the pledge, a group of young women and men of this land, addressing the call to ourselves and all youth, to assume our role, accept our calling and mission in this land, right now and here.
- We witness today a painful realty of challenges and difficulties, fragmented politically and geographically. In Jerusalem, the ‘Nakbas’ continue to unfold: Judaization, settlement activities, exclusion, emptying the city of its Palestinian population, and house demolitions. In the coastal areas and the Galilee, there is discrimination, racist and exclusionist laws of superiority, and community violence that raves our youth as calls for intervention and imposition of community security go unheeded. In the West Bank, one finds a military occupation, a racist Wall, settlement activities, land confiscation, checkpoints, humiliation and human rights violations. The situation is further exacerbated by the Palestinian internal division, and the lack of clear political vision among our leaders. Our besieged brothers and sisters in Gaza find themselves the target of bombing and terrorism. The blockade continues to strangle them, deny them their freedom and their most basic legitimate rights as well as their opportunities for a life of dignity.
- In our homeland today, extremism and religious fanaticism are on the rise at the expense of love to the kin and the culture of coexistence. We face an extremism that led some of our young people to choose social isolation. Many of our young women and men could not find in churches the answers to the challenges they face, and therefore distanced themselves and gradually deserted the church all together.
- From a wounded and distressed homeland, we write these words; from a church that is the mother of all churches we raise our voices to say that our homeland is calling upon us, our churches are calling upon us, we the young men and women of this land and this church, the ‘Youth of Jesus land’. For generations we have belonged to this land and to our country that came under occupation since more than seventy years. We belong to our church in this land, the mother of all churches, the Church of Jerusalem. We accept the calling of our faith premised on the rite of baptism and the Word of God, namely to be ‘Kings, Priests, and Prophets’ (Book of Revelation 1:6), ‘kings’ serving our land and all its people seeking to build justice and peace in it; ‘priests’ praying for our land and all its people and for our church; and ‘prophets’ to speak the word of truth as witnesses and disciples of Jesus Christ working for the dignity of every human being and reaffirm our Palestinian and Christian identity to realize love, justice, peace and equality in our Holy land.
- In a world plagued by injustice and corruption, we are invited to bear witness and light through our faith in God, our hope to see an end to injustice and occupation, our love for each other and all peoples, as Jesus Christ himself loved us from his cross. We are bearers of a mission, and in addition to all forms of suffering, we carry the cross of immigration with competent and qualified young people leaving the country as the situation deteriorates constantly.
2- We announce our commitment
2-1 Before this reality, we recall the words of the ‘Moment of Truth’ document reiterating that on this land, we are ‘bearers of light’ (5-1), calling upon us to ‘remain steadfast in times of trial as we did over the centuries’ (5-3). We accept the call of faith, hope, and love that the document advocated. We hereby launch this call, starting with a commitment that we take upon ourselves.
2-2 We declare our commitment to:
- Our Christian faith inherited from our grandfathers and fathers, and to our church, the Church of Jerusalem, the mother of all churches. We hereby commit ourselves to continue to bear witness to the word of the Bible that carries good news, good news of the God of love and justice for all people and proclaim it from this land.
- Remain steadfast on this land, preserve our religious and national heritage through the live testimony of our faith, proactive and effective presence.
- The spirit of Christian service and the work with and in our churches becoming their living and effective stones seeking Christian unity in this land.
- Uphold the commandment of love as our guiding principle, love to ourselves, to our neighbor, and using the power of love to resist all evils.
- Serve our land and society, stand by what is right, defend principles of justice, equality, human dignity, and seek peace by conveying the message and cause of our people to the whole world.
- Work with all groups of our society to end the occupation, promote a culture of coexistence, and renounce sectarianism and violence.
3- Our call to ourselves and the Palestinian Christian youth
3-1 To ourselves and to the Palestinian Christian youth we say that his is no time for indifference and defeat, ‘For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7). We should remain open to all the society, get outside the churches, and challenge the culture of isolation. Our only option is that of bearing living and sacrificing testimony
3-2 Our call to youth is:
- Hold firm onto this land, our calling and responsibility towards it, taking pride in our national and religious identity. We call for deeper knowledge of our history and heritage in this land.
- Maintain a sense of belonging to the local church rather than abandon it, show patience with its pitfalls, realizing that we are the church and therefore should support rather than criticize, reforming ourselves first to help others reform themselves.
- Proactive and effective engagement in political, economic, and social aspects of life, confront fear, negativity, isolation, and surrender replacing them with positive openness and interaction with our environment.
- Revive the spirit of volunteerism in our churches, institutions, and the local community in general. Replace the culture of wanting to take and relying on other and exchange it with the culture of giving and contributing, giving from our time, ourselves, and funds to the church and community initiatives.
4- Our call to our church
4-1 Our church is our mother- it brought us to life through baptism. In church we experienced the love and the grace. We are, together with all believers and our leaders, have a call of unity. We address our church leaders as we realize that together with them, we form the church, the body of Jesus. Building and preserving the church is our collective responsibility. This is the call of young men and women to our leaders.
4-2 We call upon our churches to:
- Preserve the church endowment properties, using them wisely to best serve the steadfastness of the Palestinian Christian community, as well as to be transparent in handling the church financial resources for the public best interest.
- Become involved with youth and their concerns, discuss the daily challenges that they face’ and develop a critical and modern Christian thinking that is capable of handling daily life issues facing youth. We call upon the church to initiate dialogue with youth to bridge the existing gap.
- Invest in young people, give them leadership opportunities, and support their future vision.
- Support young women leaders who often lack the ability to hold a leadership role in church.
- Work together for the unity of Palestinians, unifying the voice and the efforts towards preserving our existence.
5- Our message to churches around the world
5-1 Since we are part of the one sacred church, we address the following call:
5-2 We call upon churches of the world to:
- Support the church of the Holy Land, assisting it to preserve its stability, existence, and ministry. No Holy Land exists outside their living stones.
- Listen to our Christian Palestinian voice, particularly in regard to our issues and matters related to our existence, seeking, along our side, to achieve justice and peace.
- Respond to our call: ‘Come and see’ (Kairos 6-2, John 1:39) and encourage youth Christian organizations to visit the holy places and meeting with the youth of this land, encouraging twinning initiatives among youth organizations, local, and international parishes.
- Confront injustice, particularly injustice claimed as being based on religious grounds. Understand the Bible, the word of God, in alignment with the love of God, the love of every human, and of all the peoples of earth. The word of God should not be a weapon to kill, support occupation, exclusion, or racism as promoted by the so-called ‘Christian Zionists’ groups.
- Support Palestinian youth in their efforts to remain steadfast and build a better future, especially through supporting youth-related and job creation Church initiatives.
6- We have a mission
6-1 Because we are Christian Palestinian youth, believers in Jesus Christ who was born, lived, taught, suffered, died, and risen from the death here in our land and our country, here in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth, we raise the banner of victory just like our Lord who conquered death when he moved the stone, and tore through the darkness lighting the universe with his light, and rising to herald the dawn of a new day.
6-2 Because, just like Jesus Christ, we were born in Palestine, in the Holy Land, we continue to learn and live in Palestine, we continue to suffer, feel pain, injustice, hatred, and occupation, we announce that we are capable, just like our Lord, of making love prevail and injustice to disappear. We are called to raise the banner of resurrection in the face of death and to be light and salt (Mathew 5:14), life and love in a land where we suffer injustice and death on a daily basis.
6-3 We are called to build our lives on the rock of salvation through the resurrection of our Lord in Jerusalem. Because we are from this land, we live for it and with it, we continue with our mission and testimony in order to send a message of love, justice, and peace from the heart of Jerusalem, and the heart of Palestinian youth to all of the world. We shall remain here, witnesses here, workers here, yes, holding on to our mission.