The Gloucester Methodist Circuit
'Sparks of Peace'
PEACE TOUR OF SWEDEN, DENMARK, GERMANY WITH SHEIKH BUKHARI
NOV 23-DEC 13
Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari and I spoke together all over Sweden in a tour organized by SweFOR, the Swedish Fellowship of Reconciliation. We were featured speakers at the 'Jerusalem Day' conference in Uppsala on November 24. We were then honored at a peace concert hosted by the Diakonia Christian development organization.
In Stockholm, we met in the Swedish Parliament with Mehmet Kaplan from the Green Party and with young Jews and Muslims from the Andalucia Project. We stayed at and spoke in the Quaker House of Stockholm and visited the central mosque on Friday and the central synagogue on Shabbat. We inspired Christian and Muslim youth leaders at the Katarina Församling church. Young Swedish Muslim peacemakers called the 'Muslim Peace Agents' joined us at many of our talks.
To learn about the Muslim Peace Agents, visit: www.fredsagenterna.se/files/contentFiles/Peace_agent_eng.pdf
In southern Sweden, we led a workshop in peacemaking at the Strandska Center in Kungalv. The Diocese of Lund hosted us for a talk with Christians and Muslims in the town of Malmo.
In Denmark we were hosted for a talk at the Art of the Living Center in Copenhagen, where I said the blessing over the Hannukah candles. Sheikh Bukhari and I gave the Friday 'juma' speech to a large Muslim audience at the mosque of Abdul Wahid Petersen, head of the Muslim community in Denmark. I stayed with and spoke about our work with the Chabad Hasidic Jewish community in Copenhagen.
In the city of Aarhus, the URI Aarhus Cooperation Circle hosted and welcomed us for a talk and prayer for peace circle.
In Hannover, Germany, over 200 Jews, Christians and Muslims joined us at our evening at 'Michael Kirche', the anthroposophy Christian Community church.
In Freiburg, in the south of Germany we gave a talk and were welcomed by our friends and supporters from the Oberle Foundation.
TOUR OF THE USA WITH SHEIKH GHASSAN MANASRA
October 26-November 22
Sheikh Ghassan Manasra is a young Muslim Sufi peacemaker, director of the Anwar Il-Salaam Islamic peace center based in Nazareth and Jerusalem. We spoke together in a whirlwind speaking tour all over the USA.
In Chicago we were invited to the Interfaith Youth Core conference "Crossing the Faith Line" from October 28-30. I was invited as a featured speaker on a panel called "Building Mutually Inspiring Relationships". Hundreds of young Muslim, Christian and Jewish interfaith activists were inspired by the slide show I showed of Haj Ibrahim Abuelhawa hugging and dancing with Rabbi Menachem Froman at the wedding of his daughter in the West Bank settlement of Tekoa.
See those pictures here: www.flickr.com/jerusalem_peacemakers/sets
Later in the Chicago area, we spoke to university students at Lake Forest College and at Unity Northwest Church in Des Plaines.
I joined my family for the first birthday of my nephew, Noah Oren, in San Francisco on November 1st, celebrating with my sisters Thauna, Radha, Rachel, brother Sacha and my mother Miriam.
In Nevada City, CA, Sheikh Ghassan and I were hosted by a Jewish and a Palestinian family and we spoke at Congregation Bnai Harim. In Santa Cruz, on Nov. 5 Ghassan and I were the featured speakers on a panel at UC Santa Cruz in front of 500 students on the topic was 'The Role of Politics and Culture in Shaping the Conflict'.
Some of the best questions from an audience on this tour were asked by some of the hundreds of high school students who came to our presentation in the auditorium of Mercy High School in Hillsborough.
In Danville on Nov. 6, we addressed over 100 Jews, Muslims and others, welcomed by Rabbi Dan Goldblatt of Congregation Beth Haim. In Berkeley, a friend hosted us for an evening fundraiser and talk in her home.
In Tucson, Arizona we joined part of a week long series events, called 'Sparks of Peace', organized by Planet Co-exist. Read about our talk at the University of Arizona in this link:
At the central mosque in Tucson, after the Friday prayers Sheikh Ghassan and I addressed hundreds of Muslims. On Saturday evening, we spoke at a gala peace event with local musicians and religious leaders at a theater in downtown Tucson. On the stage, a peace quilt was wrapped around us, Ghassan embracing Moshe, a local Israeli and me embracing Bashar, a Palestinian, in a gesture of reconciliation.
An official proclamation from the mayor of Tucson was read aloud, declaring that week as 'The Week of the Peacemaker' in Tucson.
At Havurat Shir Hadash in Ashland, Oregon, after our presentation, Rabbi David Zaslow led a moving prayer service to bless and empower us in our work. A coalition of groups joined together to host us for a talk to a packed audience at First Christian Church in Eugene, Oregon on November 13th.
In Seattle, we spoke with students at the Hillel of the University of Washington. Several communities joined in hosting our event before a large audience in Temple Beth Am. Local Jewish and Christian leaders as well as Imam Jamal Rahman spoke at our event.
In Minneapolis, Rabbi Marcy Zimmerman invited us to speak at Temple Israel to be part of an interfaith speakers series about Jerusalem. Our talk to over 100 Jews and Christians inspired many present. We emphasized the need to to overcome the pro-Israel, pro-Palestine divide that polarizes our faith communities.
The people of Duluth, Minnesota gave us a warm welcome as we spoke at the Friday night services at Temple Israel. Our workshops at the ACC Church on Saturday, sponsored by the Arrowhead Interfaith Council, were featured in the Duluth local paper.
Back in Minneapolis, at the Woodbury United Methodist Church we led 100 people in a large circle of prayer for peace in the Middle East.
We finished our USA tour in Massachusetts. There we spoke to business students at the Bently College. On November 19 we spoke at the Harvard Unitarian Universalist Church in Harvard, Mass and the next day to teenagers and adults at Temple Isaiah in Lexington.
For pictures from the tour and other Jerusalem Peacemakers events, please visit: www.flickr.com/jerusalem_peacemakers/sets
Back in the Holy Land we are currently working on some ground-breaking projects for Israeli-Palestinian grassroots and inter-religious reconciliation. More in future updates.
Salaam, Shalom, Peace,
Eliyahu McLean
Jerusalem Peacemakers, co-director
www.jerusalempeacemakers.org
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Jerusalem Peacemakers, PO Box 31894, Jerusalem 91316 Israel
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