Rowena Francis reports on a stay in the Holy Land

It was a privilege to be part of the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) for my sabbatical from URC stipendiary ministry. This programme started 20 years ago at the invitation of the Churches of the Holy Land.

I served in an international team of four living in Bethlehem during the summer of 2022. Our role was to model ‘principled impartiality’; that is, being non-partisan in regard to the conflict between Israel and Palestine but at the same time being strongly in favour of human rights and international law…

Rowena Francis is a URC Minister serving in several Somerset Churches including Wells United. You can read more Palestinian stories at www.eyewitnessblogs.com. Information about the EAPPI programme is at www.quaker.org.uk/our-work/eappi

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This is an extract from an article published in the March 2023 edition of Reform

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