Mission to York for top Israeli clergyman (From York Press)

Mission to York for top Israeli clergyman

7:41am Wednesday 20th December 2006 in News By Matthew Woodcock

AN outspoken Christian leader, who has tirelessly pushed for peace in the Middle East, is to speak in York next month.

The Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, the Right Reverend Riah H Abu El-Assal will visit the city on January 9 to talk about the tense situation between Palestine and Israel.

He was today set to welcome the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, the Roman Catholic Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Moderator of the Free Churches the Rev David Coffey, and the Primate of the Armenian Church of Great Britain Bishop Nathan Hovhannisian, who are on four-day visit to the area.

The focal point of the visit will be a pilgrimage to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem - where every Advent and Christmas in recent memory celebrations of the birth of Christ have been mired in argument and division.

Bishop Riah has said that what is often called The Holy Land is anything but. He and other church figures have called on people of the three great Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) to work together so that it can truly become The Land Of The Holy One, rather than the possession of any one group.

Bishop Riah was born in Nazareth and is known for his active participation in the struggle for justice and peace for all peoples and for encouraging dialogue between different faith communities.

He once persuaded Yasser Arafat to bring together six Israeli Jewish and six Palestinian musicians in Vienna to compose a hymn for peace.

To help renovate Christ Church in Nazareth, he employed Muslims to work on the stained glass, Jews to install the heating, and Christians to be the stonemasons.

Bishop Riah will speak on the possibility for peace between Israel and Palestine at the Temple Hall, St John's College University on January 9, at 7.30pm, and also hopes to meet up with the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu.

Nicholas Hall, secretary of the York branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which has helped to organise the event, said they hoped his visit would give local churches a more honest account of what was happening in the Middle East.

"He is keen to point out that Christians in the West tend to have a very superior view, thinking far too simplistically that all Palestinians are Muslim and that Israel is on the Christian's side," he said.