By Susan Shinn
St. John’s Lutheran Church
SALISBURY – Dr. Mitri Raheb is fond of saying that the sky’s the limit – not the wall.
Raheb, a Palestinian Lutheran and pastor of Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, will speak at a free breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Monday, Sept. 24, in the Fellowship Hall of St. John’s Lutheran Church, 200 W. Innes St. A continental breakfast will be served and there will be time for Q&A with Raheb.
Raheb’s topic is “Room for Hope in the Midst of Walls: Checkpoints, Occupation and Grace.” Since 2003, Bethlehem has been cut off from Jerusalem by a high wall that surrounds this city so important to Christianity.
According to a feature on “60 Minutes” that aired in April, it can take hours for residents of Bethlehem to visit family, friends or physicians or other appointments.
Because of the wall, very few Christians now live in Bethlehem – about 18 percent of the population. The city of Jerusalem is only 1.5 percent Christian.
Mitri has called the West Bank “Swiss cheese” because of the division that has occurred. The Israelis have all the resources, while the Palestinians “are pushed in the holes behind the walls.”
Raheb is a native of Palestine who has pastored his congregation since 1988. He is also president of the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. Since 1995, he has opened schools, cultural centers and health and wellness centers in Bethlehem.
Since 2004, Raheb has been the president of Bright Stars of Bethlehem, a U.S. nonprofit based in Rockford, Ill., that’s dedicated to building support for arts, leadership and education for the people of Bethlehem and beyond.
All donations to this organization are tax-deductible.
“It hasn’t been easy in Palestine for a long time,” says Beth Nelson Chase, vice president of Bright Stars of Bethlehem.
“We want to celebrate, lift up and uphold a Palestinian culture that’s so rich, we want to provide education for young people, to give them hope and purpose. We are creating a whole generation of peacemakers and peace-doers, not peace-talkers.”
Raheb will also be speaking in Burlington, Charlotte, Chapel Hill and Raleigh during his first visit to North Carolina. When the Rev. Rhodes Woolly, St. John’s senior pastor, found out about Raheb’s visit, he invited him to come to Salisbury.
“Mitri is a Palestinian Christian,” Woolly notes. “For some that presents challenges, but I believe you’ll find him to be remarkably wise and insightful. In a region of centuries-old conflict, it’s easy to give up. Mitri won’t to give up, but instead puts forward a message of grace and hope, refusing to acquiesce to fear and threat.
“And don’t underestimate the irony. Here’s a man who lives in Bethlehem, birthplace of the Prince of Peace … who lives in a Lutheran compound/parsonage that was nearly destroyed one night by Israeli soldiers looking for Palestinian ‘terrorists’ … who now lives in a community, Bethlehem, that has recently been divided by a ‘security wall’ that stands as high as 25 feet – a wall that secures but also divides, keeping Palestinian Christians from free access between holy sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
“In the midst of the chaos and hate, Mitri’s message is profound: ‘The wise person is he who can transform his enemy into a neighbor, and not his neighbor into an enemy.’ Let’s pray his voice will be heard far and wide.”
For more information about this event or Raheb, visit www.brightstarsbethlehem.org or www.mitriraheb.org .
Susan Shinn is communications assistant at St. John’s Lutheran Church.