Christians around the world have been urged to join with church leaders in Jerusalem in praying for peace in the Holy Land on Monday, 5th June.
The initiative, which has the support of the World Council of Churches, is being held on the 50th anniversary of 1967’s Six Day War involving Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Syria which saw the start of Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Golan Heights.
The Peace Prayer Service, which forms part of Pentecost celebrations, will take place at 11am on Monday in Jerusalem’s Dormitian Abbey.
Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, praised the initiative “as an affirmation of hope, unity and commitment to justice and peace in Palestine and Israel”.
“It is a call on Christians everywhere to share in our witness to unity and to make this moment of prayer truly participatory,” he said.
Among those who have shared prayers for the day are the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, HH Karekin II, WCC president and Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, Most Rev Dr Antje Jackelén, archbishop of the Church of Sweden, Most Rev Dr Thabo Cecil Makgoba, Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, Jim Winkler, president and general secretary of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and Stuart McMillan, president of the Uniting Church in Australia.
Participants are invited to share their prayers on a specially created digital prayer wall.
