When the Archbishop of Armagh Alan Harper was with us on Trinity Sunday, he mentioned in his sermon his trip to the Holy Land. He was a part of a group of clergy which included Cardinal Sean Brady, Primate of the Catholic Church, Revd. Roy Cooper, President of the Methodist Church, and Revd Dr John Finlay, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church. Just as they embarked on this week-long pilgrimage, Bishop Michael Jackson of Clogher Diocese wrote to all the clergy of the C. of I. as Chairperson of the Inter-Faith Sub Group of the Commission for Christian Unity and Dialogue. He outlined the purpose of the visit, “to travel as one to Bethlehem – root of the Christianity and source of the Angel of Peace, to give thanks for all the progress that has been made towards political peace on the island of Ireland, and for the new understandings and fellowships that are emerging between our religions. They will also bring solidarity to local Christians, and offer hope for peace in the Holy Land, at this critical time, where ordinary people are suffering so much.”

His letter includes a special prayer which he urges to be used in the liturgy for this particular Sunday, 8^th June 2008, to “demonstrate the Church’s commitment to making a positive contribution to the promotion of peace in Israel/Palestine.” We will use it in just a few moments.

Those who went on our second visit to Israel in 2000 will remember that within days of arriving back in Northern Ireland the situation in the Middel East exploded, and the Holy Land hasn’t known peace and stability since.

We all have many personal and collective memories of those visits to Israel, but when I read Bishop Jackson’s letter, one vivid picture came in to my mind. We were standing outside the Dome of the Rock, which commemorates the Prophet Mohammed’s ascent in to heaven. It is also where Abraham went to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. It is truly in Arab hands. From that vantage point which is one of the heartlands of Islam, you can see the dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which is the agreed and traditional site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. Just below us in another direction was the Western Wall, the most holy of sites in Judaism, the last remnants of the great Temple of Jerusalem destroyed in 70AD.

Within several hundred yards of each other, you had some of the most important sites of three great religions of Judaism, Islam and Christianity. It is an extraordinary spectacle! And yet the proximity of these sites to each other seems to make the division from one another all the more explicit.

Every year we just play with the idea of Christian Unity when we visit Ballygilbert Church and they visit us, when the truth is that we are all quite happy being what we are already; we’re quite glad we’re not Methodists or Presbyterians or whatever, and the great divide in Christendom we seem to avoid altogether.

The Jerusalem Prayer for Sunday 8^th June is the result of the International Church action for Peace in Palestine and Israel, 4-10 June 2008; A joint advocacy initiative convened by the World Council of Churches. The Heads of Churches in Jerusalem invite churches around the world to pray with them. We respect that enormously, and so let us pray the Jerusalem Prayer:

Heavenly Father,

We give you thanks and praise for your gift to us of your only Son, Jesus – His birth in Bethlehem, His ministry throughout the Holy Land, His death on the cross and His resurrection and Ascension. He came to redeem this land and the world. He came as the Prince of Peace.

We give thanks to you for every church and parish around the world that is praying with us this day for peace. Our Holy City and our land are much in need of peace.

In your unfathomable mystery and love for all, let the power of your Redemption and your Peace transcend all barriers of cultures and religions and fill the hearts of all who serve you here, of both peoples – Israelis and Palestinian – and of all religions.

Send us political leaders ready to dedicate their lives to a just peace for their peoples. Make them courageous enough to sign a treaty of peace that puts an end to the occupation imposed by one people on another, granting freedom to Palestinians, giving security to Israelis and freeing us all from fear. Give us leaders who understand the holiness of your city and will open it to all inhabitants – Palestinian and Israeli – and to the world.

In the land you made holy, free all of us from the sin of hatred and killing. Free the souls and hearts of Israelis and Palestinians from this sin. Give liberation to the people of Gaza who live under unending trials and threats.

We trust in you, Heavenly Father. We believe you are good and we believe that your goodness will prevail over the evils of war and hatred in our land.

We seek your blessing especially on the children and young people, that their fear and the anxiety of conflict may be replaced with the joy and happiness of peace. We pray too for the elderly and the handicapped, for their well-being and for the contribution they can make to the future of this land.

We pray, finally, for the refugees in the various camps and abroad that they may reclaim their rights and return to their homeland.

All this we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.