Resources
We offer a variety of print, video and other resources – including worship materials – to foster reflection and understanding.
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Resources
One of the best ways to learn about the realities in Palestine and Israel is by reading some of the excellent books that have been written in recent years.
Books
Resources
Worship Resources
Draw from this collection of prayers, poems and liturgies to guide times of worship, meditation and reflection.
Prayers
Join Worship & Prayer
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Wave of Prayers
Join with others around the world in praying with Palestinian Christians through the Wave of Prayer from Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center. Subscribe to the Wave of Prayer.
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Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center Weekly Online Worship
Join the weekly online worship service, hosted each Thursday by Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center at 18:00 Jerusalem time. Register here to attend.
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Mennonite Church Canada Prayers of Lament
Visit the website of Mennonite Church Canada website for prayers of lament and intercession for Palestine and Israel
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Churches for Middle East Peace Prayers for Peace
Visit the website of Churches for Middle East Peace for prayers for peace.
Video Resources
View CFOS-produced videos to see the land and hear the voices of Palestinians.
Resources
Holy Thursday Contemplative Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane
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A meditation from Holy Week 2023, from Luke 19.41, where Jesus laments upon overlooking Jerusalem. We weep with Jesus at events today in Jerusalem and Palestine-Israel. But lament was not among Jesus’s last acts and words. 2 Timothy 1.6 calls us to kindle and fan into flame the gifts of God as we speak and act in solidarity with Palestinians. A powerful thirteen-minute reflection with music, song, text, voice-over, and meditative silence, all set to peaceful footage of ancient green-gray olive trees in Gethsemane.
Palm Sunday in Palestine
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A seven-minute slide-show experience of the 2022 Palm Sunday walk of some 12,000 pilgrims following the route ascribed to Jesus from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem. The pilgrims wave their palm fronds as they pass through the steep narrow streets, while many thousands more, including many Muslims, line the curbs observing and sharing the celebration. Prepared and narrated by Rev. Steven Berube, United Church of Canada minister, former Ecumenical Accompanier in Palestine, advocate for Palestinian human rights, and Board member of Canadian Friends of Sabeel.
Memorial Service for Father Robert Assaly
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The 1.5-hour Zoom recording of the memorial service for Father Robert Assaly, co-founder and longtime Board Chair of Canadian Friends of Sabeel, who passed away on Sunday, 26 March 2023. The service was held on 28 June of that year.
James Graff Memorial Lecture 2021 with Alma Brooks and Dr. Rashid Khalidi
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A video recording of the 2021 JGML, held December 2, 2021 on the theme of “Turtle Island to Palestine: Settler Colonialism, Resistance, and Solidarity.” Alma Brooks is a Maliseet grandmother and elder from New Brunswick. Rashid Khalidi is Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University in New York and author of The One Hundred Years’ War on Palestine. These two speakers describe the realities of settler colonialism in Canada and Palestine and explore the parallels between the two contexts. They speak in particular the role of the church in colonization and the role of women in resistance. Due to the Covid pandemic, this was an online event only.
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“Whose Land? Whose Promise?” is a Zoom webinar from November 2021 about Christian Zionism. It features 3 presenters: Rev. Carrie Bellenger, an American Lutheran pastor in Jerusalem; Rev. Dr. Alex Awad, a Palestinian Christian born and raised in Jerusalem, employed for many years with the United Methodist Church in Palestine-Israel, and at Bethlehem Bible College; and Ron Dart, a Canadian professor of political science and religious studies at the University of the Fraser Valley. In addition to personal stories which bring into strong focus the realities of Palestinian life in the face of Israeli occupation and aggression, Dr. Awad explains concisely the foundational beliefs of Christian Zionists. He goes on to show in detail from Biblical New Testament texts that the enthusiastic and uncritical support of Christian Zionists for Israeli aggression against Christians is explicitly contrary to Christ’s message of unconditional love for all people. The panelists agree that conversation with Christian Zionists must begin in humility, patience, and gentleness; despite what seems to be a cruel and mistaken theology, Zionists often are in other aspects kind and generous Christians.
Whose Land? Whose Promise? Part I
Video Series: Encounter the Holy Land
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This video series, produced in 2020 and 2021, features several Palestinian Christian leaders, each offering a brief (8 minute) meditation about faith in the context of occupation and apartheid. The speakers include Rev. Munther Isaac, Jean Zaru, Daoud Nassar, Samia Khoury, Nora Carmi, Rev. Naim Ateek and Rev. Mitri Raheb. Some of the meditations connect with the Christmas or Easter seasons.
The Occupation and Covid-19
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A Zoom conversation from 2020, moderated by then-Director of CFOS Yara Shoufani. Panelists are Hadeel Shatara of the Palestinian prisoner solidarity network Samidoun, based in Ramallah; Rand Askalan, a Canadian physician now operating a children’s clinic in Ramallah (learn more of her work here); Tarek Zoughbi and his father Zoughbi Zoughbi, of the Wi’am Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center in Bethlehem; and Raed Shakshak, a writer and activist in Gaza, and Outreach Coordinator for We Are Not Numbers, a youth-led Palestinian non-profit project which provides an international forum for Gazan youth to share their stories. The panelists speak about the impact of Covid-19 on the health situation in Palestine, where for many years occupation and oppression have critically limited the development of health-care facilities and the availability of supplies and medicine. 45 minutes of presentation followed by Q&A.
Journey into the Mount of Olives: A Virtual Tour
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A thirteen-minute video prepared in 2022 in lieu of a planned CFOS tour cancelled because Israeli authorities would not issue a visa to the intended Palestinian guide, Saleem Anfous. Commentary with footage of Jesus’ Palm Sunday route from Bethany and the church commemorating Jesus’ raising of Mary and Martha’s brother Lazarus, to the Mount of Olives, and down across the Kidron wadi into old Jerusalem. Sites include the church commemorating where Jesus wept on viewing Jerusalem, the upper room of the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane and Church of Agony, the steps to Mount Zion where the soldiers dragged him after Judas’ betraying kiss, and the sculpture commemorating Peter’s triple denial.
Hope Still Rises: A Conversation with Daoud Nassar
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A Zoom conversation of CFOS representatives with Daoud Nassar, held in November 2020, when the Covid pandemic prevented actual visits to Palestine. Daoud Nassar. is the third-generation Palestinian Christian owner of a 100-acre family farm on a hilltop southeast of Bethlehem. Israeli military and government forces and Israeli settlers whose homes surround the farm have been trying, since 1991, to confiscate it by legal writs, destruction of trees, physical violence, and blocking electricity, water, and building permits. Daoud describes his family’s means of peaceful resistance, and the Tent of Nations organization they have established on their farm. Tent of Nations hosts international volunteer workers and international organizations, and promotes environmental responsibility, justice, peace, and bridgebuilding between people, and between people and the land. Note: if you view this video, you will want to visit the Tent of Nations in person. This recording consists of 35 minutes of Daoud’s illustrated presentation, followed by Q&A.
James Graff Memorial Lecture 2019 with Samah Sabawi
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A video recording of the 12th annual JGML, held at Emmanuel College, Victoria University, Toronto, in November 2019. Samah Sabawi is a Palestinian Christian journalist, commentator, playwright, author, poet, and policy adviser to Palestinian organizations. She lived formerly in Canada and currently lives in Melbourne, Australia. Her play “Tales of a City by the Sea,” set in Gaza, was produced in Toronto by CFOS in conjunction with the JGML. Sabawi’s lecture, titled “Decolonizing Activism: Resistance Through Art,” is interspersed with powerful readings of a selection of her own poems. She emphasizes the necessity of the oppressed telling their own stories, uncompromisingly, in their own way. She also brings to light continuing Israeli official efforts to silence Palestinian voices.
Whose Land? Whose Promise? Part II
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The November 2021 follow-up Zoom presentation on the foundation and meaning of Christian Zionism, and on how to engage and challenge Christian Zionists on the common ground which they and all Christians think all-important – namely, biblical interpretation. Dan Epp-Tiessen presents a succinct, cogent analysis of how Christian Zionists have founded their belief on God’s promises throughout the Hebrew Scriptures to grant the geographical land of Canaan to the Israelites to establish a great nation, but how in the New Testament Jesus Christ transposes these promises. Instead of promising a powerful Jewish state in Palestine, Jesus inaugurates the reign of God on earth that is for all people and all creation. Both Dan Wagner and Dorcas Gordon emphasize that Christian Zionism is not a phenomenon exclusive to fundamentalist readers of the Bible but has implicitly and deeply affected mainstream liberal religious thought as well. Dr. Dan Epp-Tiessen is a retired Bible professor and Old Testament specialist from Canadian Mennonite University. Donald Wagner is retired National Program Director of Friends of Sabeel-North America and former professor and Presbyterian clergy person in the USA. Dorcas Gordon is retired Principal of Knox College, a Presbyterian seminary in Toronto, and professor of biblical interpretation and preaching. With Noel Gordon she co-leads study tours to Palestine.
Al-Nakba Exhibit
This photo exhibit was produced by CFOS in 2013 to commemorate the 67th anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe): the displacement and dispossession of the Palestinian people in 1948.