An Elusive Road

by Maureen Edwards

‘A bird’s eye view’ of the history of Israel to the present day. This book points to prophetic truths which are all too easily set aside for power and possession: the road to peace and justice is elusive, and the stories of every nation are mirrored here.
An ideal book to help you
·find your way through the Old Testament;
·identify the issues and explore their links with contemporary ones;
·see how faith is challenged by ‘wilderness’ experiences;
·challenge traditional interpretations and explore new ones;
·understand the roots of Judaism…

Questions for personal reflection or group discussion are included, and each section ends with a prayer.
Maureen Edwards is a former editor of ‘Words for Today’ (International Bible Reading Association) and of the Methodist Prayer Handbook.

A Way in the Wilderness

by Bishop John Brown

This book presents much-needed and long overdue help for Christians who pray for the Middle East, the people of the Middle East and the on-going crisis the Middle East.
This is no sound-bite approach, Bishop Brown's insight after many years of ministry in the region provides the kind of background which can enable believers all around the world to pray with compassion and humility, confidence and hope, and an awareness that God's redemptive work continues in the lands of the Bible to this very day. Rev Canon Bill Schwartz OBE

The Stones Cry Out

By Andrew Ashdown
“ These living stones are the indigenous peoples of the Land of the Holy One, the Arab Palestinian Christians, the descendents of Jesus, whose story of Pain and hope, death and resurrection, must be heard, lest, as Jesus said 2000 years ago, the stones cry out. It is not the events of yesterday, it is the events of today that are chronicled in this book. You will be taken on a flying pilgrimage from Nazareth and through the land where Jesus walked and ministered.
Rt. Rev Riah Abu El-Assal, Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem
If you are thinking of undertaking a pilgrimage to Israel-Palestine or want to learn about the holy places and the people then you really should read ‘The Stones Cry Out’. Andrew’s book has the subtitle “Reflections from Israel and Palestine”, but perhaps it should have been given the subtitle “Prophetic insights from Israel and Palestine.”
What is evident on virtually every page of his book is his love, fire, passion and desire to see peace and justice prevail in the Holy Land. Due to his prophetic nature Andrew writes with the deepest vocational conviction but does not allow his conviction and love of the people and the land to obscure the tragic facts as they truly are. Water shortages for whole Palestinian villages and towns, land grab by Jewish Settlers, communities and families divided by the concrete Apartheid Wall and much more by way of shocking statistics and harsh realities disturb the reader into making a connection between the suffering and struggle during the time of Jesus Christ nearly 2000 years ago with the divided people of Israel-Palestine now. This is a book that narrows the gap of time and in Andrew’s own words: “call us to do something about seeking justice, being merciful, and being peacemakers.”
Review by Nick Wallace for The Pompey Chimes

Checkpoints and Chances

Eyewitness accounts from an observer in Israel-Palestine
Katharine von Schubert

Katharine von Schubert went to the West Bank in October 2002 as a volunteer international observer based in Bethlehem for Quaker Peace and Social Witness, and continued in Jerusalem with another organisation to September 2004. These are her luminous reports of being with people under military occupation, as they struggle with curfews, checkpoints, and sudden losses of home and livelihood.

Christianity in Iraq

by Suha Rassam

Christianity was firmly established in Iraq from the earliest times, and the Churches of Iraq were to play a major role in the development of Christian theology and spirituality for many centuries. By the seventh century evangelization from Iraq had brought Christianity to China, Central Asia and India. Yet few people in the West are aware of Christianity’s vibrant past in this region, or of the fact that Christianity has continued to be a significant cultural and religious presence in Iraq up to the present day.
The story of the Churches of Iraq, their interaction with each other and their varied fortunes under successive Parthian, Sassanaid, Arab, Mongol and Ottoman rule, is told here with consummate skill. Suha Rassam guides the reader seemingly effortlessly through complex issues of doctrinal dispute and ecclesiastical politics. She helps us to explore the ancient heritage of these Churches, and the major contribution they have made to the intellectual development of the region and the wider world.
The detailed account of the Churches in the twentieth century, under British rule, the monarchy and then the Ba’athist regime and Saddam Hussein, is particularly useful. This book sheds much-needed light on the present dire situation for Christians in Iraq, under occupation and transitional rule. It is essential reading for all those in the West who are concerned for the future of Iraq and its people.

The Colour of Courage

By Najwa Farah

Najwa has said that “ a Writer is moved to write because she experiences something, something that might seem trivial or insignificant; but it is easy to see from the story of Najwa’s life, told at the beginning of this book that this collection has been written by someone whose experience has been far from trivial. By someone who has lived totally within the pilgrimage of suffering and tragedy of the Palestinian people. She is the link person between the time of Jesus and the earliest Christians, from whom she descended, and the wider Christian world, a link between Christians and Muslims, between the Middle East and the rest of the world; between those who have suffered and those who have not.

Rose Stones of Jerusalem

Najwa Farah was born in Nazareth into well known Christian family. One of her uncles was head of the Arab Episcopal Church Council. Her brother a Byzantine and worked as a teacher; later becoming a public speaker, broadcaster and writer, contributing to many Arab magazines, both in Palestine and Lebanon. She has published a number of books, including her life story, commissioned by SPCK.
The stories and poems in Rose Stones of Jerusalem fall into two categories.
Firstly they tell the everyday lives of ordinary people, sharing both joy and sorrows. Each is threaded through with the theme of women’s status, displacement and abrupt and coercive transition from agricultural peasant life to an urban one. The other stories, although no factual, are based on real experiences. They depict the Palestinian Struggle at different times and places, showing how people were practically transformed into strangers in their own land.
The book has beautiful colour paintings by the writer and Samia Zarou.

In troubled waters

By Rafiq A. Farah
“ IN TROUBLED WATERS is a situation calling for careful navigation,” writes Kenneth Cragg, Oxford, in the foreword.
The writer, Rafiq Amin Farah, Archdeacon Emeritus of the Jerusalem Diocese of the Anglican Church, is well equipped to be the helmsman.
In this book, based on exhaustive consultation of the archive of the Jerusalem and Middle East Church Association, and aided by personal recollections, he has brought together with diligence and verve, a tangled, sometimes tense, but always strenuous story.
“ Archdeacon Farah charts the voyage so far with much fascinating information”…
Canon Wybrew, former dean of St. George’s Cathedral, Jerusalem.

A Sacred Memory

This book brings together some of the lectures delivered in honour of Elchanan and Miriam Elkes. Giver under the joints auspices of the Stanley Burton Centre for Holocaust Studies and Elchanan Elkes Association for Inter-Community Understanding, they have been edited by Professor Aubrey Newman and Barbara Butler.
Dr. Elkes was a distinguished medic living in Kovno at the time of its occupation; he was elected by the Jews as their leader. Over and over again he fulfilled the responsibilities laid upon him, at a very real danger to himself. At the time the ghetto was destroyed he emerged untarnished, having preserved the lifes of a significant number of its inhabitants. Throughout these years he was supported by his wife Miriam. Dr Elkes died in 1944 in Dachau, his wife survived for many years in Israel.
The cover design by Paula Curtis is from an original painting by Joel Elkes.

The Way of the Cross

Najwa Farah, the author of this Passion Play: The Way of the Cross, belongs to an Arab Christian family and is well known writer in the Middle East.
The twelve scenes in the play are clearly defined and take us from Simon’s house in Bethany, to Palm Sunday, beyond to Golgotha, the Sepulchre and finally to the Crucifixions’ impact on Barrabas.
The Lamentations on the death of Jesus which form part of the play, were written to convey the deep sense of loss and sorrow felt by women. The chanting of dirges and lamentations in many towns and villages of the Middle East, on Good Friday, is common; so the inclusion of the Lamentations reflect very much the culture from the play springs. Likewise the chorus represents a humanity without hope and devastated by sadness.
Some of the scenes have been performed in St. George’s Cathedral, Jerusalem. At the end of the book a number of Najwa’s poems are to be found.
The rather beautiful but unusual paintings which both provide the outside cover and illustrate the play are by Samia Zarou, a Palestinian artist who trained at the American University in Beirut and completed her postgraduate studies at the American University, Washington DC.