Our presbyteries

In the final part of a series looking at the new presbyteries of the Church of Scotland, Thomas Baldwin considers the Presbytery of Jersualem.

THE Church of Scotland presence in the Holy Land goes at least as far back as 1839, when the Church sent to Palestine a Commission ‘to enquire into the condition of the Jews and the possibility of beginning a mission to them in the Holy Land’.

It was over a century later that a petition to the General Assembly of 1940, from five forces chaplains and 12 elders, resulted in the formation of the Presbytery of Jerusalem. The Presbytery came into being on November 1 1941. In 1948, at the founding of the State of Israel, the Church of Scotland received official recognition along with all the other denominations present at the time.

In the meantime, the Kirk’s first church building there had been established on St Andrew’s Day 1930 with the dedication of St Andrew’s Scots Memorial Church in Jerusalem, a memorial to Scottish soldiers who died in the Palestine Campaign of the First World War. The same year, another church was established in Tiberias, by the Sea of Galilee, where the Church had run a hospital since the 1880s (the hospital buildings later became a guest house and are now the Scots Hotel).

The existence of the Presbytery has been reviewed in 1979 and in 2003, but each time the General Assembly has seen the value of the Church having recognition in Israel. Benefits include receiving clergy visas, and being able to apply for visas on behalf of Ecumenical Associates. Other denominations which were not present in 1948 struggle to be present and to purchase land or buildings today.

In the modern day, the two churches are united as one congregation. Under the care of minister, the Rev Stewart Gillan, associate minister the Rev Muriel Pearson and Reader Joanna Oakley-Levstein, they maintain two buildings and two diets of worship each week, plus an online presence for members who live at a distance. The English-speaking congregations are small, often augmented by people on short-term contracts with the UN or charities. In times of peace they are also joined by pilgrims, many of whom find worship that is familiar yet strange on the shore of the Sea of Galilee or outside the city walls of Jerusalem to be a highlight of their visit.

“Our presence is important for a number of reasons,” write Stewart and Muriel. “We support local Christian, interfaith, and human rights partners who are working towards a just and lasting peace, located on both sides of the wall. We can make sure congregations and presbyteries at home are informed about the current situation and pray meaningfully about it. We can challenge over-simplified readings of biblical texts which equate the Israel of the Hebrew Bible with the modern State of Israel, and promote a prayerful reading of the Gospel that includes Israelis and Palestinians equally in its purview as children of God. We can help pilgrims and tourists have a wonderful, personalised experience which will deepen their faith and inform their discipleship and stewardship of resources.”

The Presbytery is not responsible for the Church’s other institutions in the country – the Scots Hotel, St Andrew’s House Hotel in Jerusalem and Tabeetha School, which has provided education to Christian, Jewish and Muslim children since 1863. However the ministers are board members and serve as chaplains at the hotels and school, linking them and the congregations to the work done supporting groups of pilgrims and individual visitors.

“In a time of turmoil and aggressive expansion,” write Stewart and Muriel, “The Church of Scotland provides some stability and can support local Palestinian Christians, many of whom claim their family allegiance to Christianity dating back to the day of Pentecost.

“Palestinian Christians are emphatic that visitors meet ‘the living stones’ of the Holy Land and gain an understanding of the issues faced and the work being done by some of our partners in education or fairtrade or interfaith dialogue. The ministers spend a lot of time fostering partnerships and relationships which give insight into the justice issues and allow pilgrims’ prayers to be informed.”

Much of that work is done ecumenically with other churches, recognising that the Christian community in the Holy Land is small and that it makes sense to worship and work together as far as possible. The presbytery supports the World Council of Churches programme of ecumenical accompaniment, where volunteers monitor checkpoints and journeys to school and document human rights abuses and violations as they see them. It also maintains interfaith links with organisations such as Rabbis for Human Rights.

Obviously, everything is very difficult in the Holy Land at the moment, and while financial problems are insignificant compared to human suffering and loss of life, the presbytery has been directly impacted. The collapse of the international tourist and pilgrimage market, and the departure of embassy workers and NGO staff who had children at Tabeetha, means both hotels and school are struggling.

Nor, Stewart says, has the presbytery remained untouched by the problems in the wider Church of Scotland: “We are affected in two main ways by problems in the Church, including presbytery reorganisation.

“The first is that the horizon for many congregations and church leaders has become much shorter: nearly all attention is on local problems and so we are in danger of losing a sense of ourselves as part of the worldwide church.

“The second issue is that financial decisions are driving everything. In normal times, the hotel in Tiberias is able to give a significant amount each year as loan repayment and rent, and in normal times the hotels are profitable. Just now, however, because of the war they are struggling financially.

“The question is whether the Church of Scotland has the vision to look ahead and see the value of the work in Israel/ Palestine, and the income it will generate. As a matter of historical record, the health and strength of the Church of Scotland at home is integrally related to the strength of its partnerships within the world Church, in the Holy Land not least.” ¤