The Greatest of These is Love
Thanks to the profound generosity of the FOSNA community and your support for the Bishop Edmund L. Browning Memorial Fund, we have been able to sponsor clergy, seminarians, and eligible Christian workers to travel to Palestine, walk in the footsteps of Christ, and bear witness to the realities faced by our indigenous Palestinian sisters and brothers. Five such recipients are currently in Palestine traveling with FOSNA Executive Director Jonathan Kuttab and FOSNA Board Member Nyle Fort. The following reflection was recently shared with us by one of the Browning Fund recipients:
The Greatest of These is Love
For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
—1 Corinthians 13:12-13
Before traveling to Palestine, on July 7th, solidarity was a word that produced sincere feelings of cooperation; now, it has become something different for my feelings have become a concrete reality. As a student of history, I poured over the converging narratives that created an image of the holy land and the present-day struggle for human dignity, as represented in the law, economy, and social life for Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories. Through FOSNA and this partnership with Sabeel, our hosts have provided a platform for my ideas to enter the realm of engaged dialogue.
What I once saw dimly, I now see face to face. In these few days, with more to come, I have fully embraced the opportunity to see the brutal truths of occupation, settler colonialism, and international events in one of the most important regions of the world. The intersections of religion, politics, history, and culture are all vibrating in every scheduled conversation and unexpected moments, in between meetings, talking with my fellow sojourners.
The guides have been informative; I see their leadership as containing the best of two worlds: intellect and passion. Consciously, I developed a metaphor to describe the experience of having wood on one side and fire on the other—when you combine the two, you have a warm, sustainable experience that transforms both the fire and the wood.
For me, the sharp intellect, informed by a social setting that is surrounded by a context of empire and military occupation, is most piercing. In addition to this, the religious fervor of walking the Via Dolorosa added to the passion of Christ that I had known intellectually, but now I know it in the soles of my feet.
Like my cohort, I come from the United States, a nation state with its own problems that contribute to and intersect with the core contradictions of this region. Participating in open forums and listening to personal testimonies, transparent dialogue of human rights organizations committed to Palestinian liberation, and multiple conversations enjoyed over meals has made this new reality an ongoing purpose of mine that I am excited to bring back home.
My excitement is tempered by a great sense of being humbled by the hospitality of our hosts. A humane heart cannot listen to the stories of unearned suffering and return to civilian life at home the same. Whether attending a Sunday church service in Bethlehem, taking pictures in the Al-Aqsa compound, touching the western walls, or experiencing prayer in the Dome of the Rock, transformative travel for the purpose of freedom making can clear a mirror or picture that was once dim.
According to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the principles that guide Beloved Community—“peaceful conflict-resolution and reconciliation of adversaries, instead of military power. Love and trust will triumph over fear and hatred”—are being marinated in deep listening that is at the heart of this trip. I’m not sure what these 10 days will produce; however, I am clear that these first 5 days represent a new beginning.
I came to this place with an open mind, and I return with new knowledge and seriousness. The international court is one site of struggle; the human heart is another. There will be no shortage of engaging in the battle of seeing our Palestinian brothers and sisters as ourselves. This is not a depressing trip. Rather, it is generating mutual respect and international relationships.
The work of Sabeel is critical, and the facilitation of FOSNA is necessary. I want to thank those that have made this event in my life possible, and who have created it for so many others.
I will leave you with a final thought and note: the oppressed and exploited communities of the world have historically been the human site of institutional sin, taking the forms of slavery and colonialism. The redemptive work of repairing these relations through philanthropy is also truth work.
Thank you again. As this trip continues, I hope it opens the doors for many others to have this opportunity and that the alumni classes will have the chance to reconnect with each other and expand the base of the movement in the future.
As my centering scripture says, I now know fully, what I once knew in part, but, no matter what, the greatest of these is a love that demands justice. It’s free Palestine, until Palestine is free. And during this trip, I have seen in so many ways that it already is and forever will be. Alhamdulillah.
–Rev. Wesley Morris,
who writes and thinks for Freedom and Healing
In honor of Episcopal Bishop Edmond L. Browning, an ardent anti-apartheid activist and champion of justice for Palestine, FOSNA launched the Edmond L. Browning Memorial Fund in 2017 to foster informed, nonviolent action for liberation, justice, and peace in the Holy Land. By sponsoring clergy, seminarians, and seminary professors, the Browning Fund provides eligible Christian workers with the opportunity to bear witness to the lives of indigenous Palestinian Christians and their Muslim and Jewish neighbors. We aim to train current and future church leaders by connecting them with the Palestinian community on the ground and with Sabeel in Jerusalem, honoring the path of truth and justice seeking in the Holy Land.
Join us in our work to liberate religion from those who would use it to justify oppression and dispossession. Contribute to the Bishop Edmond L. Browning Memorial Fund at the link below:
Additional Testimonies:
I have been to many colonized places in the world. From Caribbean islands like Aruba that are still formally owned as such, to places like Kenya, where the fractures of society continue to fall along the fault lines of British occupation, despite its official end in 1963. It was clear to me that while the contusions of colonialism appear in different shades of black and blue, they are all equally destructive. And yet, I was unprepared for the brutality of what active settler-colonialism would feel like when I arrived in Palestine. The oppression of the Palestinian people has been devastating, yet necessary, to witness. Every act of their existence is resistance, reminding the settlers they cannot be erased. I’m forever grateful to FOSNA and those who made this trip possible for me so that I could not only better understand why Palestinian liberation is so urgent, but build relationships with those who are actively working towards it. Despite the overwhelming realities of persecution and attempts at their extinction, the Palestinian people remain hungry for the reclamation of their land, but not their humanity- for they’ve clung to that as desperately as their oppressors have tried to deny it. Just like their land - they have found ways to produce in the face of restriction and sustain their love for each other amidst a seemingly insurmountable enemy. As the lungs of the land struggle for their collective exhale on the day of liberation, we inhale knowing God’s breath smells of rosemary and jasmine on the hills of Palestine.
–Olivia Buckley
I’m so thankful for the financial support that allowed me to go with this delegation to Palestine. Trying to learn about what’s happening here in the United States was a necessary struggle, but a struggle none the less. Coming to Palestine has allowed me to feel so much closer to the situation and has given me information that is more accurate and holistic than most of the information I can find in the United States. I have also learned so much from my fellow delegates and have been encouraged by our conversations about strategic solidarity and resistance. I feel like I’m coming back to the States with a deeper understanding of Palestine and it’s lovely people, as well as a stronger passion to join with the people I’ve met in raising my voice against the illegal settler colonialism going on here. This delegation has encouraged a deep spirit of perseverance, joy, and solidarity amongst its members; for that I am deeply grateful.
–Anna Bolembach
Get Involved!
We invite you to join us in the following events and activities:
July 8 - 17: Palestine
FOSNA Witness Trip
We are in the middle of FOSNA's witness trip with Sabeel led by Nyle Fort and Jonathan Kuttab! For 9 days, our delegation is traveling across Palestine experiencing the reality of joy, resistance, and struggle of the Palestinian community.
Check our website for updates, pictures and reflections!
July 16: Online
VFHL July Film Salon: My Tree
Using donations that children collected via “little blue boxes,” the Jewish National Fund has planted more than 250 million trees in Israel/Palestine. Ostensibly to “make the desert bloom,” the planting has radically altered the land’s biodiversity.
My Tree follows filmmaker Jason Sherman’s journey to find the tree planted in his name on the occasion of his bar mitzvah. When he discovers that “his” tree is in a forest covering up a Palestinian village destroyed in 1967 – one of many forests hiding scores of destroyed villages – he seeks to learn the motivations behind JNF’s tree-planting enterprise and to understand his own culpability.
Register below and join us on July 16 at 3:00 PM Eastern for a discussion of JNF's tree-planting project and the film with: - Jason Sherman: Jewish Canadian playwright, screenwriter and filmmaker - Seth Morrison: Treasurer, Jewish Voice for Peace Action, who publicly resigned from the Washington DC Board of Jewish National Fund - Mazin Qumsiyeh: author, founder and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History (PMNH) and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS) at Bethlehem University
July 20: New York
Stop Israeli settler violence: Not on Our Dime! (Rally & March)
(Not on Our Dime!) On Thursday 7/20 at 6pm at Herald Square, the Not on Our Dime! coalition is taking to the streets to call for an end to Israeli settler violence and demand our state stop subsidizing Israeli settlement expansion.
Next Thursday, let’s pour into the streets to make sure our elected officials hear from us – we are outraged, we are growing in numbers and power, and we refuse to stand by as our state subsidizes apartheid.
Weekly
Sabeel Prayer Service. Join Sabeel every Thursday (6pm Palestine) for online Bible Study, discussion, and prayer. Examine scripture in light of the ongoing realities confronting the Palestinian Church and the pursuit of Palestinian liberation.
Wave of Prayer. Subscribe to receive Sabeel's Wave of Prayer, enabling friends of Sabeel around the world to pray over issues of critical concern to the Holy Land on a weekly basis.
Kumi Now! July 16 to July 22: Week 29 - Israeli Apartheid Wall. Kumi Now is an online gathering every Tuesday (6pm Palestine) with a guest speaking on the weekly topic. Register here.
Resolution ES-10/15 doesn’t, in name, sound like much. But it was a resolution passed on July 20, 2004 that acknowledged the illegality of Israel’s separation barrier under international law. Years later, Palestinian communities in the occupied territory are still being torn apart due to the construction of the separation barrier, otherwise known as the Apartheid Wall. As the wall gets built, Israel is effectively annexing more and more Palestinian land to itself. Here’s what you need to know about the Israeli Apartheid Wall and what you can do so that together we can rise up.