Recommended Congregational Actions for Peace - August 9-10, 2014

The Working Group on the Middle East has two recommended actions for Metro Chicago Synod congregations to take for the weekend of August 9-10. Please use all of your church communication channels to publish these two actions.


First, we encourage each congregation to continue Bishop Eaton’s recommendation for 60 seconds of silence during the prayers of the church. These seconds of silence might be prefaced by the following:

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land raises its voice to ask all people of good will to intervene in the present situation of unacceptable violence and bloodshed. Your intervention and action will create hope in a hopeless situation. If we cannot take steps toward peace, we will continue to be held hostage by extremism. Please do not leave us alone in this moment of struggle. The whole Middle East is boiling. We need your prophetic voice and support so that peace built on justice and reconciliation built on forgiveness will prevail.

Bishop Dr. Munib A. Younan
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land

Second, we encourage members of Metro Chicago Synod churches to participate in the Chicago March Against World Silence on Gaza Massacre scheduled for 2:30 PM on Sunday, August 10 starting at Michigan & Congress in Chicago. Awad Hamdan, the organizer, is asking for 25,000 people to participate. The two marches that Hamdan and several groups sponsored in July had thousands of people participating with announced numbers of 10,000 at the first march and 15,000 at the second march. Please announce this march at services and in other communication channels that your congregation uses.

Join the Facebook event and invite friends.


On behalf of the WGME,

Rev. Joanne Fitzgerald
Martin Luther Lutheran Church