• near settlements
• at a demolished Palestinian home
• at the Wall surrounding Bethlehem
•  in local Palestinian parishes.

Jerusalem church leaders held an ecumenical service in East Jerusalem on Sunday, 7 June 2009.  A prayer from them is in the hands of churches worldwide, for the fourth year in a row.

The solidarity group Sabeel added its weekly Wave of Prayer to World Week. Supporters in respective time zones prayed for peace at midday on 4 June. A eucharist was celebrated as the "wave" passed through Jerusalem.

"We feel as if we are in one world and every one else, and all other cities, live in another world," a Bethlehem high school student says in one of the many prayers available for worldwide use in German, Italian, Spanish and English from a local church-related NGO (plus peace stories, diaries, reflections and religious songs from the Occupied Palestinian Territory, especially from women).

A community festival was held in early May in advance of World Week with prayers also projected on the Wall and peace music traveling over it from streets, roofs and balconies. People with candles formed a large key in the face of the many locked gates around their town. The theme these events is "sumud" (steadfastness).

An international "Peace Week" for children from each of the Abrahamic faiths will be held in July 2009 in Beit Jala near Bethlehem, with sports, cultural, solidarity and worship events.

Ecumenical Accompaniers are blogging about settlements in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Palestinian civil society organizations including church-related groups are appealing to the European Union not to upgrade its relations with Israel because of the war in Gaza in addition to on-going occupation. Churches abroad are invited to advocate on the issue, including during World Week.

Vatican Radio

Reporting from Bethlehem

Events in the Bethlehem enclave, above, were featured on Vatican Radio.

USA

Pentagon postcards and a purchasing guide

In New York and North Carolina, parishioners sent postcards to the White House urging an end to US military aid to Israel.

The National Council of Churches, Church Women United, Church World Service, New York Theological Seminary, World Day of Prayer, World Student Christian Fellowship and the US and UN offices of the World Council of Churches held a service of common prayer in New York City.

In North Carolina, a monthly prayer vigil for Middle East peace at a Catholic parish in Durham on 4 June linked up with World Week, and an ecumenical and interfaith network called Coalition for Peace with Justice will host a program on Gaza and Hamas on 14 June.

United Methodist parishes in New York, California, Maryland, Ohio, Oklahoma and North Carolina joined the week with prayers and services, according to reports from a church advocacy network. 

United Church of Christ and Disciples parishes are invited to join the action week and use the World Week liturgy from Ireland.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is offering a Selective Church Purchasing Guide for products from the Middle East.

Friends of Sabeel North America are promoting the week of action; so is a church-related blogger in Texas.

UK

Peace witness to retailers, parliamentarians and a drone factory

Friday 5 June there will be a public witness for peace at UAV Ltd in the West Midlands, an Israeli-owned company that makes engines for drones used in the Gaza war according to two church groups. The witness will be followed by a prayer service and constructing a peace cairn at a local church.

An advocacy paper on settlement products suggests actions people and parishes in the European Union can take with local retailers and their governments.

The Gaza crisis and continuing settlement expansion in East Jerusalem and the West Bank are raising new concerns in churches about companies involved in the occupation, including the Church of England which owns shares in Caterpillar.

Sabeel UK is sending a questionnaire to EU parliamentarians asking where they stand on the upgrade of EU-Israel relations.

An inter-agency planning group is guiding preparations. A "Living Stones" leaflet gives constituents of 12 church-related organizations information resources, a prayer for World Week and action opportunities.

Christian Aid led a virtual "Journey to Jerusalem" pilgrimage during Lent. The online pilgrims are invited to continue their journey by joining the World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel.

Switzerland

Inter-religious dining and dialogue

A Geneva parish reached out to Jewish neighbours as well as local Christians and Muslims with a 7 June event called "Roads to Peace". There was a Middle Eastern meal, a charity sale and roundtable discussions including two Swiss who have served with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel.

Staff at WCC headquarters and an international parish worshipped using the Irish liturgy.

Sweden

"A Solid Line of Prayer and Song"

"We hope to achieve a solid line of prayer and song," notes the Swedish Christian Council. The Jerusalem prayer in Swedish and a Palestinian-Swedish "Song of Lamentation" are distributed to all Swedish ecumenical councils for parish use. A 8 June seminar in Sjövik called "After the Gaza War and the Israeli Elections" includes Gaza medical staff and Israeli peace activists. A conference on "Promised Land", theology and justice will follow after the summer.

Swedish EAPPI, the source of many Ecumenical Accompaniers, has a notice about World Week on its website. Sending prayers allows people to show solidarity directly whether or not their parish organizes an event, a SEAPPI staffer says.

South Africa

Provincial and big-city outreach

The Irish liturgy, with South African Ecumenical Accompaniers reading the young people's stories, will be celebrated 5 June in Johannesburg. The liturgy has been distributed to provincial councils of churches for parish use. An entire Lutheran diocese has received World Week prayers. The week is seen as an opportunity to build understanding between churches with differing views of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Scotland, UK

Living Stones, active parliamentarians and "The Wall" on a church

World Week culminates 10 June at a central Edinburgh church with Palestinian legislator and humanitarian Dr Bernard Sabella, Scottish parliamentarians who have gone to Gaza on solidarity and medical trips, and a silent vigil to build a cairn. A banner the height of the Wall will hinder entrance to the church.

"Many more churches are involved this year, with daily prayers, photo exhibitions, and use of the ecumenical liturgy from Ireland during the week or later in the year," an organizer reports. In honour of the "Living Stones", churches are encouraged to bring stones and build a peace cairn during World Week services. Some parishes are also using the ecumenical liturgy ("Irish liturgy") then or during the year. A "human resource" list includes speakers from EAPPI and Christian Peacemaker Teams veterans for action week events or other times during the year.

Churches of many denominations, the Iona Community, the Scottish Parliament's Cross Party Group on Palestine, the Edinburgh Inter-Faith Association and the Scottish Palestinian Forum are involved in planning World Week events. 5000 copies of a Scottish "Living Stones" leaflet for the week, a variation on the UK version, are sent to churches and available at Christian Aid Week "bridge walks" and the Edinburgh World Justice Festival in May.

Philippines

Popular and parish action at many levels

5 June has a public forum and interfaith liturgy that draws on materials for World Week. Then different faith-based organizations come together for a peaceful demonstration at the embassy of Israel including body-painting for children. The day ends with an interfaith vigil and candles.

7 June is a common Sunday for Peace in parishes nationwide with World Week prayers and liturgy distributed by the National Council of Churches in the Philippines.

Build-up to World Week included church-hopping and lobbying with information about peace in Palestine-Israel and a "Song for Gaza" as an introduction. Children displaced by conflict in the southern Philippines are sending prayers and letters to Palestine.

National organizer Peace for Life passes on information about World Week to its international network and led the formation of a Philippines Solidarity Group for Peace in Palestine to do ongoing education and advocacy work. Religious, youth, indigenous, academic and grassroots organizations are involved, including Protestants, Roman Catholics and Muslims. A national consultation on Palestine will take place in August 2009.

Pax Christi International

Networking for peace

Member organizations in UK, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, France, Flanders/Belgium, Australia and the West Bank are staging events for World Week. Some 100 member organizations have been invited to join worldwide and the week is a focus on the website of the international office in Brussels.

Palestinian Initiative for Responsible Tourism

Palestinian civic groups are offering guidance to pilgrims and other visitors in a Code of Conduct for Tourism in the Holy Land.

Norway

Debating with politicians, praying with Palestinians

Seven church related organizations are holding various events.

• Civil society debate with politicians on 9 June on ethical investment and settlements; Norway has elections in October.

• Tourism seminar on 8 June using the Code of Conduct developed by Palestinian tourism groups

•  Theological seminar on "Promised Land" with a pastor who has written a popular new book on the topic.

• Church services on 7 June coordinated with the World Week, including prayers from children and teenagers in the Bethlehem enclave. Some prayers are illustrated; some are from Muslim children.

The Church of Norway has urged parishes to observe World Week, noting that both Israelis and Palestinians "need a just peace without violence and occupation". The church did so in a 14 May statement marking 50 years of ministry and service by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.

Netherlands

Cross-country peace relay

World Week starts at the beach with a chain of storytelling events that spread inland reaching a different town or city each day. Local groups are encouraged and coached to bring this relay to their own town or village. Special stories, poems, music and prayers are part of the relay. So is publicity. The idea was inspired by parish events during the Gaza war. IKV-Pax Christi, ICCO, Kerk in Actie, Kerk en Vrede, Mennonite Wereldwerk and Friends of Sabeel Netherlands are involved. Planners hope the event will grow in strength in coming years.

The "Irish" liturgy for World Week (below) is available in Dutch. The head of the Protestant Church in the Netherland is in Jerusalem for the 7 June service there.

Lebanon

Inter-church prayers for peace

Lebanese church leaders are joining the Middle East Council of Churches for prayers at a Maronite church in Beirut on 10 June.

Kenya

Future pastors leading prayers for peace

35 students of St Philips Theological College in western Kenya are praying World Week prayers during daily devotions and, for Sunday 7 June, are taking the prayer from the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem to the parishes where they are getting pastoral experience.