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Fragment of the mosaic with Abraham and Sarah at the Oak of Mamre (basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy).

Fragment of the mosaic with Abraham and Sarah at the Oak of Mamre (basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy).

Christians awaiting the advent of the Lord and the reign of God are invited in this season and in light of the scriptures to assay our lives and lifestyles, to identify with the vulnerable and marginalized among us, and to search anew for ways to incarnate the reign of God and the teaching of Jesus in our personal relationships and social structures.

To facilitate Advent reflection through awareness of the vulnerable persons, the WCC is offering a short biblical reflection by the retired Anglican bishop of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Duleep de Chickera on “the radical edge” of the biblical text as it relates to stateless people.

Commissioned and edited by WCC programme executive Semegnish Asfaw, it is one of a dozen biblical reflections being published next month by WCC Publications in I Belong: Bible Reflections on Statelessness.

Roughly ten million persons in the world are stateless, says Asfaw. “Stateless people—that is, sisters and brothers who have been marginalized and rendered vulnerable because they lack any legal link to a state— are among those communities on whose struggles the pilgrimage of justice and peace aims to shed light, bringing them back to the centre.”

Text of the Bible study on statelessness by Bp. Duleep de Chickera

Read more about WCC involvement in ending statelessness

The book I Belong: Biblical Reflections on Statelessness - on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk