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Originally published by The Canadian Council of Churches.*

The following reflection is on Matthew 20:1-16.

 

My experience with Israel’s Interior Ministry began more than 25 years ago, whereby I have been seeking an ID card for my wife who hails from the West Bank. I am a Palestinian from East Jerusalem and I have an Israeli ID card—which gives me the status of a foreign resident in the city of my ancestors and where I was born. 

Christine, 23, is from the West Bank. She met a young man from Jerusalem when she was studying at one of the Palestinian universities in the West Bank. As their emotions towards each other grew by time and a sincere love flourished into their hearts, they decided to get engaged. At this point, they didn’t think of any barriers that might stand in front of them. 

“Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (Mt. 8: 20)

In 1990 at the age of 22, I was diagnosed with HIV. Shortly thereafter, I also discovered that I was pregnant. My whole adult life has been about learning to live well with this virus.

As many celebrate Valentine’s Day, the WCC invited reflections on the power of love. Below are four reflections, all from people somehow involved in or leading, in their local contexts, a Thursdays in Black campaign for a world free from rape and violence. They share the joys, the pain, and the ever-changing perspective on what love is—and what it can become.

As a Pentecostal, I have “dreamed dreams” and had visions aplenty, but often it has been the WCC that brought those dreams and visions to life. What is found in this report fulfills a vision that I took with me to Geneva in 1989 in a meeting with then-general secretary Emilio Castro. During that visit, I called on the WCC to bring together 120 Pentecostal scholars from around the world to the WCC 7th Assembly known as Canberra ’91.

From the gateway to the eastern Mediterranean and its pearl, Beirut, an ecumenical delegation came to the Middle East in order to visit spiritual leaders who historically constituted the pillars of ecumenical work.