(the following is from an email I received earlier today from the Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Palestine; it highlights why we must work harder than ever to be God's peace and justice in our world. and, if we truly are the church, then the grief experienced in the Middle East is our grief; our joy their joy.)

Middle East Call to Prayer: A Call for Prayer to Partner Churches All Over the World on Maundy Thursday, From Middle Eastern Christians

Greetings to you during this blessed Lenten season!
In the spirit of Maundy Thursday, as Jesus gathered with his disciples to celebrate the Paschal Meal, your sisters and brothers in Christ in the Middle East are asking you and Christians worldwide to join them in prayer & supplications.

This call comes after a recent meeting of the Executive Committee of the Fellowship of Middle East Evangelical Churches (FMEEC), where Middle Eastern Evangelical representatives from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, the Sudan, and the Holy Land gathered to discuss the
concerns of the Evangelical Testimony in the Middle East. Although there is encouraging work going on in the ministry of these churches, we are very worried that the unstable political environment is fueling extremism, endangering civil peace, and causing increasing emigration of indigenous Christians. The ongoing occupation, violence, and land confiscation in the Palestinian territories, and the worsening quagmire in Iraq, only add fuel to the fires of extremism, and threaten to turn political problems into religious wars. The carnage in Lebanon, and the heightened tension with Iran, are viewed in the same manner.

For these reasons, we Christians in the Middle East ask you to join us in prayers for our troubled region, which is in dire need to keep alive a vital Christian witness of love, justice, forgiveness and reconciliation.

We Christians have been here since the first Pentecost and Evangelicals since the early 19th century. We must not allow the lights of Middle Eastern Christianity abate.

Please, pray for the Testimony of the Evangelical Churches in the Middle East, and stand with us in spirit and prayer. Learn about what is happening here. Stand against extremism in all forms, including our own Christian extremists who often undermine the work of local churches here.

God Bless you,
On behalf of FMEEC Executive Committee:
Bishop Munib A Younan, Rev. Habib Badr and Mrs. Rosangela Jarjour
(President, Vice President and General Secretary)

A prayer

Gracious and loving God;
On the eve of your Great Sacrifice, you sat at table with your disciples, sharing your life in the Holy Meal of bread and wine. We join our Christian brothers & sisters in the Middle East in your One Uniting Spirit, praying that their witness remains effective, their spirits high, and their hearts steadfast.
Draw us all together, Lord - sisters and brothers across the globe, so we can receive your forgiveness, healing and new life poured out for us, and pass it on to others in this conflicted and broken world. Make us instruments of peace, ministers of reconciliation, and apostles of love. In your name we pray, Amen.