Last Post Before Leaving

Friends,

It is the eve before I leave and I wish to share this one final post before I go tomorrow to Washington for a few days of orientation and then onto Israel and Palestine. Yesterday at my home church of Wellington Ave United Church of Christ in Chicago I was commissioned for this mission. I share these words with you because they are holy and beautiful. 

Again many thanks for your prayers and support

peace,

Loren

Commissioning 

Leader: No one leaves his community of faith without part of them remaining with us.

ALL: We cannot send someone out from among us without part of us going along with them.

Leader:  Those who send and those who are sent are bound together by a common faith and a common commitment to justice and peace.

All:  We are ambassadors of Christ sent out to witness to our faith whether it be in Berwyn or in Israel and Palestine.

Leader: Journeying to the Holy Land is an evangelical act—proclaiming the Good News that we are sisters and brothers because we are all sons and daughters of the Divine Mother/Father.

All: Journeying to the Holy Land is a prophetic act--- a crying out in order to stop the cycle of violence, the building of the wall, the ethnic cleansing.

Leader:  Journeying to the Holy Land is a pastoral act—a personal expression of compassion, an incarnation of our solidarity with those who are suffering brutality and economic oppression.

All:  Journeying to the Holy Land is a spiritual act—a sign to the world that  the power of love is greater than the power of intimidation or money.

Leader:  May this sending forth bind us closer to our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land, bind us into one garment of destiny.

All: May this sending forth strengthen our commitment to peace and justice for all people.