The Stones Cry Out
Dear friends of Indiana Center for Middle East Peace,
What better way to begin your Advent season with reflections by the Living Stones in the place where Christianity began.
THREE OPPORTUNITIES TONIGHT - THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3 - TO HEAR THE VOICES OF PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS.
- FORT WAYNE - Plymouth Congregational Church, 501 West Berry, 260.423.9424, beginning at 6:30pm. Soup and the film.
- KENDALLVILLE - Kendallville Public Library, 221 South Park Avenue, Kendallville, IN, 260.343.2010, beginning at 6:30pm.
- HUNTINGTON - St. Peter's Community Church, 206 Etna, Huntington, IN, 260.356.7728, beginning at 6:30pm.
NORTH MANCHESTER - The film will also be shown Sunday, December 6, at Manchester Church of the Brethren, 1306 Beckley Street, 260.982.7523, beginning at 6:30pm.
A free will offering will be taken at each showing to support our ICMEP Mission Partners in Palestine and Israel. Please invite a friend to join you.
The Stones Cry Out: Voices of Palestinian Christians. Here's a description of the film:
Palestinian Christians tell their own story.
Christianity was born in Palestine two thousand years ago. From there it spread throughout the Middle East and to the rest of the world. Yet many are unaware Christians still live in the land. For more than 60 years the Palestinians, Christians and Muslims, have suffered displacement, expulsion, wars, occupation and oppression.
In 1948 the history of Palestine changed forever. In the land where Christianity was born, little is ever said about the Christian minority. Tracing their roots back to the early Christians they have lived side by side with Muslims and Jews for almost two thousand years. And in 1948, tens of thousands of Palestinian villagers were driven from their homes in what was officially dubbed “Operation Broom”, intended to literally sweep tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes in the fertile hills and valleys of the Galilee, and make way for settlers in the newly created state of Israel.
After the Galilee came the expropriation of the West Bank in 1967, the settlements, the wall. Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, is now hemmed in by the wall, cut off from Jerusalem, and robbed of much of its agricultural land.
All too often media coverage of the conflict in Palestine has framed it as a fight between Muslims and Jews, largely ignoring the fact that Palestine was the birthplace of Christianity, that Palestinians are both Muslims and Christians, and that Palestinian Christians have played a critical role in their land’s history and the struggle to maintain its identity. An integral part of Palestinian society, they have shared in the events of recent history, yet their voices are seldom heard and worse: their existence often ignored.
This film tells their story, in their voices, from the Nakba ("catastrophe") of 1948 until today.