01/11/2026
Over the next 10 days before research begins, our seminarian Denise will be traveling in Israel and Palestine with a small group from her seminary. They came not as tourists, but as learners, listening for what an ecclesiology of hope looks like amid real suffering, not unicorns and rainbows, but a hope lived out in bodies, borders, churches, and daily bread.
When they arrived in Tel Aviv and they were informed that they would be staying in East Jerusalem, just a couple of miles from the separation wall, which can be seen from the roof. On arrival they shared pastries with a Palestinian Christian guide connected with Sabeel, a liberation theology center, and visited a Palestinian bookshop where a young man named Ahmad spoke with them about life as a 35‑year‑old Palestinian in Jerusalem.
He described a landscape of checkpoints, walls, and legal categories that shape every movement: historic Palestinians who are citizens of Israel, others in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, and millions living as refugees. He spoke about agreements that once promised a Palestinian state but instead left Palestinians with fragmented control over small portions of land while settlements and restrictions have expanded. What most people here are asking for, he said, is simple and profound: freedom, equality, and humane treatment for everyone who calls this place home.
“I am here with my “chosen family” from seminary — teachers, mentors, and friends who have shaped who I am. Together we are trying to listen more than we speak, to neither minimize nor center our own pain, and to look for signs Living in Hope that do not deny suffering but stand with those who endure it. Please keep us, and all the people of this land, in your prayers.”
May God give us grace to be true and humble, to have strength for what we are called to see, to hear, and to carry home.”
