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Sunday December 8th we were pleased to welcome Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh and Dr. Mark Braverman back to FCCOL. Both of them are long time friends of our congregation and of our Tree of Life ministry.
During the past year, Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh has reported from the site of an ongoing catastrophe, chronicling the carnage of Gaza from his home in Bethlehem. His dispatches have been essential tools for comprehending the inhumanity of that scene, while reminding his many readers that another way, more just and humane, remains possible. Indeed, for the past twenty years, Mazin has been doing just that from the Palestine Natural History Museum, a space of incomparable beauty surrounded by the horror of a military occupation. From there, Mazin has welcomed countless Tree of Life and FCCOL travelers over the years, sharing his singular vision blending the natural sciences and the work of human rights. Mazin is the author of several books, most notably Popular Resistance in Palestine: A History of Hope and Empowerment (2011). In this season of Advent, as we grapple with a widening crisis throughout the Middle East, Mazin’s perspective from Bethlehem is one that we desperately need to hear.
Dr. Mark Braverman too has been a long time friend of Tree of Life and of FCCOL. Mark comes to us from the Jewish tradition, and he is the executive director of Kairos, USA, an organization dedicated to helping Christians, Jews, and Muslims recover the moral and prophetic dimensions of their faith. He is the author of two books, Fatal Embrace: Christians, Jews, and the Search for Peace in the Holy Land (2010), and A Wall in Jerusalem: Hope, Healing and the Struggle for Justice in Israel and Palestine (2013). During the present crisis, Mark’s voice has been crucial in disentangling Judaism and Christianity in particular from the logic and practices of nationalism, militarization, colonialism, and genocide. Mark’s reverence for the Bible has led him to find surprising and beautiful insights providing hope in a time of devastation.