March 26, 2010

JERUSALEM, Israel-Palestine – Churches cooperate in order to strengthen evangelical Christian witness, not their institutions. Our interdependence as churches is a source of strength. This was part of the message of ELCJHL Bishop Munib Younan gave at the March 24, 2010, partnership service. There, Younan and the Rt. Rev. William Hewitt, moderator of the Church of Scotland, signed an agreement formalizing the relationship between the ELCJHL and the Church of Scotland. St. Andrew's Church in West Jerusalem hosted the afternoon event.

"We are delighted to be able to see this come to fruition," Hewitt said after the service. "We believe that it is important for the church to support local Christians." In addition to material and prayer support, the agreement makes way for exchange visits and for interfaith encounters at the Church of Scotland center in Tiberias, he said.

Rev. Colin Renwick, convener of the World Mission Council, said the partnership affirms his church's duty to educate Scots about the impact of their theology on Christians in Israel-Palestine.

"It helps us be more fully the body of Christ," he said. "Without partnership we're incomplete."

Rev. Dr. Stewart Gillan concurred. "We would be in isolation if we weren't in partnership with churches here," he said. Both Church of Scotland clergymen said that the partnership was in keeping with Jesus' emphasis on seeking justice for the needy and vulnerable.

"I think it is very important that mainline evangelical churches in the Middle East form such partnerships," Younan said. "Mission societies planted churches here. It's now our duty as local, indigenized churches that we unite them with a common strategy for mission, witness and prophetic diakonia."

The Church of Scotland, with about a half a million members, is headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land