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Rose Stones of Jerusalem is the latest of Najwa Farah's many books of plays, novels, poetry and short stories. The title we have chosen is particularly appropriate for her collection of stories about the Palestinian people. It is a title which conveys the strong, ancient beauty of the Palestinian homeland; a beauty which has become increasingly painful for the people who have been forced to leave it.

This book offers an insight into an old and a new culture. There are many glimpses of the glory of the traditional way of life. There is also the feeling of the pain of the people who have lost their homes and their land and who, whoever and wherever they are, are floundering. As Najwa writes in one of her stories, "Even the land does cry". The story of the people is a modern crucifixion, bleak and wept over by the Christ of all places and times. In spite of all the suffering, the love of God is never absent from the pages of this book. It is there for Christians and Muslims alike, and they are aware of it, and, for all their struggles, grateful.

Some of the stories are about particular times in the history of the Palestinian people and about their struggles and pilgrimages, their loss of the land, their families divided and their hopes of a future which has been tested almost to destruction. Some of the stories have the ring of truth for people of every culture. They include the boy whose mother died, the clash of old and new cultures and of the younger and older generations, and the strong love which is possible between different generations in the same family. Most of the stories are fairly short, and we also include some poems and a longer story, 'My Grandmother Goes to the Polls', set in an Arab village in Galilee in 1959, an election year for the Knesset.

Rose Stones of Jerusalem is an opportunity for the reader to encounter the Palestinian people through Najwa's stories, written with loving attention to the details of the everyday life and the real Palestinian people who have experienced so many traumas and tragedies through the Twentieth and into the Twenty First century, without losing their culture and character.

Barbara Butler

IN TROUBLED WATERS.

In Troubled Waters A History of the Anglican Church in Jerusalem 1841-1998, by Rafiq A Farah, ISBN: 1 873372 16 7, published by Christians Aware, price £8.50 including postage.

In Troubled Waters is a situation calling for careful navigation. Archdeacon (now Emeritus) Rafiq Amin Farah is well equipped to be the helmsman in the task. He and I were close friends in his student days in Beirut and in pre-ordination study, and our sustained communion in the love and service of Jerusalem has survived the vicissitudes through which we have passed in half a century.

Indeed, in some measure they symbolise what underlies this history of the Anglican jurisdiction in Jerusalem and the Arab East - the issues of a 'British connection' through tumultuous years and the authentic concern of Palestinian Christians to have the major trust in their own homelands around the single Holy City of a world-wide faith, a city through the many decades of the 20th century caught in the strife of a renewed Zionism.

The book is based on exhaustive consultation of the archives and brings to light several fascinating aspects of the entire equation. Not least was the harshness of 19th century mission personnel in their insistence on the 'sovereignty' of the Society (CMS) inside the diocesan framework (even to the extend of pleading - though the pleaders were ordained - that CMS was a 'lay agency' that need not defer to the Bishop in Jerusalem). By this posture they tended to deal arrogantly with the Palestinian clergy whom the then Bishop Blyth supported strongly.

In gentler times the likes of that CMS Arabist, Eric F F Bishop, and the Arab Evangelical Episcopal Community found a fuller unity in Christ. Now that - in measure - situations are reversed, it is vital to keep paramount the truth that beyond identities (and their historical debts and aspirations) what makes us heart-inclusive is the faith of 'God in Christ reconciling'.

Rafiq Farah, aided by strong personal recollections in which his wife Najwa, herself an author, vividly shares, has brought together with diligence and verve a tangled, sometimes tense, but always strenuous story. 'They shall prosper that love thee' has always been an ironic comment about Jerusalem - which is the reason why 'they give themselves no rest until ...'

Kenneth Cragg

Archdeacon Rafiq Farah signs a copy of his new book

Our thanks to Christians Aware for permission to quote the above Forewords to these two books. Both books are available from Christians Aware, 2 Saxby Street, Leicester LE2 0ND