Jerusalem
and the Middle East
Church Association

Bishop Mouneer and Bishop Derek lead the Palm Sunday procession in Cairo

Article

Obituaries

Changes in the Province

Since the Christmas edition of ‘Bible Lands’ many changes have taken place in the Province.

Riah Abu El-Assal, Bishop in Jerusalem, and Clive Handford, Bishop in Cyprus and the Gulf, have both retired, and Mouneer Anis, Bishop in Egypt, has become Presiding Bishop of the Province. He will be assisted by Bishop Derek Eaton in Egypt, and by Andrew Proud, Bishop of the new Episcopal Area of the Horn of Africa, which means Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somaliland and Somalia.

Suheil Dawani, formerly Bishop Co-Adjutor, has now been installed as Fourteenth Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem.

Azad Marshall, who was Vicar General in Iran, is now Bishop in Iran.

You will find the official statement of the Central Synod of the Province here, and to help I have added pictures of the Bishops.

Church help for refugees

In August 2006 fierce fighting broke out between Lebanon and Israel. In Lebanon over a thousand people were killed and many thousands displaced. Terrible damage was done to the country’s infrastructure, with bridges, fuel stations, airports, water and sewage treatment plants hit, as well as homes. Some 230,000 people fled the country, and volunteers, including members of St Helena’s, Larnaca, welcomed many of those who arrived in Cyprus, Liz Taylor tells the story.

People in northern Israel found themselves under rocket fire from across the border, with deaths and injuries. Thousands moved south to escape the danger. Some came to St George’s, Jerusalem, where the College, which can sleep forty, somehow took in and fed sixty adults, children and babies.

With the Christmas edition of Bible Lands I will complete ten years as Editor, and will be retiring. If you, or anyone you know, would consider taking on this most interesting job, please contact JMECA at: secretary@jmeca.eclipse.co.uk for details.

At the back of his diary, Bishop Clive carries a number of prayers that he uses from time to time on public occasions. At Pentecost I leave you with one that is very succinct yet apposite, from the Diocese of Natal: