By Daoud Kuttab

The brochure had a simple message: Pray for peace and justice in the Holy Land together with our Palestinian brothers and sisters. But the actual prayer was anything but peaceful or easy.

A small group of attendees in Korea at the Fourth Lausanne conference wanted to hold a prayer. The evangelical conference provided plenty of opportunities for attendees from around the globe to spend some quiet time in prayer and supplication. But prayer for peace and justice without even using the word Gaza or God-forbid Palestine would be much harder than the supplicants expected. A routine request for a room turned into a major problem and in the end, the committed Christians wanting to pray for Palestine were able to find a small corner (outside Exit 18) to meet and hold an impromptu “unauthorized” prayer meeting with fellow Palestinian Christians.

Latin American attendees were given an opportunity to hear a short intervention translated into Spanish and the president of the Bethlehem Bible College, Dr Jack Sara stayed away from topics that would anger the organizers and tried to make some soothing words. “Pray for the church in Gaza and for all people there who are suffering the daily reality of bombs and lack of food.” Pray for the unity of the church and that the church would not leave but would continue to survive in the Middle East, he said. But his encouraging neutrally formed words were upsetting to some. A man screamed at the praying fellow Christians “Pray for Israel.”

Even though the prayer time was short the interrupting man continued in his aggressive rhetoric shouting and interrupting the words of prayer: “If Hamas would just release the hostages there would be no war.”

The belligerent atmosphere was certainly not everywhere at the Lausanne conference as many participants related. Dr. Sara told colleagues upon his return that everywhere he went people expressed genuine support and solidarity with the Palestinian people in general and Palestinian Christians in particular. But for many reasons, this incident as well as an unnecessary statement by the director of the conference apologizing for a speech made by professor Ruth Padilla DeBorst about justice that dared to talk about Gaza left a bad taste in the mouth despite the many words of encouragement. Professor DeBorst didn’t back down and sent a strong letter to the organizers insisting on the need for Christian evangelicals to pay attention to the suffering of Palestinians. See Professor DeBorst’s letter below.

The Indian delegation also issued a supporting letter to Palestinians. see below