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Diocese of Jerusalem gathers for Synod in Jordan

The Diocese of Jerusalem Majma is underway in Jordan this week, with Bishop Sean honoured to bring greetings from Cyprus and the Gulf.

“In a year of Jubilee and war, of welcomes and farewells,” said Bishop Sean, “we recognise anew how there is ‘a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens’.
 
“As disciples of Jesus Christ in this region, we need to continually stand firm spiritually and psychologically in some of the most complex, disturbing, and disillusioning situations imaginable. We are Good Friday people but also Easter Sunday people–people of suffering but also people of hope, who believe that what will happen is firmly in the hands of a sovereign God, and only the Lamb who was slain is worthy to open the seals of the scroll of human history and bring God’s master plan of judgment and redemption to its consummation.
 
“Archbishop Hosam and clergy and people of the Diocese of Jerusalem: your brothers and sisters in Christ of the Diocese Cyprus and the Gulf recognise your faith, hope and love, and pray continually for you, and with you, for peace with justice, truth with integrity, and resilience with compassion.
 
“May God’s blessing and guidance be yours this Majma.”

Canon Fuad presented Bishop Sean with a truly special gift–a white stole made in Gaza

The clergy and lay people of the Diocese of Jerusalem, led by Archbishop Hosam, have been joined by a number of guests–in worship, reflection and discussion.

The Reverend Canon Dr Don Binder, Chaplain to the Archbishop, reports:

After the opening service and reception last night, which featured the ordination of Deacon Saba Kerry, we moved on this morning to formally open our annual Diocesan Synod (Majma) in the heart of Amman.

We began by welcoming our numerous international guests and partners, including the Most Reverend Michael Jackson, Archbishop of Dublin and Glendalough; the Right Reverend Sean Semple, Bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf; and the Right Reverend Peter Eaton, Bishop of SE Florida, as well as representatives from the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, Embrace the Middle East, USPG and others.

We also had video greetings from His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos III and the Most Reverend Shane Parker, Primate of Canada.

Archbishop Hosam thanked and welcomed them all and then offered his Presidential Address, “The Cross and Power of Christ”, focusing on vocations within the Church for both ordained and lay ministries.

“The future of the Diocese of Jerusalem will not be shaped by plans alone,” he said, “but by people whom Christ forms, fills with his Holy Spirit, and sends to become servants of his Gospel.”

Please keep us all in your prayers as we seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in discerning how to invite “workers into his field . . . because the harvest is great but the labourers are few”.

Also attending Majma is Raeid Tashtoush, manager of Mission to Seafarers in Aqaba, Jordan—”an opportunity to celebrate partnership with MtS in the gospel to care for seafarers in our region”, said Bishop Sean.