Church in England, Wales launches day of prayer for Mideast

December 04, 2012: The Bishops of England and Wales have invited the faithful in the U.K. to set aside Tuesday December 4, 2012 as a day of prayer in solidarity with all those suffering injustice in the Middle East and North Africa. The bishops made the announcement after their November Plenary assembly in which they reflected on the tragedy unfolding in Syria and Gaza.
December 4^th marks the feast day of St John of Damascus; the bishops said they hoped in this way to link “the early Church with the living community of Middle Eastern Christians and their vocation as peace-builders.”
In a statement, the bishops prayed that “the example of St John’s life can serve to inspire Christians, Muslims and Jews alike to work for reconciliation and justice.”
President of the Bishops Conference of England and Wales, Archbishop Vincent Nichols recently returned from a visit to the Holy Land. He said “we’re obviously very conscious of the very fragile situation which is developing there at the moment. Therefore we recognize the importance of our prayer. Many people who spoke to us, including the Latin Patriarch, urged us to put prayer as a priority. The second priority they wanted was for us to continue to come in pilgrimage, particularly in support of the (local) Christian and Catholic communities there.” “These are desperate times and people are really living under great tension and difficulties in both countries.”
The Archbishop also spoke of the bishops’ “great anxiety” concerning extensions of Israel’s security wall that are expected to adversely affect Christians in the Bethlehem area.