Christian Peacemaker Teams UK

by Tricia Gates Brown (Ed.)

On November 26, 2005, Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) members Tom Fox and Jim Loney along with delegation members Norman Kember and Harmeet Sooden were kidnapped in Iraq. Tom Fox was killed on March 9, 2006. Jim, Norman and Harmeet were freed two weeks later on March 23 after 118 days of captivity. The kidnapping of these four peacemakers was like a rock thrown into a pond. This collection describes the ripples on the water, the impact and results of that rock, in stories characterized by hope, courage, friendship, and forgiveness. 118 Days bears witness to vital peacemaking being done around the world in these times.

Check out the CPT Lent resources at: http://www.cpt.org/particiapte/campaigns/palestine_lent_2008

 

 

The Hidden Story of Jesus

C4 Tuesday 25 December 2007 8.30pm

As Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus, theologian Robert Beckford investigates remarkable parallels to the Christ story in other faiths, some of them predating Christianity by thousands of years.

Two CPTers, Eileen Hanson and Jonathan Stucky, were interviewed as part of the production of this program while serving in Palestine.

For more information check out the Channel 4 website:

http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/C/can_you_believe_it/debates/hidden.html

BBC Radio Humberside has a short article and a recorded interview on their website about CPT in Hebron! Check it out while it's still there:

www.bbc.co.uk/humber/content/articles/2007/11/09/hebron_feature.shtml

The BBC News website has just published a gallery of photographs documenting the work of CPT in the West Bank town of Hebron. The photo above shows UK CPTers Jan Benvie from Glasgow (left) and John Lynes from Eastbourne (second from right), along with other team members. The full gallery of photos on the BBC website shows a little of the situation in Hebron.

John Lynes is a CPTer from East Sussex. He will return to the UK on 25th January.

Good news at last, from two directions. The Palestinian village of Susya is several miles from At-Tuwani, on the edge of the Negev Desert in the occupied West Bank. The villagers, all cave-dwellers, were expelled from their caves in the 1980s to make way for an archaeological park containing a synagogue from the 2nd century AD. They continued to farm their former fields, living in huts and tents not far from the Israeli settlement of Susiya. The Israeli settlers repeatedly harassed the settlers, preventing them from cultivating their lands.