Little Town of Bethlehem at Christ Church 28th November

Christ Church, Virginia Water are hosting a UK premier of the film Little Town of Bethlehem on Sunday 28th November at 2.00pm. Free admission. For travel details see here

Little Town of Bethlehem, a documentary film, follows the story of three men of three different faiths and their lives in Israel and Palestine. The story explores each man’s choice of nonviolent action amidst a culture of overwhelming violence.

The film examines the struggle to promote equality through nonviolent engagement in the midst of incredible violence that has dehumanized all sides.

Dr Bishara Awad denied exit visa

Dr Bishara Awad, the Principal of Bethlehem Bible College and the father of Sami Awad is due to speak at the 11.00am and 6.30pm services at Christ Church, Virginia Water on Sunday 28th November, as well as introduce the film at 2.00pm. However, the Israeli military authorities have so far denied him an exit visa to leave the ghetto prison of Bethlehem.

Little Town of Bethlehem: The Story

Sami’s story begins as a young boy living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank; Yonatan’s starts on an Israeli military base; and Ahmad’s begins in a Palestinian refugee camp.

Their three stories are interwoven through the major events of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, starting with the 1972 massacre at the Munich Olympics and following through the first Intifada, suicide bombings in Israel, the Oslo Accords, the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin, and the second Intifada. Sami, Yonatan, and Ahmad each describe the events from their unique perspective, interjecting personal reflections and explaining how these events led them to become involved in the nonviolence movement.

In Bethlehem, the city where it is said that God became man, Sami just wants to be seen as human. First learning about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a teen, he began lecturing about nonviolence in high school. Later, Sami traveled to India to learn more about Gandhi. As the result of his discoveries, he founded the organization Holy Land Trust to promote nonviolence in the Palestinian community.

Yonatan embraced his father’s legacy as a pilot in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and fulfilled his own dream of becoming an IDF helicopter pilot. However, his journey led him to the astonishing decision to join with 26 other IDF pilots who publicly refused to participate in missions that would lead to civilian casualties. Co-founding the organization Combatants for Peace, made up of former Israeli and Palestinian combatants, Yonatan struggles to reconcile his love for his country with his growing opposition to the Israeli occupation.
After studying in Spain, Ahmad returned to Bethlehem to become a nonviolence trainer. Despite the daily challenges of living in a refugee camp, Ahmad remains committed to his community and risks his life and livelihood in nonviolent actions to bring an end to oppression.

For their work, Sami and Ahmad have been labeled as “Israeli collaborators” by some within the Palestinian community, and are seen as a threat to security by the Israeli military. By refusing to participate in offensive military actions against Palestinian civilians, Yonatan has been branded a traitor by some Israelis and can no longer work in his homeland.

All three men have had their lives threatened by members of their own communities as a result of their work. Sami, Yonatan, and Ahmad continue to embrace their common humanity and equality for all, daring to have the hope that peace in the Holy Land can be achieved through nonviolent struggle.

Most films will entertain you. Good films will educate you as well. Brilliant films will engage and move you to action. Once in a while along comes a film that motivates you to become a participant rather than spectator. This is one of those rare films.

Dr Bishara Awad at Christ Church on 28th November

Dr Bishara Awad, the Principal of Bethlehem Bible College is due to speak at the 11.00am and 6.30pm services at Christ Church, Virginia Water on Sunday 28th November, as well as introduce the film Little Town of Bethlehem at 2.00pm. However, the Israeli military authorities have so far denied him an exit visa to leave the ghetto prison of Bethlehem.

Please write to your nearest Israeli embassy asking them  politely to grant Bishara an exit visa.

How to Love Your Enemy (Matthew 5:43-48)

How to Love Your Enemies (Matthew 5 43-48) from Stephen Sizer on Vimeo.

You either love him or loathe him. He is one of the most popular, well known, larger than life faces on TV. Usually Jeremy Clarkson is to be seen extolling the virtues of shiny new cars on BBC2’s Top Gear. But a while back he talked with a passion of something far more fundamental – the often forgotten heroism of men who risked their lives for their country.

Clarkson presented a BBC documentary, “The Victoria Cross: For Valour”, examining the stories of some of our VC heroes, focusing on the one he found so personally inspirational, including his father-in-law he never knew but deeply admired.

The scene was Holland, in mid-September 1944. Airborne forces were attempting to capture a key bridge at Arnhem during the ill-fated Operation Market Garden.

Major Robert Cain commanded a company of the South Staffordshire Regiment. These men landed eight miles from the so-called “Bridge Too Far” where the British were fighting desperately to retain their foothold at the north end. Disaster struck. The Germans sprang an ambush and 300 of our men lost their lives, including two of Robert Cain’s closest friends.

With the remnants of his force retreating, Major Cain and the remainder of the company had a stark choice, to fight or surrender. And fight they did, losing another 40 men before being ordered to the last-stand defence of a village surrounded by 6,000 German troops armed with tanks, rocket launchers and 100 heavy guns. Single-handedly, Cain destroyed three Tiger tanks, standing in the open. He was temporarily blinded but after recovering, he turned the defence into a counter attack with such ferocity that the Germans were eventually forced to withdraw, allowing Cain’s men to escape across the Rhine.

For his courage and leadership, Major Robert Cain received the Victoria Cross, the highest, most prestigious award bestowed for gallantry. It is a sobering to remember that nine out of every 10 recipients died in the action which led to their being honoured. In its 149-year history, only 1,354 have ever been awarded, and as Clarkson discovered, the feats of the men who received it were truly remarkable. Major Robert Cain was one of the few who survived to enjoy the honour of being presented with his VC.

Jeremy Clarkson was clearly moved by the stories he told in the programme, not least that of his own father-in-law. And it prompted him to ponder a simple question which, in this period of remembrance for British soldiers lost in battle… I want us to spend a little while reflecting on this morning…  He asked: “How can we call the likes of David Beckham a hero for scoring a goal?  I wonder who your heroes are today?  And what about your children and grandchildren? Who are the heroes pinned to their bedroom walls?  What kind of people do you aspire to be like? What kind of people do we want our children to aspire to be like?

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Making a Covenant with God (Nehemiah 10)

Renewing the Covenant with God (Nehemiah 10) from Stephen Sizer on Vimeo.

Nehemiah 10 is all about the solemn agreement God’s people made.  As we consider it’s significance and relevance, I want us to answer three questions.  1. Why did they make this covenant?  2. Who made the covenant?  3. What did they covenant?

1. Why did they make this covenant?

1.1 Because the Lord had covenanted with their fathers. (9:7-8)

1.2 Because the Lord had protected them. (9:9-15)

1.3 Because the Lord had chastised them. (9:16-37)

1.4 Because they were now determined to change (9:38).

“In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it.” (Nehemiah 9:38)

They meant business. They wanted to begin again.
They wanted to repent of the past. They wanted to start again in the future. I hope you want to today as well. That is why they made this covenant.

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Robert Murray McCheyne’s Church Hosts Seminar on Christian Zionism

Porter Speakman Jr and I gave presentations today at a seminar on Christian Zionism hosted by Solas: The Centre for Public Christianity based at St Peter’s Free Church of Scotland in Dundee.

One of my spiritual heroes, Robert Murray McCheyne was the pastor of St Peter’s between 1831-1843. One of his particular passions was ministry to Jewish people. In 1839 along with Andrew Bonar, Alexander Black and Alexander Keith, McCheyne made a six month visit to Palestine to examine the condition of the Jewish people in Europe and Palestine. His only published book was a result of that tour – a joint effort with Andrew Bonar – The Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews.

It was doubly significant therefore that Porter Speakman Jr, the producer of the film With God on our Side, showed a preview and spoke about his ministry in Israel/Palestine, and I gave a short paper on the Bible, Israel and the Church.

We had a fruitful and constructive two hour bible-based discussion with about 25 evangelical church leaders from the Presbyterian, Church of Scotland, Baptist and Free Church of Scotland. While many identified with a Christian Zionist perspective, we were nevertheless unanimous in our desire that Jews and Palestinians hear the good news of Jesus Christ and come to live together in peace and reconciliation.

The seminar was also recorded by Thistle Channel TV for a programme on Christian Zionism. Local Christian leaders also hosted the film With God on our Side at the Hilton International Hotel in Dundee last night.

Frankie Schaeffer Reviews With God on Our Side

Two men shaped my early Christian thinking probably more than all the others combined – John Stott and Francis Schaeffer, to whom I will be eternally grateful. I met Francis Schaeffer’s son Frankie two years ago and we dialogued about our mutual interest in the Middle East and our concern about the destructive influence of Christian Zionism.

Frankie has now written a review of our new film With God on our Side in his own inimitable style.  Here’s a taster:

The so-called Jewish lobby is supposed to be so powerful that no American president can act without their approval. This is an anti-Semitic slur, a kind of Americanized “lite” version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (a forged anti-Semitic screed purporting to describe a Jewish plan to achieve global domination). For one thing most Jewish-Americans aren’t part of this lobby, but rather are ordinary American citizens who are just as skeptical of right-wing Jewish Zionist fundamentalist Israelis as other Americans are — perhaps more so, because they know more about them.

The truth is that when it comes to pandering to powerful religious/ethnic “blocs” in the US the biggest game in town is the across the board bowing to the white Evangelical “base” of the Republican Party. That’s the bloc of voters that adds up to real numbers, as high as a third of the American voting population.

It’s the Christian Zionists who have driven American foreign policy over a cliff. (I’m speaking here as the proud father of a Marine, who was sent to war in the Middle East, again and again.) Christian Zionists continuously jeopardize our future by putting the promotion of harebrained interpretations of biblical “prophecy” ahead of the well being of both Israel and the US.

To the Christian Zionists “defending Israel” is just a handy pretext for indulging their obsession: egging on, even “helping” the fulfillment of “biblical prophecies” about the “return of Christ.” But their worst sin isn’t just embracing dumb “theology” but that they have enabled a nefarious group of losers to irreparably harm America and contribute to the needless killing of our men and women in uniform worldwide: the neoconservatives.

To the neoconservatives “defending Israel” is just a handy pretext for upholding the myth of “American exceptionalism” for profit and nationalistic “glory,” of the kind that was supposed to have gone out of fashion when hubris and stupidity got half the young male population of Europe killed in World War One.

America needlessly went to war in Iraq because neoconservative war mongers — who laugh at the “those rubes” as they think of earnest Evangelical Christian Zionists, and whose own sons and daughters seem notably absent from our armed services — used the religious passion and dedication of conservative Evangelicals to provide political means and cover for the neoconservatives’ commitment to America’s military dominance of the world. In other words the Evangelicals provided the votes to put foolish war mongers like George W Bush in power.

With “friends” like the Christian Zionists and the neoconservatives Israel, America, our men and women in uniform, the Palestinians and the rest of humanity need no enemies. This is made poignantly clear by a new film, With God On Our Side.

With God On Our Side is the most powerful, humane and compassionate documentary exposé of the Christian Zionist movement, and the impact of their ideology on the lives they have touched (and ruined), ever made. It is well crafted, subtle and fair. And — notable in the “when hell freezes over” department — it was directed and produced by… an American Evangelical.

Read the rest here

Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back

Joshua and the Pile of Stones (Joshua 24)

What is an anniversary? What anniversaries do you celebrate in your family? Why do we celebrate wedding anniversaries, husbands? For a quiet life? No, because we are thankful that our wives put up with us… Remembering our anniversary helps us give thanks for one another. Helps us renew our commitment to one another. Helps us try harder in the future. That’s why we are encouraged when we hear of couples celebrating their 25th, 30th, or 50th wedding anniversary.  Do you remember your parents anniversary? Think about it. If they hadn’t got married you probably would not be here. Anniversaries are important.

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World Vision & Willow Creek Association: Holy Land Tour for Church Leaders

Jesus as Lord, Servant and Peacemaker: A Holy Land Tour for Church Leaders (21 March-1 April 2011)

Trip Facilitators: Lynne Hybels, Steve Haas and Stephen Sizer. Hosted jointly by World Vision and the Willow Creek Association with the assistance of the Holy Land Trust

Visit the Tour Website here.  Download the brochure here

“As followers of Jesus called to be peacemakers, we need to understand the context in which Jesus lived, as well as the current tragic conflict in the Holy Land. This tour offers both as we follow the Jesus story, and meet with indigenous Christians committed to incarnating the spirit of Jesus today.” Lynne Hybels (Advocate for Global Engagement, Willow Creek Community Church)

“This encounter will stretch and provide you with insights on how to lead your church more effectively. It will also provide a life-line to those of our Christian family that remain in this turbulent region of the world.” Steve Haas (VP & Chief Catalyst, World Vision)

“If you want to make a difference to the ‘peace-process’ stalemate, this tour is for you. You’ll get to see the main biblical sites but more importantly you will meet fellow church leaders working for justice, peace and reconciliation and discover how you can partner with them.”  Stephen Sizer (Senior Pastor, Christ Church, Virginia Water)

Tour objectives in collaboration with the Willow Creek Association, Holy Land Trust and World Vision:

  1. Renew our appreciation for the ministry of Jesus the Servant as the model for our personal commitment to God’s purposes.
  2. Experience the land and its culture to broaden our understanding of Scripture and renew our spiritual commitment.
  3. Deepen our understanding of current events in Israel/Palestine and of their global impact.
  4. Meet with local leaders to learn of their work for peace and justice in the Middle-East.
  5. Create opportunities for North American churches to partner with Middle Eastern churches and agencies.

Visit the tour website here. Download the brochure here

Ruth Dickenson, the New Editor of Christianity Magazine


Ruth Dickenson, Christianity Magazine from Stephen Sizer on Vimeo.

Ruth Dickinson is the new editor of Christianity Magazine. I interviewed her today about what she is looking forward to in her new role. christianitymagazine.co.uk/

Christianity aims to provide news and articles for Christians and those interested in the Christian faith from across the denominational spectrum. Most of its readers are from the evangelical and/or charismatic traditions.

With a current readership of 30,000 Christianity is seen as the UK’s primary non-denominational evangelical magazine.

With God on our Side: UK Tour

“The first obvious challenge of “With God On Our Side” was articulating a perspective on the Middle East debate anchored in history and sound theology. Porter Speakman has not only met that test, but also delivered one of the clearest assessments of the struggle between Palestinians and Jews, and a US Church largely unaware of their complicity in the current conflict. Speakman’s second more ominous challenge will be obtaining an audience, often steeped with established notions, open to wrestling with the film’s content. The hope of an ongoing Christian presence in the Holy Land may depend on the success of his message… I dare anyone to see this film and remain unchanged.” Steven W. Haas – Vice President/Chief Catalyst, World Vision United States

“This film is informative, it’s inspiring, it’s challenging and it summarizes in brilliant fashion, what the problem is and what needs to change in order to solve the problem. I don’t know of anything quite like it – and I would have to say the church desperately needs it.” Tony Campolo Professor emeritus of sociology, Eastern University and founder and president of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education

“I can’t think of any form of media in recent years that deals more clearly and powerfully with the most complex region of the world. I can’t recommend it enough!” Carl Medearis Author  “Muslims, Christians, and Jesus”  & “Tea With Hezbollah”

“Finally! A look at what Christian Zionism teaches and more importantly, the real implications it has on the people of the Middle East. A perspective not heard often in the church.” Brian McLaren – Author / Speaker / Activist

4 stars “…Christian Zionism is officially on notice…Whether one agrees with Speakman or not, his challenging glimpses remind us that people are at stake here.” Christianity Today – July 2010, pg. 56.

With God on our Side: UK Tour

Manchester, England
November 8, 2010
Nazarene Theological College – 7:00 PM

Dundee, Scotland
November 9, 2010
Hilton Hotel – Earl Grey Place – 7:15 PM

Edinburgh, Scotland
November 10, 2010
Holyrood – Scottish Parliament
Invitation Only

Belfast, Northern Ireland
November 11, 2010
Stormont – Northern Ireland Assembly (Afternoon)
Invitation Only

Belfast, Northern Ireland
November 11, 2010
Queens University Belfast – 7:30 pm
The School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work
6 College Park – Belfast BT7 1LP

Dublin, Ireland
November 12, 2010 – 7:30 pm
Synge Theatre – Trinity College, Dublin

Cambridge University
November 13, 2010 – 2:00 PM
Queen’s Building Auditorium, Emmanuel College
St Andrew’s Street
Ben White will be joining Porter Speakman, Jr. and Rev. Stephen Sizer

With God On Our Side takes a look at the theology of Christian Zionism, which teaches that because the Jews are God’s chosen people, they have a divine right to the land of Israel. Aspects of this belief system lead some Christians in the West to give uncritical support to Israeli government policies, even those that privilege Jews at the expense of Palestinians, leading to great suffering among Muslim and Christian Palestinians alike and threatening Israel’s security as a whole.

This film demonstrates that there is a biblical alternative for Christians who want to love and support the people of Israel, a theology that doesn’t favor one people group over another but instead promotes peace and reconciliation for both Jews and Palestinians.”

For more information see With God on our Side