Bishop visits Holy Land hospital

Sarah Saunderson • Published 4 Mar 2010 14:02 0 Comments

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Bishop Michael Jackson (third from left) during his visit to St. Luke's Hospital, Nablus. The Holy Land Relief Medical Fund seeks to help develop services at this Christian-run facility.

The Church of Ireland Bishop of Clogher, the Rt, Rev. Dr. Michael Jackson last week saw first-hand the hospital in the Holy Land whose vital work is being generously supported by Fermanagh people.

The hospital visit came as the Bishop was accompanying the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams on a four-day tour of Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

High-level meetings were held with the Israeli President Shimon Peres, the Palestinian Prime Minister Dr Salam Fayyad as well as holding dialogue with heads of the Latin, Armenian and Greek Orthodox churches last week. As Chairman of the Anglican Inter Faith Concerns of the Anglican Communion, Bishop Jackson also chaired talks with the Chief Rabbis of Israel.

Bishop Jackson made a special visit to St. Luke's Hospital in Nablus which is being supported by the Holy Land Medical Relief Fund in the Clogher Diocese. In the eight months since its inception, the Fund has raised almost US$75,000 and is expected to reach its target of US$100,000. The funds may be used to update the neo-natal unit in the hospital and a cardiac outreach clinic in Ramallah. The Christian-run hospital provides medical care for all, regardless of faith.

The visit to Holy Land was set against a backdrop of diminishing numbers of Christians living in this troubled region. Over the last 50 years, the percentage of the population of Christian people in the Holy Land has dropped from 25 per cent to 1.5 per cent. "There is currently tremendous anxiety among the leaders of the Christian community and the people themselves about what I would call sustained access to Holy sites," said Bishop Jackson.

"There is the whole question about accommodation of people and their history and things that really matter to them, how they co-exist and how they facilitate both access and expression of different beliefs. There are these questions coming out of that. There is a question of self-confidence of people who have seen their numbers shrinking. The one thing I would really say about them is that they do not regard themselves as in any way pathetic.

"All sorts of things we are no longer accustomed to in Northern Ireland are very much part of the landscape - road blocks, always carrying ID, being taken aside for questioning. Things we were more accustomed to a quarter of a century ago now I suppose are part of everyday life. What fascinated me was the way in which people who have to live in that reality can actively find pathways through it and there are actually flashes of humour," he said.

"The Archbishop of Canterbury was very concerned to visit the Holy Land and particularly visit the Christian communities in order to show them a degree of solidarity and support and offer a human presence. One of the most important things to Christians abroad is not to forget about them.

"The Archbishop was concerned to get across that Christian people are entitled to be there, that they have a significant contribution to make. This is not helped or enhanced by a sense of pressure which results in emigration to America, Canada and Australia and the UK. All of the issues which we hear on the news, words like 'settlements', these things were raised and discussed. The thing that holds them together is a strong sense of family belonging," he added.

The complex problems in the Holy Land may seem far away, but are a "living issue" in Enniskillen. Pointing out that anyone driving through housing areas of Enniskillen will see the Union flag alongside the state of Israel flag and the tricolour flying beside the Palestinian flag, he said: "That is in Enniskillen. I am not talking about the West Bank. Political identities are taken up by a whole host of people as expression of maybe their identity, maybe their frustration. This is a living issue in Enniskillen. Is it an expression of identity or is it an encouragement of confrontation? Only the people themselves can answer that question. I explained it to people there and they were shocked. They could not understand how you could download a totally different identity".

Through Bishop Jackson, significant linkages are being made between the people of the Clogher diocese and the people of this region. Two groups from this area have visited the Holy Land and indeed, another group of 50 is due to make a pilgrimage over the Easter period.

Bishop Suheil Dawani, who is the Bishop of the Diocese of Jerusalem, who accompanied Dr. Rowan Williams and Bishop Jackson during their trip last week, visited the Clogher diocese in 2008.

And the Holy Land Medical Relief Fund is a further significant tie between the two areas. Last April, a Church service was held in St. Macartin's Cathedral in Enniskillen for the people who had gone on the pilgrimages to the Holy Land. At the meal afterwards, the Bishop explained that he wanted to raise money for the hospitals under Christian management. In conversation with Bishop Suheil, they came up with the idea of raising funds for St. Luke's in Nablus. Nablus is in the site of the biblical town of Sychar in Samaritan territory. Traditionally it is the place where Jesus met with the women of Samaria at Jacob's Well.

The people of Fermanagh, Monaghan and Tyrone have responded generously. Fund-raising efforts like a strawberry tea, the sale of Christmas cards and calendars and bag packing have raised thousands of pounds. The Bishop held a sit-out with the Rev. Noel Regan in Belleek before Christmas, raising £2,000. "Individuals have been very generous in terms of giving," he said. Many parishes gave their Christmas collections and other special collections to the fund-raising,

Last Tuesday, Bishop Jackson spent a morning in St. Luke's Hospital and met most of the staff and current patients. "I got a sense of an institution that was caring and keen to develop to try to provide more sophisticated medical and nursing care. One of the things I would be concerned to guard against that simply because it is is far away, it is primitive.

"The hospital in Nablus is seeking to develop to outclinics in other cities in the West Bank like Ramallah and want to develop a cardiac clinic. They need a refit of the neonatal unit. They now have between 1,100 and 1,200 deliveries annually. The incubators they have are 20 years old". The idea of providing funds for the outreach cardiac clinic at Ramallah and the refurbishment of the neo-natal ward is being "seriously considered".

One afternoon a week, hospital services at Nablus are free of charge. "It is precisely what we would understand from the Bible to be tithing, 10 per cent of medical and nursing time is given to people who are not able to afford it," said Bishop Jackson.

Expressing his thanks for the support, Bishop Suheil Dawani commented: "On behalf of the Diocese of Jerusalem and the people served by our St. Luke's Hospital in Nablus, I offer my thanks for the encouraging leadership which Bishop Michael is providing in raising awareness and funds to help us improve the services of this hospital. Our hospital is an important witness for Christ through the compassionate care we provide for the Muslim and Christian communities of the West Bank. Bishop Michael's willingness to join us in this partnership of caring and service is most welcome and appreciated."

Archbishop of Canterbury also visited the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza, run by the Anglican diocese in Jerusalem. Last year, the Diocese of Clogher raised £1,500 for the hospital damaged in the bombardment of Gaza. It offers medical care regardless of faith. There is a link between Ahli Arab hospital and St. Luke's in Nablus in that patients are transferred from the Gaza hospital to the Nablus facility for the second phase of their medical care. During the visit, the Archbishop re-dedicated the Church attached to the hospital which had been badly damaged in a mortar attack.

Bishop Jackson also visited the Jofeh Centre in Jordan for people with learning disabilities and physical disabilities. "It is Christian foundation and people work with weaving and crafts and wood and they are supported by volunteers who come from the surrounding villages. It is yet again a form of witness of which we have little experience. The Christian community has confidence to establish something that gives dignity and independence to people, many of whom are women in an overwhemingly Muslim environment," he said. He also visited Christian schools offering teaching to pupils of whom 75 per cent are Muslim.

Another moving part of the visit was the laying of a wreath at Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. "It is tremendously important to understand what is very recent history in terms of millennia. Every single manifestation of ethnic cleansing which has happened since the Holocaust, it is said 'it must not happen again'. It keeps happening. I can understand the tremendous anxiety to keep alive the memory," he said.

The fund-raising work of the Holy Land Medical Relief Fund continues. Its work is helped by the dedication and support of the Rev. David Skuce and the Rev. Glenn West and committee members including Mrs. Una Bourke, Mrs. Eithne McCord, Mrs. Olive Elliott, Miss Isobel Stewart and Dr. Jenny Scott.

The latest fund-raiser takes place this weekend at Belle Isle. A coffee morning will take place from 10am to 12.30pm on Saturday, March 6.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 04 Mar 10

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