Peacemaking

Reconciliation and Common Ground

During Lent the adult forum at my parish is considering the theme of reconciliation. The reconciliation of a penitent? The reconciliation mentioned in the catechism in which part of the ministry of the laity is described as the "carry[ing] on of Christ's work of reconciliation in the world" and the ministry of a bishop as "act[ing] in Christ's name for the reconciliation of the world"?

I leave on 8 March for a month with Christian Peacemaker Team's Palestine project in Hebron, where themes of reconciliation and common ground often pass through my consciousness. Why have these themes surfaced before I even get there?

It's coming from an e-mail conversation I had with a friend around the current difficulties in the Anglican Communion between those who oppose the ordination of homosexual persons and those who support it. The conversation has been ugly and difficult and strident among other things. I am tired of our energies being taken up with more conversation and more classes and more books and more meetings. I just want us to get about the work that God has called us to do - freeing the prisoners, loving our neighbors and our enemies as ourselves. I just want us to find pieces of common ground on which to stand, believing that if we do that and work together to bring about a piece of the kingdom of God, then the rest will somehow work itself out.

My friend replied that it was difficult finding pieces of common ground and persuading people that they're indeed common and that it's possible to stand on them and say something that is meaningful to both parties.

Common ground in Hebron is the Ibrahimi Mosque and the Cave of Machpelah, where Abraham is buried. It is Tel Rumeida, site of King David's capital, where some Palestinian families remain in their homes in the face of harassment and violence from the Israeli settlers who live in a settlement enclave amongst them. It is the descendants of the pre-1929 Palestinian Jewish and Muslim communities who lived together in harmony, Jews who were saved by their Palestinian neighbors from massacre by Arabs who came in from outside of Hebron, as they work to tell their stories. It's in the Israeli settler children as they wait for their bus outside the settlement enclave of Beit Hadassah and in the Palestinian students coming to their school across the street, facing harassment and violence from the settlers and x-ray machines and searches at the Israeli military checkpoint nearby.

It's common ground and we're all standing on it - Palestinians, Israelis, internationals, Jews, Christians, Muslims.

Is it seen as common ground? Is it possible to stand on it together in peace? Is it possible to say something meaningful?

And will I be able to love those whom I perceive as enemy, to break down the barriers of otherness and see their humanity, and they in me, and love my neighbor as myself?

Will I strive for justice and peace and respect the dignity of every human being?

I will, with God's help. That's what finding common ground is about.

7 March 2006
Durham, NC

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