Community & Business
7 March, 2024
Oakey Christians hear about Palestine’s plight
Palestine was the focus as Oakey churches celebrated World Day of Prayer (WDP) with a combined service and fellowship morning tea last Friday at St Paul’s Lutheran Church.
With a conflict raging in the country, Oakey’s Christians heard from their counterparts in the region.
The Christian Women of Palestine’s Writing Group issued the following message to those in attendance.
“We call on you, sisters and brothers in every part of the world to bear with us in love. We call upon you to unite your prayers with ours for a just and peaceful solution that would bring an end to human suffering.
“We call upon you to stand in solidarity with us to achieve security and peace for all people around the world.”
Cheryl Mirtschin and Lyn Schultz explained at the start to those in attendance that the service had been written by the Women’s Writing Group.
“They have prayed and worked together over the last four years to bring us our service based on the theme ‘I beg you...bear with one another in love,’ taken from the day’s reading from Chapter 4 of Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church (in modern day Turkey).”
The worshippers heard stories from three Palestinian Christians - Eleonor, an older woman from the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, whose family’s church had become an Israeli cultural centre, Lina, a young Christian who had lost her Aunt Shireen, an Al Jazeera journalist in 2022, and Sara, a Lutheran Christian from Jerusalem, whose grandparents had grown up in Jaffa, before being forced from their homes by Israeli troops in 1948.
To lighten the mood a bit, Oakey Uniting Church’s Joanne and Lindsay Evans performed a skit about loving one’s neighbour, where the husband (played by Lindsay) tried his best to ignore those knocking at the door for help during his post-church lunch.
At the end of the skit, he recalls that the sermon was about “loving your neighbour”, much to the disgust of his wife (played by Joanne), who walked out of the house.
Machi Rietvald from Oakey Community Christian Church and Jenny Gill from Grace Community Church led the congregation in an intercessory prayer for those in Palestine who were suffering as a result of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
At the end of the service, St. Paul’s passed the World Day of Prayer baton on to Oakey Uniting Church for 2025.
