Concord hosts Middle East tour

Winnipeg

Concord College's most recent Middle East tour was held May 3-25. Twenty-four people from five provinces, with ages ranging from 20 to 72, were led by associate professor of Old Testament Gordon Matties.

"I introduce people not only to the land of the Bible, but also to the people living in the land today", says Matties.

Tour participants experienced important biblical sites, with lectures and discussions on contemporary issues along the way. One student noted that "political conflict today is not much different from what we read about in the Bible".

A visit to Hebron, normally off the beaten tourist track, was a highlight of the tour. The group visited the mosque built within Herod's memorial to the ancestors of Israel, and infamous as the site of a gunman's rampage in 1994. The group also visited with Palestinian families in Hebron and with members of the Christian Peacemaker Team. On the way back to Jerusalem, a stop at Ephrat, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, provided an opportunity to hear a different perspective on issues of land claims in the West Bank. On other occasions, the group heard a Jewish peace activist and a Palestinian perspective on liberation theology.

In Egypt the group heard from Mennonite Central Committee staff members and from several prominent church leaders about the challenges and prospects of the Church in Egypt.

At St. Mark's Cathedral the group joined thousands of Coptic Christians to hear the Coptic Pope Shenouda speak about the challenges of living as citizens of God's kingdom.

Concord release

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