 MARCH/APRIL 2002 (XXXX 2) |
Yearly Meeting sessions will be blessed with the presence of Jean Zaru, the presiding clerk of the Ramallah Friends Meeting in Palestine. In our opening worship, by offering reflections entitled, “A Testimony of Suffering and Hope,” Jean will seek to lay a foundation for our being grounded in the Spirit and gathered into a unified body for all of the deliberations, work and discernment which lie ahead of us. The opening session will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 21, at the Fourth and Arch Street Meeting House in Philadelphia.
The words of our clerk, Arlene Kelly, explain the excitement that Jean’s visit has generated: “The thing, Jean, which I believe led us to ask you to be with us is our awareness that you are a person of deep faith, and indeed, because of all the injustice and suffering which exists in the Middle East, you are a person whose faith has been tested in significant ways. We have much to learn from your faith journey as it has been formed by the realities of your day-to-day life and your relationship with the Holy Spirit.”
As a Palestinian woman living under Israeli military rule and at the same time finding herself in a traditional culture, Jean Zaru's life has been devoted to the struggle for liberation — liberation for Palestinians, for women, for all peoples. She has done this through her work in her own community and internationally. For many years Jean taught religion and ethics at the Friends Schools in Ramallah. She served as president of the YWCA of Jerusalem and as a member of the national board of the YWCA of Jordan and the YWCA of Palestine. From 1983-1991 she served as the vice president of the World YWCA.
Jean served as a member of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches 1975-1983 and she was a member of the Working Group on Interfaith Dialogue of the WCC from 1981-1991. She was twice elected to serve as a member of the International Council of the World Conference for Religion and Peace. Jean serves as a volunteer consultant and resource person for many church-related organizations, including the Middle East Council of Churches, particularly on the subjects of Islam and human rights. Jean is one of the founding members of Sabeel, an ecumenical Palestinian Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem, and is presently vice-chair of its board. She is also a board member of Wi’am Conflict Resolution Center in Bethlehem.
Jean was invited as a Dorothy Cadbury fellow to Selly Oaks Colleges in 1993 and also invited to spend a term at Hartford Seminary in 1992. She has been the keynote speaker at numerous conferences around the world and her papers have been published in many books.
We welcome Jean Zaru as Friend, teacher and fellow traveler. And for our sessions we offer a prayer: “May the God of hope bring us such joy and peace in our faith that the power of the Holy Spirit will remove all bounds to hope.” (Romans 15:13).
Wade Wright
Millville Meeting (PA)
for the Meeting on Worship and Ministry
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:18 AM