Philippine theological response to Kairos Palestine

This is kairos time for the churches and faith communities in the Philippines to stand on the side of what is true and just on the Palestinian question. Kairos is a moment of realization that our silence on the Palestinian question must now end.

This was the essential message of representatives of churches and faith communities in the Philippines who convened to issue a response to The Kairos Palestine Document, a call by Palestinian Christians to churches around the world “to say a word of truth and to take a position of truth with regard to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land.”

The Philippine response came in the form of a theological statement adopted by the participants of the Philippine Interfaith Solidarity Consultation Workshop on Kairos Palestine, held on November 14-15 at the national headquarters of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines in Quezon City. It was jointly organised by Peace for Life and the Philippine Interfaith Solidarity Forum for Palestine (PISFP).

Kairos tradition

Known simply as Kairos Palestine, the document entitled, “A Moment of Truth: A Word of Faith, Hope and Love from the Heart of Palestinian Suffering” was issued in 2009 and follows the tradition begun by the release in 1985 of Challenge to the Church: The Kairos Document, a powerful statement issued by South African Christians at a critical time in the anti-apartheid struggle.

Kairos, an ancient Greek term, means the right or opportune moment.

The Philippine statement itself is part of the Kairos document tradition as it was issued as an integral continuation of The Road to Damascus, the Kairos document released in 1989 by representatives of churches in the Philippines and six other countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America sharing the common situation of violent political conflict and the phenomenon of Christians on both sides of the conflict.

Participants signing the statement during the closing
rites of the consultation. Dr. Ferdinand Anno (center)
led the drafting of the theological statement.

“Now we see ourselves as companions to our Palestinian sisters and brothers as they live this, their kairos, their appointed time”, the Philippine statement says.

In the spirit of The Road to Damascus “to call to conversion those who have strayed from the truth [and] compromised their […] faith for political, economic and selfish reasons”, the Philippine statement recognised that “so much of our Judaeo-Christian theological heritage has been corrupted to form anti-biblical, anti-Christian imperial and occupation theologies”.

The “Biblical God […] hears the cries of people”, said Fr. Joe Dizon, a Roman Catholic priest immersed in the struggle of the poor and deprived in the Philippines. “The Palestinian cry is a cry for justice, and if we hold on to our belief to the Biblical God, we cannot help but listen to that cry and provide the Palestinian and peoples of similar situation—accompaniment. Accompaniment means resisting with the Palestinian people in love,” Fr. Dizon said.

Interfaith perspective

The participation of Muslim scholars and activists in the consultation foregrounded interfaith solidarity as an expression of accompaniment and an imperative for the Philippine faith community in the task of ‘accompanying’ the Palestinians in their resistance to occupation.

“The act of resistance is […] a process in Jewish conversion, in Christianization and Islamization. Submission to God's will in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths are not empty ritualization(s), they are experiences of death and resurrection to fullness of life”, the statement said.

The drafting of the theological statement was led by Dr. Ferdinand Anno, former president of the Union Theological Seminary.

Prof. Connie Mella, also of the Union Theological Seminary, said it is also imperative to reclaim “the universality of the promise of land” and to affirm “chosenness as about becoming light to the nations”, whether Christians, Jews or Muslims.

“The Exodus text”, she said, “is as much a text for Palestine as to the descendants of Hebrew slaves. The gospel of the God who hears the cries and sees the affliction of people is the critical principle in the Hebrew religion and Judaism—the very principle with which Israel of later generations was judged.”

Prof. Julkipli Wadi, dean of the University of the Philippines Institute of Islamic Studies said “any utilization of the Bible to justify colonialism is unacceptable”, stressing that “the 'land' is 'promised' not solely for an elect group or nation but for humankind.” He said “creative forms of struggle should be launched to challenge the United States-Israel's exceptionalism.”

In her presentation on the historical and geopolitical realities in Palestine and the Middle East, Dr. Carol Araullo of the International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS) reiterated that the geopolitical wrangling in the region are all about its oil industry and mineral resources. The US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan led to the establishment of its military bases and installations, facilitating its “hegemonic control of the Middle East, North Africa and the surrounding regions”, Araullo said.

Grounding the advocacy

Wadi lauded the efforts of PfL and PISFP in organizing the consultation as an indication “that a collective voice of concern among the Filipino religious is now finally being generated and formed, in a more sustainable way.”

Dr. Melba P. Maggay, president of the Institute for Studies in Asian Church and Culture (ISACC) and representing a segment of the Evangelicals, stressed the importance of contending “with historical memories from both sides of the [Palestinian-Israeli] divide, and the need for Christians to deepen the biblical grounding of their advocacy for the Palestinian cause and to be knowledgeable of the universal discourse of faith communities.”

It was one of the aims of the consultation to come to a unified understanding of Kairos Palestine as an expression of prophetic theological discourse in the Palestinian context. Prof. Fructuoso Sabug, Jr. of the Ateneo de Manila University and Esperanza Beleo, lector at St. Andrew’s Seminary, who both had personal experiences of the situation in Palestine, introduced the document with a brief but comprehensive overview.

Participants of the Philippine Interfaith Solidarity Consultation Workshop on Kairos Palestine.

The consultation also became an occasion for PISFP to address organisational concerns and to chart its program. PISFP, formally launched at a national conference in November 2010, is a faith-based multisectoral formation engaged in advocacy on the Palestinian question among faith communities in the Philippines. The group agreed to undertake the following actions, among others:

Intensified information and educational campaigns;
Maximizing linkages with seminaries and academic institutions, media and the Internet, travel agencies (for alternative tourism/pilgrimage in Palestine);
Mobilizing churches and church people;
Participation in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign;
Broader participation in the WCC Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).

The EAPPI, an initiative of the World Council of Churches to provide protective presence and deter human rights violations against the Palestinians, has become part of the PISFP program since last year when it hosted, together with Peace for Life, the first Asian EAPPI training seminar in November 2010. Two Filipinos, Fr. Christopher Ablon (Iglesia Filipina Independiente) and Rev. Marvin Domoguen (Episcopal Church in the Philippines), have already completed their three-month deployment in the West Bank; while another Filipino, Hadje Sadje (United Church of Christ in the Philippines), is now in Bethlehem completing his term until next year.

Full text of the statement:

Reclaiming the Good News of the Holy Land and the Imperative of Interfaith Solidarity
to Resist Empire: A Philippine theological response to Kairos Palestine

The Kairos Palestine Document:

A Moment of Truth: A Word of Faith, Hope and Love
from the Heart of Palestinian Suffering (PDF)

Kairos Palestine website:

http://www.kairospalestine.ps

Compilation of 13 Kairos documents, from “Challenge to the Church” (1985)

to “A Moment of Truth” (2009):

The Moment of Truth: The Kairos Documents, 2010 (PDF, 2mb)

My EAPPI Experience by Marvin Domoguen