Praying for Peace in Palestine and Israel.
A note about the poem:
My good friend the well-known writer and poet Jan Sutch Pickard who lives on the beautiful island of Mull has recently sent round this moving poem to help us with our thoughts concerning the situation in Palestine and in Israel. I hope you find this poem helpful which is why I wanted to send it to many friends around the world. Jan has had long and deep relations with the people in Palestine and with friends in Israel. She knows the area well from living there for a time and from her many visits over the years. I would also like you to remember my friend the late Dr Runa MacKay, who was a surgeon in Nazareth and was loved by many thousands of Palestinians to whom she gave forty years of her life. Runa’s book “Exile in Israel: A personal journey with the Palestinians” is still available through the Internet – Published by Wild Goose Publications ISBN: 9780947988753.
“Among the Rubble”
by Jan Sutch Pickard of the Iona Community
Compassionate God,
in our minds, we pray among the rubble,
the unholy mess of demolitions
in the land that we call Holy.
In our hearts we hold
families who have lost their homes,
children who have seen their schools destroyed,
communities which no longer have a clinic.
We pray for them as they weep for all that’s lost.
We pray that they will not lose hope.
And we pray, too, for the men who drive the bulldozers,
soldiers who beat back protesters,
politicians who sign the orders –
aware that such actions destroy their humanity.
Bless those who campaign against injustice;
bless the patient rebuilders;
bless those who hope against hope
that peace with justice will prevail
in the land that we call Holy.
Peter Millar
& Lynona Hawkins