The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the over-arching reality impacting political life, and shaping the context in which the churches of the Middle East are called to witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When Riad Jarjour spoke to the general synod of the Reformed Church in America in 2002, he concluded his address with these words: "We live in complex and difficult times when, within seconds, the business of any one region becomes the business of the whole world...The wolf packs gather everywhere. We must move as wisely as serpents and as innocently as doves, and the Spirit will give us the gift of utterance when we most need it."

It is our prayer that the Spirit may give you freshly that gift of utterance, for it is clear that words can seem cheap, shallow, and almost futile. We face together, it seems to me, a situation today of utter political hopelessness. This, it seems, is what now reigns - only the dark forces that dehumanize life, that are captivated by vengeance, that consistently violate any national or humanitarian boundaries of restraint.

As Riad Jarjour said a few months ago, "the mating of Zionist extremism with Islamist fanaticism [is] yielding its offspring of violent and interactive bigotry that reaches out to touch not just the Middle East but the whole world - we have a tale of disaster. There is no nobility here, no ethical sense, no benefit for anyone."

Now please be clear. I do not believe that somehow historical blame for the present situation is equally shared in some "balanced" perspective. Not at all. My understanding of history and culpability is quite different; there is not a "balanced" view, but rather a tragic saga of the dispossession of a Palestinian homeland - a saga that continues today with each new illegal or "legal" settlement building.

But I do believe that the present reality has now become engulfed by a culture of death that not only destroys innocent Palestinian and Israeli lives, but demolishes any hope for a political solution.

In such a situation of political hopelessness and escalating violence, what is the place of the church, and of the religious community? Where does it find its voice? What does it utter?

For the religious community, and certainly for Christians, hope always has its roots beyond political and social realities. Our hopes are rooted in a conviction of faith that believes in the intentions of God for the world, in spite of the evidence that we see. And we act on the basis of that faith, and then expect that the evidence will change.

We pray with you for that day.

Wes Granberg-Michaelson