"It wasn't about gathering facts to put together a new resolution on the Middle East. It wasn't about meeting important people to do really important things. It was about accepting an invitation from Christian brothers and sisters to come to their home and experience their hospitality, and with this small gesture to underline a fact of our existence as Christians: that we truly are family, and need to carry each other's burdens and share each other's joys."

George Sabra, Near East School of Theology, with RCA delegate

This is how John Hubers, who supervises Reformed Church in America mission in the Middle East, describes the purpose of an RCA visit to churches in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine in October this year. The high-level delegation included general secretary Wesley Granberg-Michaelson and general synod president David Schutt.

"For many US Christians, Middle Eastern Christians are nearly invisible, so invisible that it is easy for some to side with those who are making their lives miserable, and easy to slide into the stereotypes that dehumanize and demonize Arabs, Muslim and Christian," Hubers notes.

Riad Jarjour, outgoing general secretary of the Middle Council of Churches, with Dave Schutt and Wes Granberg-Michaelson

In this Update, we carry two extracts from Wes Granberg-Michaelson's lecture in the Near East School of Theology, Beirut, and a story from John Hubers' weblog of the trip, where he shares with us a taste of life in occupied Palestine.

Páraic Réamonn