Peace and Reconciliation
Promoting peace through art
In regions affected by conflict, churches have an important role in promoting messages of peace and reconciliation.
Feed the Minds supports the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem which works across Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Israel. As well as ministering to more than 30 congregations, the Diocese also runs hospitals, clinics, schools, disability programmes and vocational training schemes.
One of their most poignant projects – and one which Feed the Minds funds – is the Jerusalem Art Project which brings Palestinian Christian and Muslim children together to express their feelings, through art, about the conflict and violence they experience in their daily lives.
“We have been very busy preparing for our exhibition of children’s drawings to be displayed in Australia and the UK,” says Janina Zang of the Jerusalem Diocese.
The exhibition, which reflects children’s perspectives on the Wall that currently separates much of the Israeli and Palestinian territories, is due to be shown towards the end of 2006 at Blackburn Cathedral and at the Desmond Tutu Centre at the College of St Mark and St John in Plymouth.
The exhibition is part of a programme that uses art for reconciliation. Giving children an opportunity to express and describe their experiences is helpful for them in making sense of the forces and events that affect them.
The therapeutic process of drawing their experiences helps healing and also serves as a powerful visual reminder of the impact of such conflicts on the most powerless members of a society.
Accompanying the exhibition is a series of photographs depicting everyday life and a short documentary film called The Last Supper which reflects on the effect of the Wall on ordinary people.
Participating in the project are children between six and 15, from Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jerusalem. They have also recently completed a series of embroidered banners on the theme of “thanking God” which are now on display on the altar of St George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem.
