Christmas 2003

Dear Friends of Sabeel

I am honoured to be the Patron of Sabeel International, a title which I share with all of you who work

faithfully for the cause of justice in our world. How fitting that I write to you in this blessed season of

Advent, a time when we wait in hope for the Prince of Peace.

I ask for your support for Sabeel, a growing worldwide movement committed to justice through nonviolence, whose roots are in the community of indigenous Palestinian Christians of the Holy Land. Sabeel (in Arabic, “The Way”) is a voice in the wilderness in these violent times, a voice that strives to guide Palestinian youth through non-violence to liberation and reconciliation, that encourages and strengthens them in their faith and helps them to work for unity and renewal in their communities.

Friends of Sabeel in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Scandinavia, and elsewhere advocate on behalf of Sabeel in the Holy Land. Friends around the world are working to promote more accurate perceptions of the Palestinians by educating Christians in their respective countries about the history and identity of the Palestinian Christians and by forming bonds of friendship between western churches and the ancient Mother of All Churches in the Holy Land. Through national and regional conferences and through holy pilgrimage, Sabeel friends throughout the world are helping to build this grassroots movement for justice.

We remember with gratitude the extraordinary phenomenon of the worldwide movement against

Apartheid in South Africa. Now here we are – free! And with a blossoming new democracy. And all

because people around the world prayed for us, supported us, were willing to go to jail for us. Now we see Apartheid in Israel, complete with the separation wall and Bantustans that keep Palestinians

rounded up in prisons. History tragically repeats itself. Aptly, there will be a Sabeel conference here in South Africa in 2004 whose theme will be ending Apartheid in the Holy Land.

Please consider a generous contribution to your Friends of Sabeel organization and be a part of the

movement to end the oppression and occupation. I urge you to support Sabeel and its educational outreach to Christians and the churches in the west. With the help of people like you who care, even when justice and peace seem to elude us, we will usher in a new age of justice and peace in God’s world.

May the Prince of Peace give you his blessing at Christmas.

+Desmond M Tutu Archbishop Emeritus