Solidarity with Al Ahli Hospital

The Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson, the Church of Ireland’s Archbishop of Dublin and Bishop of Glendalough, has issued the following statement after the further attack on Al Ahli Arab Hospital.  The hospital has been supported by Bishops’ Appeal through its Advent Appeal for the Middle East:

As Christian people worldwide mark the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday we recollect with thanksgiving how he gathered to himself a new community of the despised and the rejected.

He himself became despised and rejected – a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

We walk in solidarity and in sadness with the brave souls – staff and patients – who have kept Al Ahli Hospital functioning against the odds for so so long.

I share their outrage, having experienced their selfless work and worshipped with them in their hospital chapel, at the destruction and desecration of the hospital – a place of care and healing for all in need.

I appeal for a cessation of violence and warfare in Israel-Palestine and particularly in Gaza.

I appeal to all people in the Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough to pray throughout Holy Week for those who suffer and for those who serve, for those who die and for those who struggle to live.