24.03.2024
A Message for Palm Sunday and Holy Week and the Final Days of our Lent Appeal
From Archbishop Michael Jackson.
Palm Sunday helps us to journey with Jesus into Jerusalem for the conflict of salvation that is known worldwide as Holy Week and Easter. All of you will be preparing for this in your personal life and in your parish and community and I wish you spiritual refreshment as you take this road. Holy Week is a particular signpost on the camino of God’s journey with God’s people and God’s creation. Holy Week has its own ecology as well as its own theology.
In these unfolding days of Holy Week, when tension and violence are a regular occurrence and suffering and death an inevitable outcome, we in The United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough will continue to stand with the members of The Diocese of Jerusalem as we have done since October 7th 2023. We will continue to pray with them through our shared Cycle of Prayer. We have stood alongside them as our partners in Christ, together with countless other Palestinians and Israelis, who have suffered at the hands of terror and war. Starting in the Israel/Gaza border region, this conflict has resulted in the near–obliteration of Gaza and the escalation of tensions throughout the region. In this conflict it is now clear that there are no winners.
I encourage parishes who have not had the opportunity to engage as yet with the range of initiatives offered to make both a material and a spiritual contribution to the cause of reconstruction and rehabilitation particularly in The Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. Despite all the odds, it continues to function at a vastly reduced capacity. The restoration of solar panelling, functioning cancer treatment facilities and the development of trauma response facilities particularly for children are immediate needs once this work can begin. Our approach has the full support of The Archbishop of Jerusalem and the Primate of the Province of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, Dr Hosam Naoum.
Many of you have taken up this challenge. It has enabled you to count your blessings and your freedoms. We have had tremendous response from a huge range of people from those who have contributed their pocket money to those who have given from their pensions and all in between. The €200,000 mark is now in sight. Our fundraising target is €250,000.
Details of how any and all of us can contribute are appended. I encourage you to do so as the week which we stubbornly call Holy and the day we stubbornly call Good draws near; and in so doing I ask you to play your part in this Holiness and this Goodness.
+Michael
Dublin and Glendalough
You can donate to by GoFundMe here: https://gofund.me/ce9fafb4
Donations can be made by electronic transfer to: Diocesan Funds of Dublin and Glendalough No 1 A/C Current Account, Bank of Ireland, 2 COLLEGE GREEN DUBLIN 2 IBAN: IE50 BOFI 9000 1769 3548 78, BIC: BOFIIE2D. Cheques may be sent to Diocesan Offices of Dublin and Glendalough, Church of Ireland House, Church Avenue, Rathmines, Dublin 6, D06 CF67.