Santos Woodcarving Popsicles: Support the Diocese of Jerusalem this Eastertide

22 March 2022

Support the Diocese of Jerusalem this Eastertide

This Eastertide, we’re called to help our sisters and brothers in the place where Jesus lived, died and was resurrected

Your congregation's generosity will restore critically-needed surgical care at St. Luke’s Hospital in Nablus

Dear Rector,

This Easter season I invite you and members of your congregation to learn more about the indigenous Christians of the Middle East. As a congregation that has supported the Diocese of Jerusalem in the past, you know these faithful followers of Christ have continued to serve their vulnerable neighbors in a part of the world fraught by turmoil, violence, and daily challenges most of us would find hard to imagine.

But there is more to do than learn and pray.

St. Luke’s Hospital in Nablus, founded in 1900 and run by the Diocese of Jerusalem, is the only full-service hospital offering charity care in this northern West Bank city of 300,000.

St. Luke’s offers comprehensive healthcare to all who walk through its doors, irrespective of their religion, ethnicity, or ability to pay.

Over the past two years, as the pandemic has worsened the financial circumstances of many families, the care provided at St. Luke’s to some of the world's most vulnerable families has become more important than ever.

In December 2021 the failure of a 20-year-old anesthesia machine in one of the hospital’s two major surgery suites cut their capacity to perform operations in half. Doctors at St. Luke’s are forced to delay crucial surgeries for people who do not have the means to obtain care elsewhere, placing their lives and their families in peril.

“It is our belief the inability of any member of our community to afford healthcare should not and will not be an obstacle to receiving high quality care, but we need the tools to do our job.”

- Dr. Walid Kerry, St. Luke's Hospital

This Eastertide I invite you to join me and many others across the Episcopal Church in making our support known by raising $42,000, the full cost of a new anesthesia machine.

Print and digital resources to assist you and your staff in sharing this effort are available on the AFEDJ website at www.afedj.org/easter.

Thank you for you listening and considering this opportunity to make a difference in the lives of those who live where Jesus himself healed so many.

Faithfully,

The Rt. Rev. Greg Rickel

AFEDJ Chair and Bishop of Olympia

Visit our Easter Appeal page for print and digital resources.

Together, friends, we can do this

We need 40 Episcopal parishes to contribute $1,000 or more this Easter season to help us reach our goal and bring healing to the people of Nablus. We invite you and your congregation to join us. With your congregation’s donation at that level you will receive a personal letter of thanks from Dr. Kerry and a beautiful St. Luke’s Hospital ceramic tile designed by a Palestinian artist.