First Presbyterian Church, Spokane, Washington
Contact Gordon Decker at - gdecker@columbiaipa.com

In 2004, Father Chacour visited the Spokane area at the invitation of members of the Living Stones Chapter of the Pilgrims of Ibillin.  A local newsletter, The Fig Tree, printed this report:

Priest in small Palestinian village intersects with lives of people in Spokane area

Larry and Donna Roberts’ 2000 pilgrimage to the Holy Land introduced them to Palestinian refugee camps and the small village of Ibillin, turning around their lives and worldview.

They and three other couples in Spokane’s First Presbyterian Church have established the Living Stones of Ibillin.  The group raises funds for Mar Elias Education Institutions and provides educational seminars, speakers and training for the community about life in Israel, and about Melkite Catholic Father Elias Chacour’s persistent efforts to serve all the people of Israel—Muslim, Jewish and Christian.

 
Last spring, they invited the Rev. Don Griggs, who led their pilgrimage, and Father Elias Chacour to Spokane to tell people about their ministries.

 
The Living Stones of Ibillin draws 35 to 200 people to local workshops on biblical archaeology, Christian Zionism, the Israeli state, and Middle Eastern geography and history.  They have about 400 supporters.  The organization is one of 20 U.S. chapters of Pilgrims of Ibillin. Study has been part of preparing three area groups that have visited Ibillin in the last five years.  Groups have read Father Elias’ books, Blood Brothers and We Belong to the Land.   About half who have participated are from First Presbyterian and half from local Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran and other Protestant communities.

“I never did anything like this before.  My heart and imagination have been stirred by Father Elias’ vision of peace and education for all,” said Larry, who moved to Spokane eight years after retiring from a high-tech marketing job in the Silicon Valley—which included extensive world travel in Asia and Latin America.

“Seeing Palestinian refugee camps—in the Middle East since 1949—changed my views about what is happening there,” he said.  For  the full story published in The Fig Tree, click here.