The Jesuit community in Bethlehem offers a powerful example of close accompaniment of the local Church and Palestinian people amid a challenging and rapidly changing context. Through university ministry, pastoral work, spiritual accompaniment and everyday relationships, the community seeks to remain present alongside people in the West Bank, responding to their needs and sharing in their hopes and uncertainties.

In the following reflection, Jesuits Garrett and Peter describe their shared ministry and daily life in Bethlehem, from their work at Bethlehem University and service in local parishes to retreats, spiritual accompaniment, biblical studies and simple encounters with people in their neighbourhood. Their account provides a glimpse into how the Jesuit mission of being present, accompanying and serving is lived out in the reality of the Holy Land today.

Our shared ministry life in the Bethlehem station aims at close accompaniment of the Palestinian people in the West Bank, although our work often takes us beyond those territories according to needs, invitations and friendships. This is an area increasingly squeezed by economic depression, surveillance systems, illegal settlements coming closer and closer, increasing non-recognition of West Bank universities by the Israeli state, and an uncertain future that causes many families (both Christian and Muslim) to emigrate. To work for justice and humanity, with freedom, is at the forefront and in the background of our lives; the heaviness of the situation requires our double attention. Relationships form the context and purpose of our life here, meeting people on the streets (both of us choose not to drive a car), in the market, and in our neighborhood; in this communal context, we both consider it a great place to be alive.

We both are very engaged in the sacramental life of the local Church, offering daily Mass at the Daughters of Charity community of the Crèche at the French hospital, regular Masses at Bethlehem University and the Christian Brothers’ community, as well as serving at the Melkite Parish (Peter), the Melkite Emmanuel Benedictines (Peter) and St. Catherine’s Parish (Garrett), in addition to occasional work at the Syriac Catholic Parish. Furthermore, both of us are very active in spiritual accompaniment and pastoral counseling, with our small sitting room and kitchen, hosting young people, old people, couples and families multiple times a week.

Garrett serves full-time at Bethlehem University, teaching English and Religious Studies – a course on Islam/Christianity taught by a mixed team of teachers to mixed students, with each lecturer teaching his religion. He serves primarily in Campus Ministry. His chaplain duties are wide-ranging and include facilitating the Christian youth group, organizing retreats, overseeing a student “third space” called “The Waha”, (“The Oasis”) and spending most of his time conversing with students, faculty, staff and even security guards. Outside of the University, he enjoys developing and sharing multiple formats of Ignatian retreats and workshops around the Examen, silence, and imaginative contemplation – including an ongoing commitment in Nazareth. He has also paired his love of coffee/art spaces in Bethlehem with his newly-begun PhD studies in Practical Theology/Ethnography at USJ; he spends most of his non-ministerial time in these spaces, meeting people, attending exhibitions and/or reading for his literature review.

In addition to his availability and commitments to the local Church in the Bethlehem area, Peter maintains and develops relationships at the university, As a volunteer in the Religious Studies Department. And as a consultor in Philosophy and in the Core Curriculum, as the University begins to go through a major university-wide shift to a transformative model of education, initiated by the new president. His major work is the continuing work on his book on “The Trilogy of St. John (gospel, letters, apocalypse), to meet the specifications of an interested publisher. He has widened his Biblical Studies initiatives to give spot-on programs in a parish in the Galilee, at the Latin seminary, at the Syriac parish, and at the local Catholic action center. He also hears confessions at the Trappist monastery at Latroun. He is also adapting his three films on Jesus, Paul, and John to shorter formats for parish and club showings.

Garrett Gundlach, SJ