FEATURE: CHRISTMAS IN THE MIDDLE EASTTHE SCHNELLER FOUNDATION SUPPORTS PEACE EDUCATION

ISSN 0947-5435 E 12344

MAGAZINE ON CHRISTLIAN LIFE IN THE MIDDLE EAST4/200

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A child that meets with rejectionContemplation on a Nativity icon by Assad Kattan 4

No culture flags attached to Christmas starsInterview with George Haddad about Christmas at the JLSS 6

On Heaven’s shaky groundA Christmas pilgrimage to Bethlehem 9

“The Flight to Egypt“Painting by Sliman Mansour 11

Media 29

Letters to the Editors, EVS internal 30

Imprint 31

Dear Reader,

This issue takes a very broad view of the majorsubject of Christmas. There is hardly a topic thatoffers so many aspects as this festival. The rangestarts with the field of tension between the hel-pless child in the manger and the present situa-tion in the Holy Land through to the boomingcommercialisation that has made Christmas intoa cash cow and a source of enormous income. Inthis issue, we have limited ourselves to the"Middle East" aspects on Christmas.

The contemplation is based on the meditationof an Orthodox Christmas icon, and GeorgeHaddad, headmaster of the Johann LudwigSchneller School in Lebanon, talks about Christ-mas traditions at the school then and now. In

the face of all the critical questions concerning different approaches to the birthof Jesus, he comes to the conclusion that Christmas is a festival that people wantto celebrate all over the world - despite need and misery and despite moderncommercialisation. We hope from the bottom of our hearts that this will be gran-ted this year to all Christian men and women and their nearest and dearest - es-pecially the children and staff members at the two Schneller Schools.

Allow me to say a few words on my behalf as chief editor. This issue of theSchneller Magazine is the last one for the time being for which I am personallyresponsible. I will be taking maternity leave and I am looking forward to devo-ting lots of time to my baby son. I wish all those producing the Schneller Maga-zine in future the same immense joy I have always felt in the past. I hope thatyou, dear readers, will remain faithful to the editorial team to the same extent asin the past.

On behalf of the editors, I wish you a happy Advent season and a Merry Christmas.

Yours,

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EDITORIAL

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CONTENTS

FEATURE: CHRISTMAS IN THE MIDDLE EAST 4

CHRISTIANS AND THE MIDDLE EAST 18

Cover picture: Nativity icon in the Orthodox style by Janina ZangPhoto: private

NEWS FROM THE SCHNELLER SCHOOLS 12

Katja Dotothea Buck(Chief Editor)

News from the Schneller Schools 12

Foundation for peace in the Middle EastSchneller Foundation – Education for Peace set up 15

My daily prayers give me strength and hopeValentina Maggiulli, EAPPI coordinator in Jerusalem 18

Everyone must focus again on Lebanese interestsInterview with George Sabra, Dean of the Near East School of Theology 20

The churches should not remain silent as long as suffering continuesThe WCC demands more commitment to peace in the Middle East 22

News 28

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CONTEMPLATION

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Icons are an expres-sion of faith and notjust painted stories.Their symbolism isbased on a theologi-cal foundation.

Assaad Kattan, Profes-sor for Orthodox The-ology at the Univer-sity of Münster,comments on a Nati-vity icon that is afresco in Paphos (Cy-prus) dating from the16th century.

OCave, prepare yourself to receive the mot-her who bears Christ within her womb. OManger, receive the Word who destroyed

the sins of all. O Shepherds keep watch and thenbear witness to the awesome wonder. O Magi, comefrom Persia and bring the King your gifts of gold,frankincense and myrrh, for the Lord has appea-red from a virgin mother. Yet she bowed to Himas a servant and spoke to Him within her bosom:How were You conceived in me? How did you growin me, my God and Saviour?” (extract from the By-zantine vespers on the Feast of St Nicholas)

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A number of scenes surround the mot-her and child group. Washing the child(bottom right) further supports the testi-mony of Jesus' incarnation – again sym-bolically. Joseph (bottom left) stands com-pletely apart from the Nativity scene. Hedoes not belong to the Jesus-Mary group.He is not a member of the ”Holy Family”.He is uneasy, thoughtful, occupied withhis thoughts: ”Because Joseph her hus-band was a righteous man and did notwant to expose her to public disgrace, hehad in mind to divorce her quietly.” (Mat-thew 1:19). The thoughts are personifiedin one of the shepherds. In some Nati-vity icons, the shepherd even wears hornsand a tail, symbolising the devil who whis-pers evil ideas about Mary in Joseph's ear.

Otherwise, the angels, the shepherdsand the three Wise Men from the East aredepicted in the painting. The concept ofthe shepherds and the angels in the fieldis taken from the Gospel of Luke (Luke2:8-20). The story of the three Wise Menfrom the East, on the other hand, stemsfrom the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew2:1-12). It refers, among others, to themessage of Jesus passing beyond the bor-ders of Judaism to embrace the gentiles.In this way, the Orthodox Nativity iconincorporates the Nativity stories from allthe Gospels in a single picture. It invitesthe contemplator to think about the rich-ness of the secret of God's incarnationand seeks to initiate the viewer into thissecret.

Mary, the Mother of God, is in themiddle of the Orthodox Nativity iconand forms a couple with the Child, bothdistinctly set apart from all the others.She gazes at Jesus, but at the same time,her eyes are deep in thought, contem-plating the secret of God's incarnationthat has now appeared in the manger.The exaggerated proportions of her bodyare a symbolic allusion to the importanceof her role in God's Nativity Revelation:“I am the Lord's servant,” Mary answe-red. “May it be to me as you have said.”(Luke 1:38).

Incarnation and crucifixion are closely related

But the symbolism in the icon also in-clude Mary's son. The new born child we-ars nappies resembling the strips of linenwith which Jesus was wrapped after hisdeath on the cross (John 19:40). The deepblack manger is a reminder of hell whichis where the souls of all the dead resideaccording to the Jewish concept of de-ath. The ox and the donkey refer to a textin Isaiah: “The ox knows his master andthe donkey his owner's manger, but Is-rael does not know, my people do notunderstand.” (Isaiah 1:3). It is not thesweet, little child that guides us throughthe Nativity icon, but a child that is re-jected and must suffer death. The incar-nation of God's son and his death on thecross are closely interlinked in the By-zantine Nativity icon. Jesus' deathly fateis preprogrammed at birth. The meaningof the massacre of the children in Be-thlehem described in the Gospel of Mat-thew – a kind of anticipation of the cross- is expressed here in a picture.

A CHILD THAA CHILD THAT MEETS WITH REJECTIONT MEETS WITH REJECTION

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know that the wonderful Advent timewould soon begin. That helped us getover our homesickness.

How did you celebrate Advent and Christ-mas time at the JLSS in those days?We used to make lots of things, paperstars, for example. We rehearsed theChristmas carols in the choir and thetrombone band, we prepared a nativityplay and of course there were Advent wre-aths and Christmas trees. I still have fondmemories of how I used to love the Ad-vent calendar which our housemaster al-ways made for us out of empty cigarettepackets. They were shaped into a longtrain and each of the wagons had sweetsin them. Every day, a different boy waschosen to open the next wagon.

Did you realise then that these were mainlyGerman traditions?No, but it didn't matter. For us, they were“Schneller traditions” and there were noculture flags attached to them.

How is Christmas celebrated today at theJLSS?We've kept many of the things we usedto do back then. Today, we also put updecorations for Ramadan and celebratetogether with the Muslim children.

German Christmas traditions abroad are re-garded with a lot of scepticism in this coun-try. They have the reputation of being a cul-tural import imposed on others. What is youropinion?I don't hold much about that theory.These traditions were not forced upon us.

We took them over spontaneously be-cause they are beautiful and because welike them. Can we really say that thesetraditions belong to the west? Can we saythat classical music belongs to Europe?Something like that is chosen because pe-ople like it. On the other hand, I ask my-self whether your question doesn't hidesome sort of complex.

What do you mean by that?It's a typical Protestant complex to regardmissionary work as negative. Of course,there have been many errors committedin its name. But that's no reason to con-demn everything the missionaries

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FEATURE: CHRISTMAS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

NO CULNO CULTURE FLAGS ATURE FLAGS ATTTTACHED TO ACHED TO CHRISTMAS STCHRISTMAS STARSARS

You were exposed to Christmas traditions fromwhen you were seven years old until you were16. What memories do you have about Adventand Christmas time in those days?For us, Christmas played a very importantrole. It certainly wasn't easy for many of usto return to the JLSS in October after spen-ding the long summer holidays with our pa-rents. It was therefore important for us to

As a child, the headmaster ofthe Johann Ludwig SchnellerSchool (JLSS), George Haddad,spent many years at the JLSSboarding school. He likes to re-minisce about the way Christ-mas was celebrated at the JLSSin those days. Paper stars andChristmas trees still have theirplace at the school today. Inconversation with Katja Doro-thea Buck, he explains the rea-sons why.

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George Haddad experienced Christmas atthe Schneller School when he was a child.

Christmas stars and Advent wreaths are part andparcel of Advent celebrations at the JLSS.

brought with them. It's avery unfair judgement. Takethe fields of education andhospitals, for example. Wes-tern missionaries have madean enormous contributionhere, and today we are stillbenefiting from this.

Another point of criticism ab-out Christmas decorations isthat materialism often hidesthe real Christmas messageand it gets lost.That is a knockout argumentthat can be applied to any-thing. Even our worship services, forexample. The message there is also wrap-ped in different ways, in hymns, for in-stance. I think we human beings needthese wrappings so that the message canreach us. This is the way I understandChristmas decorations. Christmas is a fe-ast that needs to be celebrated. And de-corations belong to a beautiful feast.

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FEATURE: CHRISTMAS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Nevertheless, Christmas is also highly com-mercialised in Lebanon.Yes, but can we accuse the supermarketsof not proclaiming the message? Hardly.We Christians - whether in church or in

individual families - areresponsible for proclai-ming the message ofChristmas to other pe-ople.

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St Michael's Church atthe JLSS

The day dawns and will draw to a closein the evening – an evening when timeshould stand still, something I've wishedfor since I was a child. But this wish isnot to be fulfilled, not even in Jerusalem;otherwise I wouldn't be here now. Thebells of the abbey ring in the religiousfestival; the Jewish custom calls the faith-ful to First Vespers after sunset, a tradi-tion also anchored in the Christian li-turgy.

Festive supper. We prepare ourselvesfor Christmas Eve. In the reading duringmidnight mass, it says: ”The people wal-king in darkness have seen a great light.”(Isaiah 9:2). When the night is dark, eventhe smallest ray of light appears like awonder. We stay awake the whole night,

we will still be going on to Bethlehem to-night, perhaps under the light of the stars.We are not celebrating this night becauseJesus was born then, but because the me-aning of his birth can only be brought tolight where the glare of every light is ex-tinguished and only a single ray of lightshines on what happened through thebirth of this child. (...)

We celebrate this night in Jerusalem;then we will go to Bethlehem. The man-ger there will be as empty as the Holy Se-pulchre here. There is nothing for oureyes to see but night and emptiness. Butthrough the eyes of faith we will see ”anew and radiant vision of Your glory”, asit says in the Christmas Preface. This nightwill remain a unique experience for most

ON HEAON HEAVEN’S SHAKY GROUNDVEN’S SHAKY GROUNDA Christmas pilgrimage to Bethlehem

The theologian Josef Wohlmuth wrote down his experiences during a nine-month stay in Jerusalem in his ”Jerusalem Diary 2003/2004” (published byAschendorff Verlag, Münster, 2004). The following extract is taken from thechapter dated 24th/25th December.

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Nativityscene in Pa-lestine

Santa Clauses are always welcome guestsat the JLSS.

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FEATURE: CHRISTMAS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

”The Flight to Egypt”, painting by Sliman Mansour

The Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour comments: In the painting, I tried to com-pare the Palestinian refugees with the flight of the holy family to Egypt. To helpmake this connection, I added some contemporary features, for example the tarredroad, the overhead power lines or the blanket bearing the words ”UN Relief”, thelike of which are found in refugee camps everywhere.

I believe that peace and reconciliation can grow if people become aware of othe-r's tragic and traumatic experiences, especially when they are the ones who havecaused them. Art is a peaceful universal language, which makes it an effective toolto facilitate understanding and bring about reconciliation between peoples.

of us. It will probably be a peaceful night,even if we do not hear the angels sing.But we will have to pass a checkpointthat marks a separation between peoplewho are actually called to peace – on bothsides. Bethlehem 2003.

We leave Jerusalem after midnightmass at half past two in the morning.Unfortunately there is no pilgrim's wayfrom Jerusalem to Bethlehem. We mustwalk along the road. But at this time ofnight, there is hardly any traffic and youcan more or less hear the silence. (...)

The checkpoint drags the meditatorsback into the reality of the year 2003.Now Jerusalem reaches almost to the ga-

tes of Bethlehem. When crossing thecheckpoint, you must be careful not toinjure yourself on the hanging strands ofbarbed wire. With our passports, the bor-der guards let us pass through with al-most a friendly wave of the hand. Andstill we have a slight of feeling of seekingfor shelter. There are few meagre electriclights and stars illuminating the town. Ablanket of silence is all about. We enterthe Church of the Nativity and step downinto the Grotto of the Nativity. Here thereare only a few pilgrims. It is time to crouchagainst one of the grotto walls and con-template the mystery of the Night of theNativity.

we come as pilgrimsto the grotto of bethlehem

to kneel before youjesus

promise of all peopleshope of mankind

the world placed before your feetas a gift

the fragility of peaceas a plea

we kneel on heaven's shaky ground

in silenceon the nightit happened

”a child to us is born”

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NEWS FROM THE SCHNELLER SCHOOLS

FINDING A COMMON LANGUAGE

Amman. The Youth Network of theAssociation of Churches and Mis-sions in South Western Germany(EMS) met at the Theodor Schnel-ler School (TSS) in Amman thissummer for a two-week internatio-nal workshop. The 18 delegatesfrom Germany, Ghana, Indonesia,Japan, Lebanon, South Africa andSouth Korea discussed the issue ofthe contribution young people canmake to peaceful coexistence in therespective churches and within theEMS fellowship. In cooperationwith the TSS, speakers were wonfrom the Jordan Centre of SocialResearch, the Royal Institute forInterfaith Studies and the UnitedReligions Initiative Cooperation Group(URI). They talked to us about their as-sessments of the social conditions, inter-religious dialogue and peace in Jordan.

We all thought the greatest obstacleduring the workshop would be to find acommon working language. But it tur-ned out this was exactly what we neededto learn to be more tolerant towards ourspeaking partner. In the end, the expe-rience we took home with us was howimportant it is to be understood and toreally understand the other person. It be-came clear how much we take it for gran-ted in everyday life that others are sureto understand what we want to say wi-thout us really being certain about it. Werealised that this lack of clear communi-cation often leads to conflict situationsthat could have been easily avoided.

In addition, the workshop focused on

intercultural leaning, conflict analysis andconflict resolution. As delegates, we wereable to participate in the programme bypooling our personal experience from dif-ferent countries and cultures.

Heléne Brown Youth Delegate from South Africa

PROGRESS ON THE ROPE GARDEN

Amman. A major obstacle barring pro-gress on the rope garden project at theTheodor Schneller School was resolvedthis summer. The ”Evangelische StiftungPflege Schönau” (Schönau Protestant CareFoundation) donated the wood needed

for building and shipped it by containerfrom Odenwald to Jordan. At the sametime, the working camp of the ”Evange-lische Schülerinnen- und SchülerarbeitBaden” (Protestant Church in Baden - Ac-tion Group for Pupils) took place and 20German and Jordanian young peopleworked almost until they dropped to pre-pare the site provided by the TSS for therope garden. They collected thousandsof stones and removed tons of earth toproduce a flat surface.

The ground has now been literally le-velled for the next phase of the project.Several more teachers are trained in ex-periential education. In addition, the lo-wer elements of the rope garden are madeof wood. But there is still a lot to do be-

fore the project goes intogeneral operation in thespring of 2009. The organi-sers are still looking forsponsors to support con-struction and to purchaseclimbing harnesses, hel-mets and ropes. There isstill one construction phaseand two more trainingcourses to go.

Kerstin SommerEvangelische Schülerinnen-

und Schülerarbeit Baden(Protestant Church in Ba-

den – Action Group for Pupils)

CHURCH WINDOWS RESTORED AT THECHURCH OF CHRIST

Amman (EVS). The windows in theChurch of Christ on the site of the The-

The thick tree trunks from the Oden-wald arriving at the TSS.

Installing the external glazing.

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Delegates at the workshop on a gui-ded tour of the TSS workshops.

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NEWS ABOUT EVS WORKNEWS FROM THE SCHNELLER SCHOOLS

odor Schneller School in Amman havebeen lavishly restored. To help protectthem from damage caused by air pollu-tion and other influences in the comingyears, all the windows are provided withexternal glazing. The cost of 70,000 Eu-ros was financed by donations made bythe German Embassy in Amman, theCross Congregation Leipzig and many in-dividual donors. We would like to takethis opportunity to express our sincerestthanks to all those who gave generously.The windows originally came from theSyrian Orphanage in Jerusalem. They willbe consecrated again during the Christ-mas worship service.

RESIDENTIAL ROOMS MODERNISEDKhirbet Kanafar (EVS). ”A leap from the1960ies to the year 2007,” is how GeorgeHaddad, headmaster of the Johann Lud-wig Schneller School (JLSS), described the

renovation of the rooms belonging to fourresidential groups. ”For 90 boys from ourschool, a lot of things have changed forthe better,” said Haddad at the EVS an-nual general meeting held in Novemberin Stuttgart. The communal bathroomshave been completely renewed. Singleshowers and washbasins now give theboys more convenience and privacy. Thebedrooms in which twelve and more chil-dren used to sleep have now been madeinto smaller units. The rooms of the hou-semasters and volunteers in these resi-dential groups have also been renovatedand modernised. Haddad thanked the As-sociation of Churches and Missions inSouth Western Germany (EMS) and theEvangelical-Lutheran Church in Wuert-temberg for making this major projectpossible through their donations.

ANOTHER EMS VOLUNTEER IN LEBANON

Khirbet Kanafar (JLSS). Christoph Pfei-fer has been working as ecumenical vo-lunteer at the Johann Ludwig SchnellerSchool (JLSS) since the end of October.Originally, the young man from Kasseltravelled to the Theodor Schneller Schoolin Amman together with Katrin Kaltene-cker from Eschenbach, Christian Kisslingfrom Boll and Benjamin Klein from Brom-bachtal as part of the Ecumenical Volun-teer Programme of the Association ofChurches and Missions in South WesternGermany. But as the JLSS urgently nee-ded a volunteer helper in the boardinghouse, Pfeifer went to Lebanon after acouple of weeks. Last year, EMS sent noecumenical volunteers to Khirbet Kana-far because of the summer war.

Smaller bedrooms: now only six chil-dren have to share a bedroom insteadof twelve.

Stuttgart (EMS). At its annual ge-neral meeting in Stuttgart on 11November 2007, the EvangelicalAssociation for the SchnellerSchools (EVS) set up the Schnel-ler Foundation - Education forPeace. ”If many little people takemany little steps, they canchange the face of the world,”said Margit Rupp, Director of theChurch Council of the Protes-tant Church Stuttgart and mem-ber of the foundation commit-tee, in her welcoming speech.

The Schneller Foundation –Education for Peace starts with afoundation capital of over1,085,000 Euros. Of this sum, theEVS provided 800,000 Euros and285,558 Euros were donated tothe foundation by 70 individu-als. ”This shows overwhelmingmoral support for the work of thetwo Schneller schools in theMiddle East and is an enormousencouragement for us,” com-mented Rev. Andreas Maurer,Managing Director of the EVS.

With the proceeds, the Schnel-ler Foundation – Education forPeace will support the work ofthe Johann Ludwig SchnellerSchool in Lebanon and the The-odor Schneller School in Jordansustainably and in the long term.It also intends to promote the conceptsof tolerance and peaceful coexistence bet-ween different religions and traditions.

”I believe you are making an extre-

mely significant and valuable commit-ment for children in the countries of theMiddle East,” writes Prof. Dr. Herta Däub-ler-Gmelin, who is herself member of the

FOUNDAFOUNDATION FOR PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EASTTION FOR PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EASTSchneller Foundation – Education for peace set up

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Providing the musical background: Ulrich Kadelbach and Magdalena Tomczuk, accompa-nied by Heidi Kadelbach on piano

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NEWS ABOUT EVS WORK

Foundation's board of trustees, in her wel-coming address. She also stressed the im-portance of the work carried out by suchschools ”to give hope to the children intimes of difficulty, to provide them withvalues, to enable them to live togetherin peace and to give them a good educa-

Mauk, Hans-Ulrich Munz, Char-lotte Neumann, Elia C. Nuqul,Emil Odeh, Horst Pfeuffer, Be-chara Raffoul, Karin and FritzRandecker, Wilhelm and GudrunReihle, Dieter Richter, MarianneRiedle, Basil Rischmaui, Norbertand Renate Römpler, Kurt andAnna Rommel, Werner Rudisile,Erika Schaudt, Elfriede Schick,Jörg and Beate Schindler, ReginaSchoch, Jörg Alexander Schrade,Helga Schulbach, IngeborgStribrny, Hellmut Stroh, Dorisand Kurt Stumpfrock, GerhardThumm, Angelika Tschernich,Friedrich Vetter, Johanna Weber,Günter and Rosemarie Weist, Jabraand Hildegard Zabaneh

BBW Waiblingen GmbH, the Pro-testant Church Congregation of Gerets-ried, the Protestant Church Congrega-tion of Zell, the Protestant Rectory of theLutheran Church of Soltau, the RotaryClub of Spittal and Steinkopf DruckGmbH also donated funds.

The donors also included several ot-her persons who do not wish to be na-med.

Margit Rupp hands over a certificate and abottle of Schneller wine to a founder member

tion.” She thanked all those who supportthis work and gave special thanks to thosegiving their total commitment at theschools themselves. For health reasons,Mrs Däubler-Gmelin was unable to attendthe foundation meeting in person.

The new EVS Bo-ard: (standing fromleft to right):Klemens, Lähne-mann, Maurer,Schaal, Schmid,Schoch, Rischmaui, Kreh,Brenner; (sit-ting) Sommer,Rammelt

SCHNELLER FOUNDATION – EDUCATION FOR PEACEThe following persons are members of theboard of trustees of the Schneller Foun-dation – Education for Peace:Prof. Dr. Herta Däubler-Gmelin, Memberof the German Bundestag, Bishop MargotKäßmann, Rev. Jo Krummacher, Memberof the German Bundestag, Dr. Basil Rish-maui on behalf of the EVS Board, Dr. Mar-tin Schneller, Ambassador retired andgreat-grandson of Johann Ludwig Schnel-

ler, founder of the Syrian Orphanage, Ker-stin Sommer on behalf of the EVS Boardand Rev. Eberhard Will on behalf of theEMS Mission Council.

The board of the Schneller Foundation –Education for Peace comprises the follo-wing members: Helmut Hekmann, former managing di-rector of the Waiblingen Vocational Trai-ning Centre, Margit Rupp, Director of theExecutive Council of the EvangelicalChurch in Stuttgart and Klaus Schmid,Chairman of the EVS.

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FOUNDING MEMBERS The following persons helped to foundthe Schneller Foundation – Education forPeace by a share in the foundation capi-tal:

George Abu Khader, Adelheid Beck, Hed-wig Bielfeldt, Hildegard Cornelius, ChristlDaum, Christa Eberbach, Wolfgang Eber-spächer, Margret Eifert, Georg Eisele,Björn Flach and Ute Kirchner-Flach,Hanna Förster, Hermann Fulda, Kai Gaert-ner, Margarete Graupner, Johanna Hagen,Irmgard Heimann, Klaus Hettasch, Irm-traud and Wolfgang Hinker, Richard andKarin Hudelmayer, Ulrich Hübner, RoseKärcher, Heinz Kahnt, Henrike Lähne-mann, Johannes Lähnemann, UlrichLeube, Claudia Levin, Doris and JürgenMärz, Familie Matt-Fröhlich, Reiner

NEW BOARD ELECTEDThe annual general meeting of the EVSelected the following members of the bo-ard on 11 November 2007:

Hartmut Brenner, Ilona Klemens, An-selm Kreh, Johannes Lähnemann, Clau-dia Rammelt, Basil Rischmaui, KerstinSommer, Reinhold Schaal, Klaus Schmid,Regina Schoch. Rev. Klaus Schmid re-mains chairman of the board. Rev. An-dreas Maurer, who is Middle East LiaisonSecretary of EMS as well as member of theEVS board, also remains managing direc-tor. Those leaving the board are GottfriedBerndt, Ulrich Hoffmann, Georg Kaz-maier and Hans Schniepp. We would liketo take this opportunity to thank themfor their many years of service to the As-sociation.

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CHRISTIAN LIFE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

threw a stone the size of a football at thehead of a female ecumenical accompa-nier from close range. She had to be ta-ken to hospital to receive stitches,” saysValentina Maggiulli.

What made a peace activist, who hadheld jobs in a bank, tourism and as ma-

The Catholic womanfrom Switzerland bringswith her plenty of expe-

rience for this responsibletask. In 2004, she was herselfan ecumenical accompanier.For periods always limited tothree months, this requiresin her opinion ”a certain ex-perience of life, basic openness to workin a multicultural team and tolerance”.Of course, you need to be fit and capa-ble of working outdoors in the heat andsnow. As male or female accompanier,you are helping Palestinians to crosscheckpoints, assuming the role of obser-ver at the security fence, or accompany-ing Palestinian schoolchildren past Je-wish settlements, which is sometimes adangerous task. ”We suffered the worstinjury in Hebron when a Jewish settler

”MY DAIL”MY DAILY PRAY PRAYERS GIVE ME STRENGTH AND HOPE“YERS GIVE ME STRENGTH AND HOPE“Valentina Maggiulli, EAPPI coordinator in Jerusalem

naging director of Terre des Hommes,want to return to Jerusalem? ”I wantedto do something in an NGO in the fieldof human rights,” she says. She realisesthat, in deciding to carry out this work,the decisive factor which played a majorrole was not so much her relationship tothe church than her relationship to hu-man rights. As everyone knows, it is pre-cisely in this field that there is plenty todo in the Holy Land.

Thankfulness and high regardon both sides

Valentina Maggiulli knows from her ownexperience and those of her protégés that,although Palestinians may value herwork, this is not at all the case with sol-diers and settlers. ”We are always wel-come on the Palestinian side,” she says.There, the ecumenical male and femaleaccompaniers are received with manythanks and acknowledgement. The samegoes for the Israeli freedom movementthat is supported by the Ecumenical Ac-companiment Programme.

But with the settlers, the reaction iscompletely different: ”In Hebron, we arethe enemy together with the Palestini-ans. There the accompaniers are heapedwith hate every day, they are called na-mes and even bombarded with eggs, rub-bish and stones,” she says.

Valentina Maggiulli relates all thesestories with calmness as if nothing wo-uld make her fly into a rage. "My daily

prayers give me strength and hope,” sheadmits. We wish we had her calmness aswell as her optimism. Then she says, ”Evenif the signs look pretty hopeless here, Iam personally convinced that the situa-tion will change and the occupation willend.”

Johannes Zang is a journalist who lives in Jerusalem.

Who would voluntarilyexchange the safety of theSwiss mountains to takeup residence in a warzone? Valentina Maggiullifrom Wädenswil near Zü-rich dared to take this stepin May 2006. Since then,the 36-year-old law gradu-ate has started the Jerusa-lem office of the Ecumeni-cal AccompanimentProgramme in Palestineand Israel (EAPPI), initia-ted by the EcumenicalCouncil of Churches fiveyears ago.

Valentina Maggiulli herself once worked asan ecumenical accompanier in Palestine.

Under the title ”ChainReaction”, theEcumenicalCouncil of Chur-ches regularlypublishes anEAPPI maga-zine contai-ning impres-sive reportsby male andfemale ac-companiers.A specialedition ap-peared in German onthe occasion of the German ChurchCongress 2007. The booklet is obtai-nable free of charge – as long as stockslast – from EMS, Vogelsangstrasse 62,70197 Stuttgart or send an email tovertrieb@ems-online.org. We lookforward to receiving a donation.

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CHRISTIANS AND THE MIDDLE EAST

On 19th September, another member of thegoverning party was killed. Who is behindthe attacks?For most Lebanese, Syria is behind theattacks whether they admit it or not.There may also be pro-Syrian elementsin Lebanon. But in any case, everythingpoints towards Syria.

Are there people who are not interested inhearing the truth?Everyone in Lebanon says: Yes, we wantto know the truth. But that's not the po-int. There is disagreement when somesay that the search for the murderers isonly a political smokescreen to pushthrough American interests and overth-row the regime in Syria – just as lookingfor weapons of mass destruction was onlyan excuse to march into Iraq. Others saythat this is a UN issue, a neutral interna-tional issue that may perhaps really un-cover the truth.

The recent conflict has brought up the repe-ated question whether Lebanon belongs moreto the West or to the East.The issue has been clarified politically:Lebanon is part of the Arab world. Its po-litical identity is Arab. But it is not onlya political issue. When someone asks ab-out Lebanon's cultural identity, about

how people live and work, then it is cle-arly a combination of both Eastern Arab,Semitic, and Western Mediterranean. Thishas been the case for many thousands ofyears. But many people think only in po-litical terms. If you talk about the Westtoday, this means imperialism, America,Bush. But no-one can deny that Lebanonis a meeting point of East and West.

What does Lebanon suffer most from at present?There are two problems we are faced with.

Firstly, the Syrian influencehas not yet disappeared. Sy-rian ambitions to control Leb-anon are still very strong. TheSyrians do not seem to acceptthe fact that they had to leavewithout Lebanon having topay a price. Now we are pay-ing the price with all thesemurders, instability, etc. Wewant to have good relationswith Syria, but the Syrians arenot yet convinced that theyare really out of the game al-ready. The other problem isthat a group of Lebanese nowforms a state within a state.They are armed, have funds attheir disposal, they are strongand even stronger than theLebanese army. They have mil-lions of dollars, they comple-tely ignore the economic cri-sis here because they receivetheir money directly and pass

it on directly to their people. They havea social, economic and political network.

Should the West and the US maintain bet-ter relations with Syria? Yes, if this is not at the cost of Lebanon'sinterests. In the past, the US maintainedgood relations with Syria at our cost. TheUS allowed them to infiltrate us and takeover control.

What is your hope?My hope is that all the Lebanese fractionsplace the interests of Lebanon above allelse. It was always the problem that manyLebanese always looked outside for their

identity, not just for the sake of help. Af-ter the assassination of Minister-Presi-dent Rafiq Hariri, many Lebanese frac-tions have placed Lebanon's interestsfirst. I hope that everyone will again fo-cus on putting Lebanese interests first.Then it will be much easier to find solu-tions.

”EVER”EVERYONE MUST FOCUS AGAIN ON LEBANESE INTERESTS“YONE MUST FOCUS AGAIN ON LEBANESE INTERESTS“The election of a new president inLebanon has been postponed timeand again. In September, MartinaWaiblinger talked in Beirut to GeorgeSabra, Dean of the Near-East-Schoolof Theology (NEST) about the uncertainty surrounding the politicalsituation.

Theologian George Sabra is Dean of theNear East School of Theology in Beirut.

The elections for a new Lebanesepresident are dangling in the air.According to the constitution, theState President of Lebanon must bea Maronite Christian. The variousgroupings in parliament have notbeen able to agree on one candi-date on many occasions. The pro-West government under Fuad Si-niora wants the new president todistance himself from Syria, incontrast to the present PresidentEmile Lahoud.

The oppositional Hisbollah, onthe other hand, will only approvethe election of a compromise can-didate. Since 23rd November, therehas been a power vacuum in Leb-anon since this was the day whenEmile Lahoud's term of officeended. By the time of going topress at the end of November,there was no end in sight to theconflict.

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Since the first General Assembly inAmsterdam in 1948, the WCC hasaccompanied the search for peace

in the Middle East as what ”touches theinnermost realms of religious life in theworld”. For 60 years the WCC has toiledfor more unity between Christian chur-ches. For 60 years the Middle East hasbeen seeking successful unity in peace.For 60 years the churches of the worldhave been raising their voices in thou-sands of calls for peace – in the placewhere the all-embracing concept of pe-ace was born and where it is the mostdifficult to bring about.

The Amman call is a call of a differentnature. Of all the concrete demands, Iread between the lines the urgent plea tous churches – who have pledged our obli-gation towards Ecumenism and peace -

totally different historical perspectives?These are some of the questions we couldask ourselves.

EAPPI is an important role mode

Based on three imperatives formulatedin Amman: the ethical and theologicalimperative for a Just Peace, the ecumeni-cal imperative for unity in action, andthe Gospel imperative for costly solida-rity, the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Fo-rum wants to coordinate existing eccle-siastic advocacy work and develop

strategic approaches to joint peace work.A core group is appointed by the WCCand will prepare working groups for thetopics specified in Amman: interreligiouswork based on understanding of the Bi-ble, methods of interreligious peace ex-perience, ecclesiastic forms of resistanceto human rights violations, strengthe-ning regional peace initiatives and ecu-menical strategies for fair distributedgrowth in the region are just a few of thetopics.

In my opinion, a significant methodo-logical role model for Forum activities isthe ”Ecumenical Accompaniment Pro-gramme Palestine Israel” (EAPPI). It alre-ady shows concrete solidarity action andenjoys major respect from both Israeli pe-ace activists as well as from the UN – morethan from our churches.

If we allow ourselves to be inspired bythe imperatives of Amman to considerjointly more unity in thinking and ac-tion in our churches, our church peacegroups and interreligious dialogue groups,the demand that the Forum is placing onus would really be a gift for us.

Christina Biere lives in Greifswald and is WCC central committee memberof the Evangelical Church in Germany.

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to consider what role our non-reconcili-ation and our incapability of taking jo-int action has in the face of non-reconci-liation in the Middle East.

As churches in Germany, we are onceagain called upon in a special way to hearthis plea and to interpret it especially forus. If we take it seriously, it will harbouran enormous opportunity to align andrealign ourselves in our existence as achurch. How far have we succeeded incommunicating our faith to the ecume-nical community through the reapprai-sal gained from the Judaeo-Christian di-alogue? Are our own political options onthe Middle East conflict determined byour theological convictions? How far arewe prepared and capable from church po-licy to take our worldwide ecumenicalpartners seriously on this issue, given their

THE CHURCHES CANNOT REMAIN SILENT WHILE THERE IS STILL SUFFERINGTHE CHURCHES CANNOT REMAIN SILENT WHILE THERE IS STILL SUFFERING

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The WCC demands more commitment to peace in the Middle East

For more information about the Amman call, please visit www.oikoumene.org/de/dokumenta-tion/documents/oerk-programme/pu-blic-witness-addressing-power-affir-ming-peace/middle-east-peace/20-06-07-aufruf-von-amman.html

More Ecumenical unity in the commit-ment to peace in the Middle East. This isthe demand made by the ”Palestine Is-rael Ecumenical Forum” (PIEF) that wasfounded in Amman this summer duringthe International Conference of theWorld Council of Churches ”Churchesfor Peace and Justice in the MiddleEast”. The Amman call comes at just theright time: ”No more words withoutdeeds. It is time for action! (…) Thechurches are part of the conflict becausethe churches cannot remain silent whilethere is still suffering.” Later: ”We haveallowed too much time to pass. Time hasnot helped the interests of peace but theinterests of extremism. Our cause willnot accept any more delay!”

Dome of the Rock and Wailing Wall – interreligious peace work becomes evenmore important

the Holy Land. In addition, the councilfollows religious reports in the media andissues comments if a religion is slande-red. Moreover, it is committed to protec-ting the Holy Sites and obtaining free ac-cess to all religious communities to theOld City of Jerusalem. It is also active inencouraging schools and the media toraise people’s awareness to strengthen mu-tual respect and acceptance.

The interreligious council grew fromthe Declaration of Alexandria in 2002 inwhich the leading religious representati-ves from the region declared their com-mitment ”to ending violence and bloods-hed that denies (people in the Holy Land)the right to life and dignity”.

Suheil Dawani, Head of the EpiscopalChurch of Jerusalem and the Middle East,also took part in the trip to the UnitedStates. This church sponsors the TheodorSchneller School in Amman.

IN FAVOUR OF A PELESTINIAN THEOLOGY OF LIBERALISATION

Stuttgart (EMS). A group of theologiansfrom Germany got together to form a Sa-beel circle of friends after a trip to Israeland Palestine. In a loose form of organi-sation and ties, they share and supportthe aims of the Sabeel Center in Jerusa-lem which is committed to a Palestiniantheology of liberalisation. This ecumeni-cal grass-roots movement in Palestinewants to contextualise and relativise theGospel, i.e. in view of the current politi-cal and social conditions, and wishes todevelop and cultivate a spirituality thatis based on justice, peace, non-violence,liberalisation and reconciliation between

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CHRISTIANS AND THE MIDDLE EAST

pics concerning interreligious dialogue.For many years, the Protestant Churchin Hesse and Nassau, which is memberof the EMS, has also sent male and fe-male pastors to NEST on study trips las-ting several months. Currently, Revs.Bernd Apel, Gerhard Failing, AndreasGoetze, Kurt Johann and Rolf Ringleb arein Lebanon.

RELIGIOUS REPRESENTATIVESPROFESS THEIR BELIEF IN PEACEWashington/Geneva (LWI). A group ofhigh-ranking religious representativesfrom Israel and Palestine met with repre-sentatives of the US Congress and mem-bers of the administration of PresidentGeorge W. Bush in Washington D.C.(USA) at the beginning of November todiscuss support for the peace initiativesin the Holy Land. In a communiqué pu-blished during their stay in the UnitedStates, the members of the interreligiouscouncil, which comprises Christian, Je-wish and Muslim organisations in theHoly Land, emphasised that actionshould be taken to strengthen peace in

all religious communities.

There are already Sabeel circles offriends in many other countries, such asCanada, the USA, the United Kingdom,Ireland, Scandinavia, Australia and SouthAfrica. If you are interested to join theGerman group, please contact Ulrich Ka-delbach (ukadelbach@web.de) or Sieg-fried Dehlinger (siegfried.dehlinger@t-online.de).

MURDER OF A CHRISTIAN IN GAZA SHARPLY CRITICISED

Jerusalem (EMS). The heads of the Or-thodox, Catholic and Protestant churcheshave sharply criticised the murder of RamiAyyad. 30-year-old Ayyad, who workedfor the Palestinian bible society in Gaza,was kidnapped by unknown persons fromhis office at the beginning of October andwas later shot. Six weeks before this hap-pened, the shop of the bible society wasburnt. This is regarded as the first act ofviolence that was targeted directly againsta Christian institution in Gaza.

At the same time, the church leadersstressed how much they appreciated thatMuslim religious leaders and representa-tives of the Palestinian government alsocondemned the murder of the family fat-her. ”We must all be extremely attentiveagainst the increase in human rights vio-lations which the entire Palestinian so-ciety, both Muslims and Christians, areobliged to suffer,” said a statement by theChristian representatives. ”We call on eve-ryone to stand together to resist all formsof extremism and to learn to respect oneanother as devout Muslims and Christi-ans.”

75 YEARS OF PROTESTANT THEOLOGICAL TRAINING IN BEIRUT

Beirut (EMS). The Near East School ofTheology (NEST) celebrated the 75th an-niversary of its existence in November.The school invited Tübingen theologianJürgen Moltmann to deliver the key ad-dress. NEST is an ecclesiastical universitywith a Protestant identity and is mainlysubsidised by the two EMS partner chur-

ches in the Middle East, the NationalEvangelical Church of Beirut and the An-glican Diocese in Jerusalem. The studentsstem from all the countries in the MiddleEast. This makes NEST into the most im-portant training centre for the Protestantclergy in the region.

The Association of Churches and Mis-sions in South Western Germany (EMS)has kept close ties to NEST for many years.Every year it sends German theology stu-dents to Beirut for some time through theexchange programme Study in the MiddleEast (SIMO) so that the students can ac-quire intensive experience with Christianlife in the Middle East and deal with to-

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NEST sign in Beirut

27

T-SHIRT WITH DOVE OF PEACE The motif represents the Arabicword “Salaam“ in the form of adove. The T-Shirts are available inwhite and green and in four dif-ferent sizes (S, M, L, XL). Thegreen shirts have been made aspart of a women’s project in Ra-mallah and cost 12,00 F each

Size green white

S Order No. 43101 43105M Order No. 43102 43106L Order No. 43103 43107XL Order No. 43104 43108

26

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MAGDALENA SCHNELLER-WINE, CHARDONNAY(WHITE), 2002

This Chardonnaygrows at an altitude of1400 meters and is ma-tured in young oakcasks.

Magdalena Schnellerwas the wife of thefounder of the SyrianOrphanage in Jerusalem.

KEY FOB

RED AND WHITE WINE FROM THE LAND OF THE CEDAR

PLEASE SEND YOUR ORDERS TO: EMS | Vogelsangstr. 62 | 70197 Stuttgart

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2928

The Middle East Conflict in ClassActually, the Middle East is much more

MEDIA

Johannes Zang”Unter der Oberflä-che – Erlebtes ausIsrael uns Paläs-tina” (Below TheSurface – Experien-ces Of Israel AndPalestine)Aphorisma Verlag,

Berlin 2007, 196 pages, Euro 15Spiegel @Klett”UnterrichtsmagazinNahost – Der Kampfum das HeiligeLand” (EducationalMagazine MiddleEast – The Strugglefor thr Holy LandErnst Klett Verlag, Stuttgart 2007,

58 pages, 5.80

Kai WiedenhöferWallSteidl Verlag, Göttingen 2007,102 pages, Euro 30

Humanly and personallyIn ”Unter der Oberfläche” (Below TheSurface), Johannes Zang has collectedmany incidents and encounters with pe-ople in the Holy Land. The author, whohas worked as journalist and church mu-sician in Jerusalem for several years, letspeople on both sides have their say anddirects his sights at the fate of many in-dividuals. It brings to the surface the per-sonal tragedy of the conflict between thetwo peoples. Zang is very frank about his

Vogelsangstraße 62 | D-70197 Stuttgart | +49(0)711/63678-39www.ems-online.org

The "Evangelischer Verein für die Schneller-Schulen e.V." (Evangelical Associationfor the Schneller Schools, EVS) supports and accompanies the work of the Johann

Ludwig Schneller School in Lebanon and the Theodor Schneller School in Jordan. Itsspecial task is to offer poor children school education and professional training at theSchneller Schools. The Association works in partnership together with the two localsponsoring churches: the National Evangelical Church of Beirut and the EpiscopalChurch in Jerusalem and the Middle East. The EVS is a founder member of the Associ-ation of Churches and Missions in South Western Germany (EMS). As a result of coo-peration, the two churches have also become partner churches within the EMS. TheEVS considers its work as part of the worldwide ecumenical relations that exist bet-ween the members and partner churches of the EMS.

In its publications and events, the EVS provides information about churches andChristians in the Middle East. The Schneller Magazine is published four times a yearand can be subscribed free of charge at the EMS. Speakers for lectures on topics featu-ring the work of the schools can be booked at the Middle East Liaison Desk at the EMS.

If you want to become a member of the EVS, we will be glad to send you an appli-cation for membership. The annual minimum fee for individuals is Euro 25 and Euro50 for companies. By making a donation to the Schneller Schools, you are supportingthe work of a recognised charitable welfare and social organisation.

BECOME MEMBER OF THE EVS!

The Wall and the PeopleKai Wiedenhöfer is a Middle East specia-list among photographers. His publica-tions are not only based on his excellenteye for depicting perspectives and sce-nes, but also on his excellent knowledgeof the region and its conflicts, as well ashis closeness to its people. His latest work”Wall” is based on the subject of Israel'sseparation barrier. Wiedenhöfer mainlydocuments the parts that were actuallybuilt as a wall. Through the extremelandscape format, he presents a photo-graphic impression of how deeply thewall has cut into the landscape and intothe lives of people who live there. Thisis a book that is meant for those whohave already seen it with their own eyes- but also for everyone who wants to seeit for themselves!

Andreas Maurer

than just the ”Holy Land”. Even if it wasforgotten here for a time, the book pre-sents a rich many-facetted collection ofmaterials on Israel and Palestine for tea-ching in class. In 45 articles by Israeli, Pa-lestinian and German male and femaleauthors, the complexity of the conflictand the many perspectives become clear.Even if the reader does not share all theevaluations and assessments of the intro-ductory texts to the four chapters, andthe ”Suggestions for the lesson” are veryshort, it is possible to work very well withthis material in upper school classes. Ho-wever, it is advisable for the teacher to bewell prepared before they present thiscomplex subject to children in school.

Andreas Maurer

30 31

122nd year, Issue 4, December 2007

Publisher: Evangelischer Verein für dieSchneller-Schulen e.V. (Evangelical As-sociation for the Schneller Schools)within the Evangelisches Missions-werk in Südwestdeutschland e.V.(Evangelical Association of the Schnel-ler Schools within the Association ofChurches and Missions in South Wes-tern Germany)

Editors: Katja Dorothea Buck (editorin chief), Andreas Maurer, Birte Peter-sen Editorial assistants: Margrit BachLayout: Steffen Grashoff Julia Theilmann

Translation: Gudrun Drees

Address: Vogelsangstrasse 62 70197 StuttgartTel.: +49 (0)711 636 78-0 Fax: +49 (0)711 636 78-55 Email: info@ems-online.org www.ems-online.orgSeat of the Association: Stuttgart

Printers: Printing: J.F. Steinkopf DruckGmbH, Stuttgart, Circulation 15 800

Contact address in Switzerland:Pastor Jost Keller, Kirchgasse 12, CH-7000 ChurSchweizer Verein für die Schneller-Schulen im Nahen Osten (Swiss Asso-ciation for the Schneller Schools inthe Middle East), Zurich. PC Account 40-11277-8

A pay-in slip with an imprinted re-ceipt for donations is attached to a li-mited edition.

The Schneller Magazine is publishedfour times a year. The purchase priceis included in the membership fee.

IMPRINT

Thank you very much for sending the maga-zine and the reports about your high-qualityand important work.

In Issue 3/2007, the report about the AhliArab Hospital in Gaza was very moving.

Dietmar Hensch, Kassel

We were very happy for the couple on the frontcover. We wish the two young persons a fulfil-led life. We also noticed the three girls on thelast page: they look a little impish and full ofexpectation. Thank you very much!

Werner Ninck, Bern

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dear Reader, We look forward to receiving your feedbackon articles published in the Schneller Maga-zine and on the Schneller work. You can re-ach us at: Redaktion Schneller-Magazin,EVS, Vogelsangstrasse 62, 70197 Stuttgart orat info@ems-online.org. Due to the lack ofspace we reserve the right to edit your let-ters.

EVS-INTERNAL

AcknowledgementWe wish to acknowledge with many thanks thereceipt of donations from unknown donors andthose who do not want individual thanks aswell as those whose names were unfortunatelyillegible.

DeceasedThe following male and female friends of thework of the Evangelical Association for theSchneller Schools (EVS) have departed from us:

Alfred Bauer, 71723 GroßbottwarGerda Schadewald, 72072 TübingenElse Schoer, 22763 Hamburg

This year, the Evangelische Gesellschaft(Protestant Association) publishing househas republished and redesigned the book"Requiem For A Father" by former EMSMiddle East Liaison Secretary, Ulrich Ka-delbach. The book originally appeared in1999. Kadelbach embarks on an inwardjourney in search of his father who waskilled in the war. No less than Erhard Epp-ler wrote the foreword to this new publi-cation.

MEDIEN

”Heimatlos” (Homeless)The art reproduction photo calendarshows impressive pictures of everyday lifefor Palestinian children in Lebanon. Onthe back of the calendar pages, the chil-dren tell their stories themselves: aboutwhere their families come from (inclu-ding a short description of their originalhome), about their life in the refugeecamps and their dreams of the future. Thetexts are written in five languages (Ger-man, English, French, Finnish, Arabic).The calendar can be used to enter birth-days.

The calendar is obtainable for 15 Eurosplus shipping charges from:

Flüchtlingskinder im Libanon e. V. (Refugee Children in Lebanon)Hans Bulling, Tel.: +49 (0) 7121 79511 or email: hbulling@lib-hilfe.de

Proceeds from the sale of the calendarwill be donated to projects of the Associ-ation for Refugee Children in Lebanon.

Ulrich Kadelbach”Requiem für einenVater” (mit einemVorwort von Eber-hard Eppler) (Re-quiem For A Father –with a foreword byEberhard Eppler)Verlag der Evangeli-schen Gesellschaft,

Stuttgart 2007, 109 pages,Euro 15

own feelings and frustrations in view ofeveryday injustices and violence in theHoly Land that has almost become thenormal status quo. In so doing, he pla-ces the human side of the Middle Eastconflict in the foreground. In addition, he provides his readers withmany informative facts about this con-flict which has lasted for more than 50years, for example the wording of UN re-solutions, announcements by internatio-nal humans rights organisations orextracts from debates in the GermanBundestag on the Middle East conflict.With ”Unter der Oberfläche” (Below TheSurface), Johannes Zang presents a highlypersonal book that is worth reading.

Katja Dorothea Buck

Evangelical Association for the Schneller Schools (EVS), Member of the Association of Churches andMissions in South Western Germany (EMS)

Vogelsangstr. 62 | 70197 Stuttgart | Germany

Tel.: +49 (0)711 636 78 -0

Fax: +49 (0)711 636 78 -45

E-Mail: info@ems-online.org

”STAY WITH US, FOR IT IS NEARLY EVENING; THE DAY IS ALMOST OVER.” (LUKE 24:29)

We welcome your support forthe work of the SchnellerSchools with your donation.

Bank account of the EVS: EKK-Stuttgart, bank sort code 520 604 00,

Account No. 407 410

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