Liberating Liturgy : Liberation Theology Traits in Anglican and Lutheran Worship Services in Jerusalem and the West Bank

Abstract: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is of great interest to me for many reasons; particularly, I want to stress the Palestinian Christian’s position in the current situation. The Palestinian Christians belong to several denominations, of which I have chosen to focus on two minority churches: the Lutheran and the Anglican. My intention is to find if, and how, the situation affects the liturgy of these churches, and if there are any tendencies toward liberating theologies. After accounting for the history of liberation theology as developed primarily in Latin America, but also in Germany, I focus on the spread of this theology, mentioning theologies and theologians from countries such as South Africa and South Korea. With this background at hand, I dwell on the liberating theology developed in the Palestinian context, particularly by Anglican Rev. Dr. Naim S. Ateek and Lutheran Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb. The main discussion of the thesis revolves around the comparison between service agendas obtained when visiting services in the Holy Land, and relevant liturgical books. I compare two Anglican services with different editions of the Book of Common Prayer and with Common Worship, and two Lutheran services with Evangelical Lutheran Worship. From these discussions, I have arrived at the conclusion that the current situation, at least on the surface, does not affect the liturgies to a high degree. However, I have, through my research, understood that the sense of communion and unity is of great importance in and around the services. I have, furthermore, found that the interest for liberating theology is increasing, which to some extent ought to depend on its biblical and contextual foci. With this conclusion, and its precedent discussion, I hope that this essay will begin to fill the gap of non-Arabic research about the conditions and liturgical implementations of contemporary Palestinian Christians.