Meeting of central committee of the kehillot

Following the priests' meeting on Friday morning, the other representatives of the kehillot joined the priests for lunch at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem. Those that met in the central committee meeting were eighteen in number: Father David, responsible for the kehillt, Father Apolinary, in charge of the Jaffa kehilla, Father Roman, in charge of the Haifa kehilla (and that of Nazareth), Father Gioele from Beer Sheba, Father Piotr from Jerusalem, Father Giuseppe from Tiberias, Father Wieslaw, responsible for the Russian speakers in the south, as well as Fathers Paul, Rafic and Michel. Gathered together with them were representatives from the different communities: Yuri and Katerina from Jaffa, Lucia from Jerusalem, Luda from Haifa, Shoshana from Beer Sheba, Lioba from Tiberias, Brother Anton from Latroun and Norbert from Nazareth.

Over the weekend, the discussion focused on faith, an appropriate theme for the Year of Faith.

On Friday afternoon, the discussion focused on the questions: What is faith? How do I live my faith? What strengthens my faith? What are the weaknesses in my faith? The first part of Saturday morning the questions posed concerned the kehilla: How does the kehilla help or hinder my faith? What are the positive elements in the life of the kehilla that help me strengthen my faith? What are the aspects of kehilla life that need to be strengthened or that are missing with relation to faith? The second part of Saturday morning was consecrated to the question of the transmission of faith to our children within the kehilla: How can we transmit our faith to the next generation? How can we create the circumstances in which faith is a possibility for our children?

Friday night, the participants in the meeting went to the Jerusalem kehilla for mass. After dinner at the PBI, a movie was screened, the acclaimed Israeli film “Footnote”, with Shlomo Baraba and Lior Ashkenazi.

The meeting was an extraordinary time of sharing: expressing openly our hopes and dreams, learning together and working for the future of our kehillot and their spiritual prosperity.