Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Mitri Raheb is a Palestinian Christian, the pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem (a member church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, or ELCJHL), and the founder and president of the Diyar Consortium, a group of Lutheran-based, ecumenically-oriented institutions serving the Bethlehem area. Mitri Raheb was born in Bethlehem, in 1962. He pursued his higher education in Germany, first at Hermannsburg Mission Seminary (1980–1984) and then at Philipps University in Marburg, Germany (1984–1988), where he completed his graduate studies including a doctorate in theology. He returned to Bethlehem in 1988 to serve as the pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church (Christmas Lutheran Church), and serving as the managing editor of the Al-Liqa’ Journal for religious and heritage studies in the Holy Land (1992–1996).
Since 1992, Raheb has founded and led a number of projects and institutions serving the social needs of Palestinians living in the Bethlehem area, focusing specifically on women, children, youth, and the elderly.
He is one of the co-authors of Kairos Palestine document together with Patriarch Michel Sabah, Rev. Naim Ateek, Rifat Kassis and others. Raheb has been critical of Western support for Christians of the region and their lack of support against the Israeli occupation: “There is talk as if the West is genuinely interested in Christians, but most of the time they only use them for their own political ends."
He currently lives in Bethlehem with his wife and two daughters.
Source
Achievements and Awards
Organizations:
Beginning with the Abu Gubran Guest House and the Authentic Tourism Program in 1992, Raheb has founded a number of institutions serving the Bethlehem area.[5]
* 1992: The Abu Gubran Guest House (Arabic: بيت الضيافة أبو جبران) and Authentic Tourism Program (now part of the ICB)
* 1995: The International Center of Bethlehem (ICB, or Dar Annadwa Addawliyya (Arabic: دار الندوة الدولية))
* 1998: The Dar Al-Kalima Model School (Arabic: مدرسة دار الكلمة النموذجية)
* 1999: The Al-Kahf Gallery and Arts and Crafts Center (Arabic: مركز الكهف للفنون والحرف) (part of the ICB)
* 2003: The Bethlehem Media Center (Arabic: مركز بيت لحم للاعلام) (part of the ICB)
* 2003: The Dar Al-Kalima Health & Wellness Center (Arabic: دار الكلمة للصحة المجتمعية)
* 2006: The Dar Al-Kalima College (Arabic: كلية دار الكلمة)
* 2006: The Diyar Consortium (Arabic: مجموعة ديار) (now comprising the ICB, the Health & Wellness Center, and the College).
Publications:
Raheb has written 8 books and numerous articles on issues relating to interfaith dialogue, social transformation, contextual theology, and culture, many of them available in over 10 languages, including Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, English, German, and Arabic.[16]
* Das reformatorische Erbe unter den Palästinensern: Zur Entstehung der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche in Jordanien, (= Die lutherische Kirche, Geschichte und Gestalten; vol. 11), Gütersloh: Mohn, 1990. ISBN 3-579-00127-2, originally presented in 1988 as author's doctoral thesis at Fachbereich Evangelische Theologie (faculty) of Philip's University in Marburg on Lahn
* I Am A Palestinian Christian (Augsburg Fortress, 1995. ISBN 0-8006-2663-X)
* "Die evangelische lutherische Kirche in Palästina und Jordanien: Vergangenheit und Gegenwart", in: Dem Erlöser der Welt zur Ehre: Festschrift zum hundertjährigen Jubiläum der Einweihung der evangelischen Erlöserkirche in Jerusalem, Karl-Heinz Ronecker (ed.) on behalf of 'Jerusalem-Stiftung' and 'Jerusalemsverein', Leipzig: Evangelische Verlags-Anstalt, 1998, pp. 183–200. ISBN 3-374-01706-1
* Bethlehem 2000: Past and Future (with George Stein. Palmyra Verlag, 1998. ISBN 3-930378-21-3)
* Bethlehem Besieged: Stories of Hope in Times of Trouble (Augsburg Fortress, 2004. ISBN 0-8006-3653-8)
* Palestinian Christians: Facts, Figures and Trends (with Rifat Odeh Kassis, Bethlehem, 2008)
- Years in active
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