The Lutheran Bishop of the Holy Land has made an emotional appeal to the kidnappers of four Christian aid workers in Iraq to show mercy by freeing them, reports Ecumenical News International.

|TOP|The four men, including the British Professor Norman Kember, were abducted by an Iraqi insurgent group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness brigades, according to ENI.

Bishop Munib Younan, a Palestinian, said in a message to ENI Thursday: “I urge you from Jerusalem, the city of peace, to do your utmost to bring about the release of these apostles of peace who are the friends of every oppressed people.”

The four men, which also included, two Canadians and an American, were shown with their captors in video footage broadcast on Qatar-based al-Jazeera television network shortly after they were kidnapped.

In his plea Bishop Younan stressed that the Christian Peacemaker Team members were people of peace who had stood firm with the Palestinians in the face of Israeli occupation.

The allegation that CPT members are acting as agents of any government is absolutely unbelievable to anyone who knows their work or who has ever been to the homes of the Palestinian families with whom they live," Bishop Younan said.

"They represent no government; they stand only on their faith and on their refusal to be silent in the face of injustice."

|AD|Bishop Younan also mentioned in his appeal that members of the Christian group from different denominations often gathered to worship at the Lutheran Church in Jerusalem.

Christian Peacemaker Teams have been particularly active in the unstable West Bank city of Hebron where 400 militant Jewish settlers live among 120,000 Palestinians.

Bishop Younan praised CPT for its work in Palestine. He said: “In Palestine, CPT members are found in those places where vulnerable people need others to stand with them in the midst of conflict and hostility.”

He referred to the times that CPT members have escorted ‘countless’ children past hostile Israeli settlers intent on frightening and intimidating these boys and girls as they attempt to walk to school.

He added that “as they have carried out their tasks CPT people have been cursed, confronted, spat upon, arrested, stoned and attacked with clubs and chains.”

Member churches of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland are holding prayer vigils for the safe release of Professor Kember and the three other abducted men.