The head of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) has called upon Israel and the Palestinian Authority to officially recognise evangelical churches.
Speaking at the Christ at the Checkpoint conference in Bethlehem, Bishop Efraim Tendero also issued a call to religious and political leaders to engage in more dialogue to resolve divisions in the Holy Land instead of making "exclusive territorial claims".
He spoke in his keynote address against extremism and religious nationalism, encouraging leaders instead to engage in more peacebuilding.
"Christian teaching about salvation and obedience to God rejects extremism and religious nationalism," Bp Tendero said.
During his visit to the Holy Land, Bishop Tendero sought official recognition of evangelical churches during meetings with Israeli and Palestinian government officials. At present, evangelical churches do not have the same recognition as faith communities that other religious groups in the region enjoy, something the Evangelical Alliance of Israel and the Council of Local Evangelical Churches in the Holy Land (Palestinian Territories) have been seeking to change.
In his address, Bishop Tendero went on to reference a key document, 'Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World', issued jointly by the WEA, the World Council of Churches, and the Vatican that calls upon Christians to reject all forms of violence, discrimination and repression, including the violation or destruction of places of worship and sacred symbols or texts.
"We Christians have asked for forgiveness from each other and from other religious communities for practicing discrimination and persecution in the past. Please do the same!" he said.
"Let us uphold the dignity of every person who bears the image of God. Let there be respect and humane treatment of all the residents of this place that is called the 'Holy Land'. We Christians believe that reconciliation is possible. And any form of respectful dialogue is a step toward reconciliation."
He concluded by asking that the Christian community in particular "step back" from religious extremism, violence and "making exclusive territorial claims related to your religion, such that people, who do not share your religion, cannot live in peace with you."
This year marked the fourth Christ at the Checkpoint conference, an initiative of the Bethlehem Bible College which seeks to challenge evangelicals to proactively work for resolutions to the conflicts in Israel and Palestine by engaging with the teaching of Jesus on the Kingdom of God
