Sustaining Presence, Pursuing Peace: 21st Century Middle Eastern Christians and Sacred Spaces in Peril
Rev. Dr. Mae Cannon
Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP)
Date: Thursday, April 24, 2025
Time: 12 - 1pm
Location: 24 Quincy Road, Conference Room
In addition to her role as Executive Director of Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), Rev. Dr. Cannon also co-chairs the International Academic Council for International Religious Freedom for the Global Secretariat. As February 2025 saw the threat to the ownership of the Armenian Patriarchate as recently as this week by the foreclosure orders issued by the municipality of Jerusalem, a very real possibility exists that one of the ancient quarters of the Old City having been a stalwart place of Christian Armenian presence for centuries could disappear. The 2023-2025 Hamas attacks and atrocities in Gaza have had devastating effects on all in the region throughout Israel, Palestine, and other parts of the Middle East. Christians and others living under military occupation in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza experience increased pressure as one of the smallest minorities who often have access to be able to leave and emigrate rather than maintain a sustaining presence in the middle of war zones of uncertainty and constant stress and oppression. The result? The Christian community as a whole is well under two percent of the entire Arab world, and in other regions in the Middle East - some places have Christian communities that are lower than one-half of a percent. In Gaza, for example, only a few hundred Christian families remain. The recently liberated people of Syria may have shaken the shackles of the Bashar Assad regime. Nonetheless, they continue to suffer greatly under attacks and other pressures. This lecture will discuss how the desperate challenges affecting Christian communities throughout the Middle East are a danger to not only Middle Eastern Christians but to Christians and all people of faith around the world.
Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon is the executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace and an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC)
Cannon formerly served as the senior director of Advocacy and Outreach for World Vision U.S. on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC; as a consultant to the Middle East for child advocacy issues for Compassion International in Jerusalem; as the executive pastor of Hillside Covenant Church located in Walnut Creek, California; and as director of development and transformation for extension ministries at Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Illinois. Cannon holds an MDiv from North Park Theological Seminary, an MBA from North Park University’s School of Business and Nonprofit Management, and an MA in bioethics from Trinity International University. She received her first doctorate in American History with a minor in Middle Eastern studies at the University of California (Davis) focusing on the history of the American Protestant church in Israel and Palestine and her second doctorate in Ministry in Spiritual Formation from Northern Theological Seminary. She is the author of several books including the award-winning Social Justice Handbook: Small Steps for a Better World and editor of A Land Full of God: Christian Perspectives on the Holy Land. Her work has been highlighted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Chicago Tribune, Christianity Today, Leadership Magazine, The Christian Post, Jerusalem Post, EU Parliament Magazine, Huffington Post, and other international media outlets.
Photo credits: Christopher Soldt, MTS