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<td>Shalom's will be done</td>
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<th valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap">Date: </th>
<td>Thu, 18 Dec 2025 11:15:13 -0500</td>
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<th valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap">From: </th>
<td>Ted Schmidt <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:jtschmidt@bell.net"><jtschmidt@bell.net></a></td>
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<div dir="ltr">Merry Christmas friends</div>
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<div><font size="4"><br>
In this holy season I've watched my printer die.
I can only respond with this modern mode of
email.</font></div>
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<div><font size="4">I somehow ran into this
amazing poem, almost 25 years old.This
Jeremy Frost </font></div>
<div><font size="4">is part of <font
color="#ff2600">Confess U</font>K Anglican
priest and lawyer</font></div>
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<h1
style="font-family: var(--font-family-h1); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: var(--font-size-h1); line-height: var(--line-height-h1); overflow-wrap: var(--overflow-wrap-h1);"><span
class="theming-theme-accent3"
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 17px;"><span
style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span
style="font-weight: normal;"><font
color="#d0b97a">C</font>O</span><span
style="font-weight: var(--font-weight-h1);">NFESS</span></span><span
style="font-weight: var(--font-weight-h1);"> is for Christians of all
denominations who wish to speak
out boldly against genocide, ethnic
cleaning, and other crimes against
humanity, taking place in the lands that
cradled the Abrahamic faiths, and who
wish to amplify, with the addition of
their own voice, a message of solidarity
to victims of such crimes, and a message
of challenge and rebuke to all in civic
authority who are complicit in such
crimes.</span></span><br
style="box-sizing: inherit;">
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<h1
class="page__title title balance-text" id="page-title"
style="line-height: 1; margin: 0px; font-weight: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 20px;"><span
style="box-sizing: border-box;">On
2 April, 2002, Israel imposed a
military siege on the Church of
the Nativity in occupied
Bethlehem after some 200
Palestinians took refuge inside
the church from the advancing
Israeli army. Bethlehem,
occupied West Bank –</span> For
the first time in two years, the <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/6/bethlehem-lights-up-christmas-tree-amid-hopes-for-economic-recovery"
style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 89, 165);"
moz-do-not-send="true">Christmas
tree in Bethlehem</a> lit up the
night sky, restoring a glimmer of
joy to the birthplace of Jesus
after seasons overshadowed by <a
href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/6/gaza-ceasefire-at-a-critical-moment-mediators-say-at-risk-of-collapse"
style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 89, 165);"
moz-do-not-send="true">Israel’s
genocidal war on Gaza</a>.</span></h1>
<p
style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 30px; line-height: var(--leading-multilines); overflow-wrap: break-word; hyphens: auto;"><span
style="font-size: 20px;">Palestinians
watching the lighting said the
celebration carried a dual
meaning: Hope in the Nativity and
a yearning for freedom from the
Israeli siege gripping Bethlehem
and cities across the occupied
territory.</span></p>
<h1
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style="font-size: 2rem; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; font-family: "DIN Next W01 Medium", sans-serif; font-weight: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br>
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<h1
class="page__title title balance-text" id="page-title"
style="font-size: 2rem; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; font-family: "DIN Next W01 Medium", sans-serif; font-weight: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Poem:
On the Ending of the Siege at the
Basilica of the Nativity, Bethlehem
(10th May 2002)</h1>
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<span
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<div><span
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</span></div>
Through olive-groves as old as truth</span><br
style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">
<span
style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">The
breezes tire; while cars lie crushed</span><br
style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">
<span
style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">On
pavements meant for games and youth</span><br
style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">
<span
style="font-size: 16px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">And
washing lines. The hungry, hushed</span><dd
style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Indoors,
see tanks mount every car;<br>
And flagged, on every tank,
Goliath’s star.</dd>
<p
style="font-size: 16px; margin: 1.5rem 0px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Is
all this worse, this stench of war<br>
And power, than on that bright morning<br>
When, from the mess, the emperor<br>
Reclaimed the spot and made it sing?</p>
<dd
style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Or
worse than when the King of all<br>
Chose for himself this cave and
cattle stall?</dd>
<p
style="font-size: 16px; margin: 1.5rem 0px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">For
times like this He came in mire<br>
And myrrh and milk and blood; for such<br>
A time the angel and his choir<br>
Explained what made this birthing much</p>
<dd
style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">More
universal than it seemed -<br>
He came that such as this might
be redeemed.</dd>
<p
style="font-size: 16px; margin: 1.5rem 0px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">O
little town of Bethlehem -<br>
Still forced to live another’s lie!<br>
But force or fear cannot condemn<br>
Worship (which is both soil and sky).</p>
<dd
style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">(What
God on earth would thus conceal<br>
In simple bread and wine a
freedom meal?)</dd>
<p
style="font-size: 16px; margin: 1.5rem 0px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">With
worship, and with wine and bread,<br>
the hopes that almost died are yet<br>
Not crushed on pavements, but instead<br>
Rise, swirling up like incense: let</p>
<dd
style="font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><b><i>Shalom</i> (which
is God’s will) be done,</b><br>
And justice ripen in the West
Bank sun.</dd>
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style="font-size: 16px; margin: 1.5rem 0px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif", serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><br>
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