The Fellowship to Host Baptist Leaders in Israel
The Fellowship | February 3, 2017
One of The Fellowship’s missions has always been to build bridges of faith between Christians and Jews. This outreach will be on display this month, reports The San Diego Jewish World, when we host a group of American Baptist leaders on their trip to the Holy Land:
Fourteen American Baptist leaders will visit Israel from Feb. 13-20 with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (The Fellowship), to learn firsthand about the Jewish state while strengthening Christian support for Israel and Christian-Jewish alliances.
The six-day trip will bring 14 Baptist leaders to Israel’s Christian and Jewish holy sites such as the Wailing Wall and Old City of Jerusalem, Masada and the Sea of Galilee, and biblical sites such as Caesarea, Muhraka (Horn of Carmel) and Megido. The group will also visit Israel’s Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem.
“Thanks to The Fellowship, this trip will help us build bridges with the Jewish people while helping us to serve our congregations and in turn to serve G-d,” said Rev. Samuel Tolbert, a trip leader and president of the National Baptist Convention of America (NBCA).
The Baptist leaders are the most recent major Christian group to visit Israel with The Fellowship. In the summer of 2015, The Fellowship hosted 21 top ministers of the Detroit-based Pentecostal group the Church of God In Christ, while in in January 2016, it brought 22 top clergy of the Washington, D.C.-based Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC), the movement of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., to Israel. In May of last year, 26 leaders of the second-largest African-American Baptist group in the U.S., the NBCA, came to Israel with The Fellowship, and last September The Fellowship brought 22 leaders from the Bahamas-based Global United Fellowship (GUF) to Israel.
“We are honored to welcome these outstanding Baptist leaders in Israel,” said Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder and president of The Fellowship. “This important mission will not only strengthen the powerful connection between Christians and Jews, but will remind Israel and the Jewish people of the unconditional love and support we receive from our Christian friends.”