I just came across the extraordinary biography of a recently dead Melkite priest, Joseph Raya. Archbishop Raya served from the Galilee to Birmingham, Alabama; he was a close friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and he led protests in Israel, while asserting that Muslims, Christians and Jews must reconcile.
Archbishop Joseph Raya, former Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth and all Galilee, died 10 June in hospital in Barry’s Bay, Ontario. He was 88 years old. Raya, who served in Galilee from 1968 to 1974, was known for his commitment to seeking reconciliation between Jews, Christians and Muslims and for his English translation of the Byzantine Liturgy. He has been nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
Born in Zahle, Lebanon in 1916, Raya did his seminary studies at St. Anne’s in Jerusalem and was ordained in 1941 and worked in Lebanon and Egypt before emigrating to the United States in 1950. He served as assistant pastor of St. Ann Melkite Church in West Paterson, NJ and became pastor of St. George Melkite parish in Birmingham, Alabama in 1952. Raya’s recognition of the dignity of every person brought him into close friendship with the late Rev. Martin Luther King. He marched several times at King’s side, and suffered at the hands of the Klu Klux Klan.
In Jerusalem in 1972 he led a peaceful demonstration of thousands of Arabs and Jews before Golda Meir’s Knesset, seeking justice for two villages of Upper Galilee who had been evacuated from their lands in 1948 but not allowed to return, despite a decision by the Supreme Court of Israel granting them permission to return. He sought justice through non-violent means and called Palestinians to be good citizens of the state of Israel. In August 1972, Raya ordered all his Galilean churches closed one Sunday as an expression of mourning what he called “the death of justice in Israel” as the villagers remained dispossessed.
In September 1974 Raya resigned from his archbishopric. In his letter of resignation he declared, “I came to the Holy Land to give. And behold! I was overwhelmed by what I received. I came to enrich and purify. And behold! I was the one to be enriched and purified. I loved the family of the Lord. His family are both the Jews and the Arabs. I held the Muslim, the Druze, the Jew, the Christian, everyone, believer and unbeliever, in the same embrace. How I yearned to wash everyone’s feet and hold them to my heart and try to weld them into one heart and one soul and show them all how they can live together, love together and see the radiance of God in each other’s face.” Though Raya was considered controversial, both Arabs (Christian and Muslim) and Jews regretted his decision to resign.
More here.
I find Msgr. Raya's biography remarkable. Perhaps my father's ecumenism and passion for justice were not aberrations; he seems to have arisen from a spiritual tradition in his church, even though he did not follow doctrine and was not a believer. Or was he?
Although I was not raised in any church, and had no more than a passing connection to the Melkite church of my ancestors, I still find in it a leader (and there are more like him) who lived beliefs similar to mine. Furthermore, Raya's connection to Dr. King knits together my father's tradition to that of my mother, an American Protestant who went to jail during the sit-ins and received a personal letter from Dr. King for her trouble. I'm really moved.
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