Organizations

HCEF VISION STATEMENT, MISSION STATEMENT, CORE VALUES AND GOALS
HCEF Vision StatementWe envision a world where:

Americans and others understand the plight of Arab Christians in the Holy Land.
The Christian identity of where Christians live (for example, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Jerusalem) is healthy and recognized.
There are strong bonds of solidarity between Arab Christians in the Holy Land and elsewhere.
All Palestinian Arab Christians in the Holy Land are free to practice their faith.
All Palestinian Arab Christians in the Holy Land have adequate housing and economic opportunities.
Palestinian Arab Christians are no longer forced to emigrate from the Holy Land.
Palestinian Arab Christians are empowered to

Determine the contours of their own present and future.
Join their Palestinian brothers and sisters in preserving heritage, building civic society, and promoting investments.
Be the natural bridge for peace among Jews, Muslims, and Christians.

HCEF Mission Statement

HCEF is committed to the continued presence, empowerment, and well-being of Arab Christians in the Holy Land and to developing the bonds of solidarity between them and Christians elsewhere.

HCEF Core Values

Our mission and core values underpin everything we do.  When we are designing programs, putting together a conference, disseminating news from the Holy Land or from parishes around the U.S. and elsewhere, we look at whether we are living these values well.  These core values give our programs the roots they need to sustain the work when challenges arise.  So, HCEF is:

Ecumenical

From the very beginning, HCEF was an ecumenical organization.  There are multiple Christian denominations in the Holy Land, and our programs aim at supporting all of them.  We encourage Palestinian Christians to be ecumenical in their outreach to Christians around the world, and we encourage HCEF’s supporters to be ecumenical in their support and prayers as well.  Because the Christian population of the Holy Land comprises less than 2% of the population, it is important that they build their support for one another on the Christian faith that they have in common.

Based on Christian Faith

It is a core belief of Christians that we are one mystical Body in Christ.  We want all of our work to reflect that unity and to demonstrate that if any part of the body suffers, we all suffer.  By the same belief, we also demonstrate that when one part of the body rejoices, we all rejoice.

Dedicated to Peace and Justice

We firmly believe that a just peace in the Holy Land is the only long-term solution to the tough living conditions that have brought almost all of the Christians to emigrate.  We encourage the work of those who help to bridge the distance between the political factions that exacerbate the situation in the Holy Land.

Service-Oriented

Each person at HCEF seeks to be a servant leader following the example of Jesus Christ.  We serve both the Christians in the Holy Land and our amazingly generous supporters around the world.  We want each person who interacts with us to feel that we have given them our full attention, and we want each of our programs to reflect the importance of people-to-people connections.

Transparent

We want our work to be transparent.  We want people to understand how we build relationships between Holy Land Christians and how each of our programs operates.  We want HCEF supporters to connect in personal ways with the Christians whom they support in the Holy Land.

HCEF Goals

HCEF lives its mission and core values by witnessing the teaching of our Savior Jesus Christ.

• We educate people around the world about the presence of Arab Christians in the Holy Land and remind them of their moral, practical, and spiritual obligation to the Mother Church.

• We build community between Christians throughout the world and Arab Christians of the Holy Land through communication, publications, pilgrimages, and joint endeavors.

• We develop bonds of solidarity through church-to-church, family-to-family, and person-to-person partnership programs in order to bring Christians together in community for future cooperation.

• We promote peace, justice, interfaith dialogue, and reconciliation in the Holy Land by removing the causes of suffering and replacing despair with hope, fear with human security, and humiliation with dignity.

• We undertake specific projects designed to empower Arab Christians and advance better living conditions in the Holy Land.  Projects focus on creating economic opportunities, advancing education, building and renovating houses, and developing the healthy growth of children.

“Let us work together to replace despair with HOPE, fear with HUMAN SECURITY, and humiliation with DIGNITY”

The Markaz means "the center" in Arabic, but also Hebrew, Persian, Turkish and Urdu. The Markaz will be a home, a hub, a central gathering space for everyone interested in the greater Middle East, from Pakistan and Afghanistan in the east to Morocco in the west, for all minority cultures that are an essential aspect of the Islamic world, and for all us for working for peace, understanding and interfaith unity.

The Markaz
5998 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90035-2657
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Tel: 310.657.5511
Fax: 310.657.5522
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