The Holy Land Co-ordination of Episcopal Conferences in support of the Church of the Holy Land, the Holy Land Co-ordination, is currently taking place in and around Jerusalem from Saturday, 17 January to Wednesday, 21 January 2026.
The first activity in the programme was a visit to the Comboni Sisters to witness their pastoral and humanitarian ministry among Bedouin communities, marked by long-term presence, care for families, and a quiet commitment to dignity and justice at the margins of society.
Bishop Nicholas Hudson, Moderator of the Holy Land Co-ordination, offered his reflections after a day spent with clans of a Bedouin tribe in Palestine.
Moved by the poverty of the Bedouin people, Bishop Hudson reflected on their closeness to the desert and their life on the margins of society.
He said:
“As soon as you arrive, they’re very close to the desert – the desert where Jesus went to pray at his most critical moments, and you say to yourself, ‘These people really are on the margins of society.’ Then you’re struck by the joy as you come together to meet with them and introduce yourselves. When they began to share with us what the Comboni Sisters give them – the hope that they give them – I said to myself, ‘What a good place for us to start our Holy Land Co-ordination,’ because the theme is Encounters of Hope, people who give us hope in the Holy Land. The Comboni Sisters really are witnesses to hope.”
Bishop Hudson was particularly struck to hear a Bedouin woman say to the Comboni Sisters who stand alongside them and work to improve their lives, “Nobody sees us – only you.”
Bishop Hudson’s response was a simple and powerful one. “We were able to say, ‘Well, we’ve come to tell you that we see you, too, and we won’t forget you.'”
