By Matters India Reporter
NEW DELHI, April 30, 2026: The National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) is calling for special prayers for the people of Palestine as a commitment to solidarity, recognizing that “the suffering of Palestinians is a wound within the body of Christ.”
The special day is scheduled for May 15 and church leaders are calling for all member churches, regional councils, and partners to integrate the Nakba Day Liturgy into Sunday worship
Nakba Day, observed annually on May 15, marks the 1948 displacement of more than 700,000 Palestinians, whose villages were destroyed and communities uprooted.
“This historical wound continues to bleed into the present,” the NCCI said in a statement, noting that occupation and systemic injustice still shape daily life.
Through the Kairos India Partnership, NCCI is inviting congregations to join “a collective act of remembrance, lament, and solidarity.”
The council commended the liturgical resource prepared by the Global Kairos for Justice – Asia Theology Network, designed for open use in congregational settings.
“This observance is a commitment to solidarity,” the statement added, urging churches to make the remembrance meaningful through prayer, preaching, education, and public witness.
Leaders emphasized that faith must be transformed into action, lament into resistance, and worship into testimony of God’s liberating presence among the oppressed.
The NCCI is an ecumenical expression of Protestant and Orthodox Churches as well as ecumenical organizations, regional councils and agencies in India. It is made up of 32 member Churches, 17 regional Christian Councils, 18 All India Organisations and 7 Related Agencies — representing about 14 million people in India.
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