A Liverpool church is creating links with a congregation in the West Bank by twinning with a church in Nablus. The Catholic parish St Cecilia’s in Tuebrook has initiated a twinning project with the Catholic Parish of St. Justin in Nablus. The ties between the two churches are being formed as part of St Cecilia’s centenary celebrations. | "The main objective in this is to build friendships." | | Father Mark Madden |
Father Mark Madden the parish priest for St Cecilia’s is travelling to Nablus to visit St Justin’s and formalise links between the two congregations. Father Madden says the project started as a way of looking to the future after St Cecilia’s centenary, “It was about this time last year that I thought we need to do something that sprouts and comes from this centenary year and is looking outwards. “So that’s when I struck upon the idea of twinning. The Archbishop put me in touch with a priest from East Anglia who has twinned his parish with a parish in Palestine.” Christians and Muslims St Justin’s is in Nablus a large city under Palestinian authority in the West Bank. The city is north of Jerusalem and Father Madden says the church is situated in a diverse area, “Nablus is an interesting place in that both Christians and Muslims get on fairly well together. The place we’re twinning with the parish runs a school, a thriving youth group and scout pack.
 | | Father Mark Madden |
“The school, the youth group and the scout group are predominantly Muslim. So they do live quite happily side by side. So in Nablus things are fairly peaceful.” Parishioners of St Cecilia’s have raised over £3500 for the church in Nablus but Father Madden says this is only part of the aim of the twinning, “The main objective in this is to build friendships, to build relationships. Certainly the people in Nablus can be forgotten about because it is difficult to get in to the place and out of the place. Father Madden will be taking gifts from local people and school children and hopes to build on the links he creates by arranging a reciprocal visit to Liverpool in the near future. | 
