Web-extra (May 24, 2018): The Contemporary Middle East; Through the Scholarly Eyes of a Palestinian Christian.

Web-extra (May 24, 2018): The Contemporary Middle East;
Through the Scholarly Eyes of a Palestinian Christian.

By Sharron Hanna.

It is not often that you get to listen to an Anglican Priest ordained in the Diocese of Jerusalem, currently serving in the Diocese of Liverpool, England who is also a scholar, Islam Lecturer and who travels under an Israeli passport.

There will be an opportunity to do so when the Rev’d Dr. Razid Said arrives in Ottawa to give a trio of talks offering Palestinian Christian reflections on medieval Islam and the current Middle East.

The talks take place June 19 at 7p.m. at All Saints’ with St. Matthias in Westboro and then at St. Martin’s in McKellar Park at 7p.m. June 21 and 22nd. No admission fee and all welcome to attend.

Thanks to an invitation from Fr. John Organ, Rector at St. Martin’s Anglican Church, parishioners there, and at All Saints Anglican Church, Westboro, are getting set to welcome the Reverend Dr. Yazid Said, Islam Scholar, Anglican Priest and Missioner.

He will be in Ottawa the third week of June to give this trio of talks. Yazid is an ordained Anglican priest formerly with the Diocese of Jerusalem and now with the Diocese of Liverpool, England where he is Islam Lecturer at Liverpool Hope University.

Considering his priestly and academic credentials, Yazid arrives well equipped and uniquely placed to offer scholarly insight from his perspective as a Palestinian Christian.

After completing classical studies in Arabic and English Literature at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Yazid studied theology at Cambridge where he completed a PhD at Corpus Christi College, and served as the honorary assistant chaplain.

His doctorate was on the medieval Islam theologian Abu Hamid al-Ghazali who lived from 1058 to 1111AD. Yazid held a variety of post-doctoral fellowships and was a research fellow at the Centre for Islamic Theology at Tubingen University in Germany. He has lectured on Islamic Studies at the Mater Dei Institute of Education, Dublin City University and was recipient of the Gumble-Woods scholarship at the Tantur Ecumenical Research Institute in Jerusalem where he completed his book Ghazali’s Politics in Context, published in 2013 and republished in paperback in 2017.

Between 2011 and 2014 Yazid was an affiliated member of Faculty at McGill University in Montreal.
The schedule of Dr. Said’s talks here in Ottawa, by general topic and location, is as follows:

• “Islam” Tuesday June 19 at 7:00 p.m. at All Saints, with St. Matthias in Westboro 347 Richmond Road
• “Islam and Christianity” Thursday June 21 at 7:00 p.m. at St. Martin’s, 2120 Prince Charles Road,
• “Christians and the Middle East” Friday, June 22 at 7p.m. at St. Martin’s.

Dr. Said will be guest of honour at a luncheon hosted by St Martin’s on Wednesday, June 20 and will be guest preacher at St. Martin’s Sunday morning worship services taking place at 8:30a.m. and at 10:00a.m. on June 24th.

For his part, Fr. John is hopeful that people throughout the Diocese will take advantage of this special opportunity to see the contemporary Middle East through Dr. Said’s scholarly eyes. Please visit St. Martin’s website for any additions/changes to this schedule. http://www.stmartinsottawa.ca .

Photo Caption: Event Poster. (Photo inset courtesy of Liverpool Hope University.)