BATH

T he Rev. Carol L. Huntington has seen the plight of destitute people in the inner cities of the Northeast. She has worked on the Episcopal Diocese of Maine Community on Indian Relations.

Huntington and her husband, Al Ferguson, share their two-family home as part of a housing ministry. A lifelong member of the Episcopal Church and a retired social worker, she has made helping others a lifelong mission.

But the conditions that Huntington and other members of New England Episcopal Companions have witnessed during two visits to occupied Palestine have been a life-changer — even for her.

“It changed me,” Huntington, a member of Grace Episcopal Church, said last week. “This is my work now.”

Huntington and four other New England Episcopal Companions, members of the Society of Companions of the Holy Cross (SCHC), were sponsored by Sabeel, the Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in East Jerusalem. She emphasizes that Christians and Jews, as well as Muslims, are among the 5 million refugees living as virtual captives in the occupied territory of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

“We are not attacking the Jews,” she said. “We met with all nonviolent people. We met with Jews, Muslims and Christians, all working for peace and justice.”

Huntington and her four Companions saw a Muslim goatsman whose tent in South Hebron is under orders for demolition. They witnessed the demolition of homes — including one that has been razed six times — and she showed a tile from the home’s floor. They saw a home in Bethlehem surrounded on three sides by a 30-foot wall. They heard of 1,000 Bedouins forced to depart their dwellings.

The five Companions also included:

— Linda McVay, SCHC, outreach chair and Stephen Ministry Leader and Pastoral Care at Christ Church, Portsmouth, N.H. McVay is a sculptor with a studio in Eliot.

— Betty Lane, SCHS, leader in her parish at Christ Episcopal Church, Portsmouth, N.H. Lane enjoys writing prayers and psalms.

— Carol Kingston, SCHC, personal committee chair. Kingston lives in Rowley, Mass., and has family in Bowdoinham.

— Barbara Whitehair, SCHC, of Methuen, Mass. Whitehair has been a Companion for 27 years, and just completed a four-year term as chairwoman of the SCHC Aims and Prophetic Ministries Committee. Her heart has been warmed by the welcome of the Palestinian people, and her faith inspired and challenged by the steadfastness of many of them in a life of active, nonviolent resistance.

Huntington, McVay, Kingston and Lane were present at Grace Episcopal on Sunday, bearing witness to what they saw and experienced in the occupied territory. McVay shared the stories of four ongoing demolition sites.

“I ask you to pray for these families and all the others who live daily with the threat of losing their homes,” McVay said. “Over the two weeks of our trip, we heard many stories. These were the first to make me cry.”

McVay related the experience of one West Bank family in the town of Anata, just northeast of Jerusalem:

“Imagine, it is 3 a.m. and you are suddenly awakened by soldiers with weapons who tell you that the government has arbitrarily decided the home where you live and your ancestors have lived for hundreds of years is located on land that is now designated as ‘agricultural.’ You must demolish it by yourself within 24 hours or pay the government to demolish it.

“The next night you and your children are again awakened and told you have 15 minutes to get your belongings and clothes and get out of your home. You can’t possibly grab your seven sleeping kids and anything significant in that amount of time. Next come the canisters of tear gas because you took too long.

“This is a reality for Palestinians who have the misfortune to live on lands that the Israelis want for new settlements. Their property rights are usurped through the denial of building permits followed by the issuance and execution of demolition orders. This happened to Salim Shawamreh and his wife.

“Their house was rebuilt for the fifth time in 2012 by the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolition. Thirty Internationals stood side-by-side with Israelis and Palestinians who refused to be enemies, demonstrating that there are partners for peace. It took two weeks and the help of almost 100 additional volunteers to transform the pile of rubble left after the fifth demolition into a fully functioning house with a terrace and a garden.

Their new home was dedicated as a center for peace in the memory of Rachel Corrie, an American, and Nuha Sweiden, a Palestinian, who died resisting house demolitions in Gaza.

“The beautiful, rebuilt Beit Arabiya was on our itinerary for a Nov. 7 visit. Three days before we arrived, it was demolished for the sixth time. All we saw was an ugly pile of rubble where the new house once stood. Salim, his wife and children, temporarily living in a relative’s nearby house, warmly greeted us. They are living symbols of resistance to the Occupation. They stand steadfastly for justice and peace, determined that they will not be moved off their land. They are determined to rebuild again. They are determined to be nonviolent witnesses.”

Prior to McVay’s presentation, Huntington related that, at the diocesan convention in October, a resolution states the following: “Resolved that the 193rd Convention of the Diocese of Maine call upon all … to include as part of every meeting in calendar year 2013, no matter what the purpose, the following agenda item: ‘How will what we are doing here affect or involve people living in poverty?’”

“I suggest a simple moment of silence now to reflect … ‘How will what we are doing here affect or involve people living in poverty?’” Huntington said.

Demolition isn’t the only hardship the refugees face.

“There was sewer in the streets,” Huntington said prior to Sunday’s presentations. “There are guns everywhere. There are soldiers everywhere. There’s violence.”

Huntington said she doubts the possibility of the U.S.- backed “two-state solution.”

“There’s no way,” she said. “This land is Swiss cheese. Maybe there could be one state for Palestine/Israel.”

The media, Huntington said, has come to better understand and cover the Palestinian issue in the past two years.

“It’s because of nonviolent efforts like these,” she said.

lgrard@timesrecord.com