Atlanta Bishop J. Neil Alexander will join a delegation of leaders from Kids4Peace USA to the Holy Land April 24-May 2 for a special board meeting of the organization at St. George's College in Jerusalem.

Atlanta Bishop J. Neil Alexander will join a delegation of leaders from Kids4Peace USA to the Holy Land April 24-May 2 for a special board meeting of the organization at St. George's College in Jerusalem. 

Alexander is a member of the group's board of directors.  At the invitation of Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem Suheil Dawani, he also will preach May 1 at the Feast of the Ascension Eucharist at the Cathedral of St. George the Martyr.

Kids4Peace is an international education for peace program for children ages 10 to 12 from Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions. Founded in 2002 by St. George's College of the Diocese of Jerusalem, the program has been conducted for the past five years in the Diocese of Atlanta.  

The program was designed to broaden understanding of the Abrahamic faiths and promote interfaith dialogue and work.  Twelve Jewish, Muslim and Christian children from the Holy Land join their American "peace pals" for a Kids4Peace summer camp each year at Mikell Camp and Conference Center in Toccoa, Ga.

Also going on the pilgrimage will be other local Kids4Peace USA board members president Charles Gearing (St. Bartholomew's, Atlanta), vice president Nancy Brockaway (St. Anne's, Atlanta), treasurer Lynn Pasqualetti (St. Bartholomew's, Atlanta); and Susan Johnson, president of Kids4Peace Atlanta and a member of St. Bartholomew's. They will join up in Tel Aviv with Rabbi Joshua Chasen of the Ohavi Zedek Synagogue in Burlington, Vt.  Two Muslim board members from the U.S. are unable to attend.

Their local hosts will be Bishop Dawani, Dr. Stephen Need, dean of St. George's College, and Dr. Henry Carse,  Kids4Peace USA executive director.  They will be joined by former Kids4Peace participants, their families and their interfaith advisors in the Holy Land. The delegation will visit a number of pilgrimage sites, including a Palestinian refugee camp and a Jewish settlement, and will participate in Easter Orthodox Easter liturgies.

Gearing said, "We scheduled this meeting to broaden our understanding of the setting in which our partners live, work and pray, and thereby to strengthen our ability to provide leadership for the Kids4Peace program. With our plans to meet with former youth participants and their families, we will also be able to better assess the impact of Kids4Peace."