The Rev. B. Penrose Hoover, bishop of the Lower Susquehanna Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, will travel to Israel and the West Bank later this month with eight other Lutheran bishops on a mission to promote peace and to strengthen church advocacy in the region.
The trip, planned for Nov. 28 to Dec. 8, is part of the ELCA bishops' initiative to support a churchwide strategy for engagement in the region, according to a news release.
The bishops plan to meet with United Nations representatives, visit and worship with local congregations, visit the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem, hold discussions at a synagogue, visit refugee camps and Hebron, a West Bank city where Palestinians and Israeli settlers reside.
Hoover of Fairview Township was supposed to join colleagues in the region in January, but he put off the trip because of fighting between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza at the time.
He will be accompanied by wife Sharon, the pastor of St. John Lutheran Church (Hampton) in New Oxford.
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