| Douglas Dicks
P.O. Box 9117
Amman, Jordan 11191
Email: Doug Dicks
Doug Dicks has been under appointment as a PC(USA) mission co-worker in the Middle East since 1995. Doug now serves as regional liaison for the PC(USA) in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, including the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem. Since May of 2007 Doug has made his home in Amman Jordan. For the previous 12 years Doug lived in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
“There is meaningful work that we, as a church, can contribute to in the Holy Land and in the Middle East, and both the challenges that we face and the hope that we seek to be a part of enable our own understanding and interpretation of peacemaking and reconciliation,” writes Doug.
Doug’s arrival in the Middle East in September 1995 coincided with several historical events unfolding in the region. The Oslo II accords between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority were signed in Washington, and IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) troops re-deployed from several West Bank cities later that year, including the city of Bethlehem, were Doug lived.
The late Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated by a right-wing Israeli student in November of that same year, an act clearly meant to undermine the peace process. Likewise, a militant Palestinian group carried out a series of suicide bombings beginning in 1996, equally trying to disrupt the probability of any mutual reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. Today, as both sides of the conflict inch towards a final agreement, key issues such as Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, Israeli settlements, water and borders have yet to be resolved.
Doug’s work brings him in contact with heads of churches as well as with elected government officials, human rights groups, and prominent members of Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli societies. Over the years, Doug has hosted numerous visitors to the region, and escorted many of them to the Gaza Strip to view first-hand the medical clinics and vocational training centers run by the Middle East Council of Churches, serving many of Gaza’s poorest residents—Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
From his home in Amman, Jordan, Doug continues to foster relationships between the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and its partner churches and organizations in the region. In addition, he communicates to fellow Presbyterians and congregations in the United States through an email list, providing a regional perspective on today’s headlines coming out of the Middle East.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Doug earned an associate degree in education from Lord Fairfax Community College in Middletown, Virginia, before graduating from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, with a bachelor of science degree in anthropology and archaeology. He did post-baccalaureate studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Prior to his assignment in Jerusalem, he was an airline pricing analyst with Airline Tariff Publishing Company at Washington Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia. |
