The Rt Rev Riah Abu El-Assal is a refugee, father, husband, politician, deacon, priest, archdeacon, canon, ecumenist, inter-faith activist and the 13th Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle East, now retired. Bishop Riah has served in different capacities – as an active member of the WCC Commission on Human Rights; co-chair of the World council For Religious Leaders; co-founder of the Nazareth Democratic Front, secretary general of the Progressive Movement; third candidate for the 1984 1nd 1988 Knesset; chairman of Dr Anis Fund; chairman of Al-Sawt (Voice) Publishing House; visiting lecturer at St George’s College, Jerusalem; founder of Bishop Riah Educational Campus in Nazareth; and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Academic Arab College For Education in Israel – Haifa. Bishop Riah brought to the episcopate a ministry that has been nurtured by his hometown, Nazareth, where he served as rector of Christ Church with distinction for twenty-seven years. He is the author of Caught In Between, a book translated into a number of languages, and contributed to a number of books among them: Walking the Red Line; How Long O Lord; Faith and The Intifada; Judaism or Zionism; Christians in the Holy Land.
