Archbishop of Canterbury Meets with Layan Nasir “The Palestinian Christian”
Meeting Layan Nasir, a Palestinian Christian woman who has spent three stints in Israeli prison and administrative detention over the past five years, has brought the Archbishop of Canterbury “great joy.”. In May of this year, Layan, a 26-year-old member of the St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Birzeit, West Bank, was freed from Israel’s Damon Prison.
When the archbishop visited Birzeit on Sunday, her parents, Lula and Sami, invited her to their house. Layan discussed her experience and its effects with the archbishop during their talk. Layan was reassured by Archbishop Sarah that many people in the Church of England were praying for her and her family.
Archbishop Hosam Naoum, the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem, and Archbishop Sarah are currently traveling through Palestine and Israel on a five-day pilgrimage. Her purpose for making the pastoral visit is to show the larger Palestinian Christian community and the Episcopal (Anglican) Diocese of Jerusalem her prayers of solidarity.
It was a great pleasure to meet with Layan Nasir in Birzeit after her release from Israeli prison,” stated Dame Sarah. I am appreciative of Layan’s family’s hospitality in their home. In addition to praying for them, I will ask God to bless and heal Layan following her horrific imprisonment.
I offer prayers for the release of everyone who has been wrongfully imprisoned, both in Israel and Palestine and worldwide. After eight months in custody, Layan was freed without being charged in May 2026. In 2021, she was initially taken into custody by the Israeli military due to alleged involvement with a student organization while attending Birzeit University.
She was detained in administrative detention until her release in December 2024 after being arrested once more at gunpoint at her family’s residence in April 2024. The first Archbishop of Canterbury to visit the Christian town of Birzeit in Palestine is Dame Sarah.
In a sermon at St. Peter’s Anglican Church, she acknowledged the cost of life for them and their families and thanked the congregation and rector, Fr. Fadi Diab, for their hospitality. She promised to use her position to pursue “the freedom you deserve and the peace you desire.
And your faithful, hopeful resistance is also visible as fathers and mothers navigate the web of checkpoints daily to provide an income for their family, or to get their children to school to provide for their future, or as you gather to break bread together week by week in this church,” she continued, referring to living faithfully in times of fear and relying on Christian hope and Christ’s promises as an act of resistance.
”Your continuous fight for liberty and dignity is reflected in all of these acts of obedient resistance, which also point to our hope in Jesus Christ. “Administrative detention, which permits a person to be detained without charge or trial due to a perceived security concern, is a measure typically used during emergencies
