Feras Qumseya is the President and founding member of the Holy Land Christian Society (HLCS). He is a Palestinian Christian born in Bethlehem, Palestine. At the age of fifteen, he was selected by a national committee to represent the Palestinian people at the United World College of Hong Kong for a two-year study program. Mr. Qumseya received a full scholarship to attend Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin, where he obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Economics and |Management. He holds a Masters of Science degree from The George Washington School of Business and Public Management. Mr. Qumseya currently works at the District of Columbia Government at the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. Prior to this post, Mr. Qumseya worked for a regional development firm, A&R Companies, and prior to that he was a Managing Partner at FBQ Development, Inc. In addition, he serves on the Board of Directors of Global Institute for Technology Advancement (GIFTA).

Throughout his life, Mr. Qumseya has advocated on behalf of Palestinians and Israelis for peace and justice. He has participated in local, national and international events, including more than 300 Churches to tell the story of Christian Palestinians and their plight.

Mary K. Turner, Vice President

Mrs. Turner recently retired after 25 years teaching, many of those on the subject of World Religions in a school in the Washington, DC area. After early years teaching on an Indian reservation in Montana, Mrs. Turner pursued her graduate studies in Humanities with a focus on Indian art and music and later researched alternative education programs, helping to found Summit High School and The Learning Center in Wyoming, a program for developmentally disabled young children. Most recently she completed an appointment to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS) and is presently on the White House Commission for Presidential Scholars. Because of a lifelong interest in education, Mrs. Turner visited the Christian schools in Palestine and works towards raising awareness for their needs and assists with scholarships to sustain them.

Father Firas Aridah, Board Member

Father Firas Nasib Aridah, who is a Jordanian priest served the Roman Catholic Parish of Our Lady Mother of Sorrows Church in the village of Aboud in the West Bank from 2003 until 2009. He is a leader in interfaith reconciliation working to help strengthen interfaith alliances among Christians and Muslim residents of Aboud. While in Aboud, he oversaw community and educational activities at Our Lady Mother of Sorrows parish. In August of 2009 Fr. Firas became the Parish priest of St. Joseph Parish in Jifna, Palestine. Father Firas leads HLCS activitied in the Holy Land and has traveled to the United States several times to raise awareness about the plight of his Christian communities. In 2006, he testified before the Committee on International Relations of the U.S. House of Representatives along with the late Henry Hyde, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee then.

Father Firas joined HLCS Board in 2005. He was ordained in Amman, Jordan, in 2001 and was subsequently named parish priest assistant in Zarka, Jordan. Click here to read Father Firas Blog.

Reverend Donald Rooney, Secretary

Father Rooney is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, and Pastor of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He received his MA in Systematic Theology from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, PA following a number of years in the advertising design business.

He serves as the Officer for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the Diocese of Arlington, as well as a number of related organizations: Secretary for the national Catholic Association of Diocesan Ecumenical and Interreligious Officers (CADEIO); Treasurer of the Virginia Ecumenical Council in Virginia of Lutheran, Anglican, Roman Catholic and United Methodist Churches (LARCUM), as well as a member of the Coordinating Cabinet for the Virginia Council of Churches. He is an active participant in various local and national dialogues and is a founding partner in the Catholic Muslim Dialogue of northern Virginia.
He is a founding Board Member of HLCS, and has visited the Holy Land in order to witness the circumstances surrounding the Christian community and their places of worship. Father Rooney is committed to building bridges of peace and friendship with our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land through HLCS.

Dennis B. Warner, Ph.D., Treasurer

Dennis B. Warner is a Senior Technical Advisor of Catholic Relief Services. He has over forty years experience in international development, working on problems of water supply, sanitation, environmental health and emergency relief assistance. Raised in the Chicago area, he studied history and engineering at the University of Illinois and Stanford University, and received a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the latter. Dr. Warner has lived in Tanzania, Uganda, Switzerland and France and has held positions with the Peace Corps, University of Dar es Salaam, Duke University, World Health Organization, several engineering consulting firms, World Bank and USAID.

Dr. Warner is a Member of Pax Christi, the international Catholic peace movement and in 2000 served as representative of Pax Christi International to the United Nations in Geneva. He has visited the Holy Land as a peace activist in 2002 and as water supply expert in 2005. Dr. Warner is currently a Board Member of Pax Christi Metro DC, Falls Church Historical Commission and the Holy Land Christians Society.

Todd Deatherage, Board Member

Todd Deatherage is the Executive Director of The Kairos Project, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to educating American faith-based communities for Middle East peace. Prior to joining Kairos, he spent sixteen years in senior positions in both the Legislative and Executive branches of the U.S. government.

From 2005 until January 2009 he was the chief of staff in the Secretary of State’s Office of Policy Planning at the State Department, where he also covered Israeli-Palestinian issues. He also spent two years as the Senior Advisor in the Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, where he specialized in religious freedom in the Middle East.

Mr. Deatherage spent a decade working in the U.S. Congress, including six years as the chief of staff to Senator Tim Hutchinson. He is a native Arkansan and began his career as an educator. He is a graduate of the University of Arkansas. He and his wife Judith have four children— Abigail, Zachary, William and Anna— and live in Fairfax County, Virginia.

Jane Deland, Board Member

Jane Slocum Deland received a B.A. from Smith College and a Master of Theological Studies degree from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. She served as a member of Wesley’s Board of Governors and then as Chief Development Officer (1998-2002). Since 2002, she has served as Special Assistant to the President of Wesley. She is a member of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square, Washington, DC, where she has served on the Vestry and as Assistant for Christian Formation. In Fall 2009, she participated in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land led by Bishop John Chane and The Reverend Canon John Peterson. This experience greatly inspired her to become actively involved in helping the Holy Land Christians Society expand its critical and urgent ministry.