The Most Rev. Samir Kafity died at his home outside San Diego. He was 81.

The former primate of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East has died. The Most Rev. Samir Kafity died following a stroke at his home in Rancho Bernardo, California on 21 Aug 2015. He was 81 years of age. Born in Haifa, Bishop Kafity was educated at the American University of Beirut and ordained to the priesthood in 1958. He served churches in Israel, Palestine and Jordan before his election as the second Arab bishop of the diocese in Jerusalem in 1984. Upon his retirement in 1998 he moved to California and became a US citizen in 2002. “Bishop Kafity was passionate for peace,” said former Anglican Consultative Council secretary general the the Rev. Canon John L. Peterson in a statement to the San Diego Tribune-Union. “He was the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem during two major political conflicts, the first Intifada and the first Gulf War. He firmly believed that the foundation stone of peace was always justice and his call for peace always centered around a just world for all people. One of Bishop Kafity’s great sayings was, ‘We are all citizens of Jerusalem.’ Today we celebrate Bishop Kafity’s life among us as he becomes a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem.”