Dear university presidents and chancellors,
We write to you as members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a 300-year-old institution that divested from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory in 2014. We encourage you to take similar measures at your university.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Public Witness joined with more than 100 additional immigrant, refugee, human rights and humanitarian organizations urging Congress to introduce and pass legislation that supports reinstating funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, known as UNRWA. The letter calls it a “moral and strategic failure” to suspend funding during a period of catastrophe and extreme need.
World Central Kitchen, which last week honored seven colleagues killed during an April 1 Israeli airstrike in Gaza, will resume operations in Gaza Monday with a Palestinian team delivering food to address widespread hunger, including in the north.
The Presbyterian Hunger Program has been supporting its partner Improvement and Development for Communities Center (IDCO) in Gaza since 2014 in IDCO’s efforts to improve the food security situation for Gazans.
The pictures of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza being forced by the Israeli military to evacuate the northern part of the Gaza Strip heading south evoked old memories of the 1948 Nakba. In 1948, Jewish Israeli terror groups destroyed and erased over 500 Palestinian villages and displaced nearly 800,000 Palestinians,¹ including more than 50,000 Palestinian Christians who had to flee, thus becoming refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon.
The Presbyterian Hunger Program has been supporting its partner Improvement and Development for Communities Center (IDCO) in Gaza since 2014 in IDCO’s efforts to improve the food security situation for Gazans.
Together with a few ecumenical partners, “Solidarity with the Suffering,” a 35-member delegation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Israel/Palestine Mission Network returned home last week after eight days of solidarity with people who are suffering and mourning the deaths of those who have died in the war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel.
The Bible has a surprisingly large number of references to water. One concordance had 300 water references. From Noah’s Ark and the destructive flood to Isaiah’s well-watered garden and an ever-flowing spring, the role of water is myriad. Water as everlasting life and water as the bringer of death, the Bible has it all!
Evaluations, next steps and planned regional gatherings following last month’s first-ever Matthew 25 Summit were among the topics for members of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board during the second and final day of their two-day online gathering Wednesday.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Public Witness has again issued an Action Alert, asking Presbyterians to advocate for a ceasefire and an increase in humanitarian aid for Gaza.
