Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) condemns the violence and attacks being reported [in recent] days in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt). We grieve the loss of both Israeli and Palestinian lives and call on the U.S. government to do everything possible to bring an end to the violence. Unless the core causes of the conflict are addressed, violent acts perpetrated by both sides will continue.
The Rev. Deborah Lee asked participants in a recent webinar to close their eyes and think about what it feels like to be secure.
“What were the things that brought about a presence of calm and peace and soothing — a relaxed, not vigilant nervous system?” Lee said, bringing viewers out of the exercise. “The absence of the threat of physical harm, the absence of hunger, the absence of worry, the absence of debt, the absence of fear.
Every Thursday, I try to wear black to stand in solidarity with my siblings who are experiencing violence. Some days I forget, but working from home gives me the opportunity to correct it. But those who experience violence can’t forget, because they live with the trauma of it every day. What if we, in our daily lives, loved others like God in Christ loves them? Would we turn a blind eye to the violence and injustice we know is happening around us? What if we lived in a world that did not tolerate violence? What if the church stood as a voice against violence?
In 2013, mission co-workers Cindy Corell and Mark Hare were working with Viljean Louis, coordinator of the Peasant Movement of Bayonnais in Haiti. More than 100 people in the mountain community arrived to receive training for starting yard gardens. They were to learn the skills and then share them with neighbors.
I was born in Nazareth, but spent five years of my childhood in Haifa, Israel’s third largest city, where my father was the Anglican priest.
In some ways, living on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea was idyllic. I remember with joy road trips to Nazareth and fishing excursions with my grandfather. But I also remember having to speak my mother tongue, Arabic, in hushed tones on the street, lest we attract unwanted attention from our Jewish Israeli neighbors and always sensing that somehow, we might be seen as different.
As George Floyd’s murder ignited a movement against systemic racism in the U.S., the death of a young woman has become a rallying cry for justice in Haiti.
How to put an end to the killing of schoolchildren and thousands of others in Cameroon — and ways to support Cameroonians seeking asylum in other countries, including the United States — was the topic of a webinar Tuesday attended by more than 300 people.
The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground…” (Genesis 4: 10 NIV)
This was the opening passage of a heartfelt and prophetic pastoral message that the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA) sent to its congregations condemning systemic and structural injustice and lamenting security force excesses in both South Africa and the United States.
