Decolonizing Palestine Book Study – four-week session
Decolonizing Palestine challenges the weaponization of biblical texts to support the current settler-colonial state of Israel. The Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb argues that some of the most important theological concepts –Israel, the land, election, and chosen people –must be decolonized in a paradigm shift in Christian theological thinking about Palestine. Decolonizing Palestine is a timely book that builds on the latest research in settler-colonialism and human rights to place traditional theological themes within the wider socio-political context of settler colonialism as it is practiced by the modern nation-state of Israel. Written by a native Palestinian Christian theologian who continues to live in the region, Decolonizing Palestine provides an insider’s perspective that disrupts hegemonic and imperialist narratives about the region.
This book study spans four weeks, starting Thursday, Oct. 24 and continues on successive Thursdays Oct. 31, Nov. 7, and Nov. 14, Noon ET.
Register here
Confronting Christian Zionism – Episode 3
In the third and final webinar of the series we address how this flawed theology manifests in today’s oft-highly politicized faith practices.
Christian nationalism, whether in the U.S. or in other global contexts, brings together two seemingly unrelated identities—one’s faith in Jesus and one’s citizenship in a nation state—and grants these equal importance in a person’s life. In the U.S., Christian nationalism powerfully motivates some Christians, including some Presbyterians, to see the modern state of Israel as the homeland of God’s chosen people, which can move people to exclude any consideration of compassion for the indigenous Palestinians who, according to Christian nationalists and Christian Zionists, are living on land that is not theirs. Additionally, for U.S. Christians, discomfort about painful parts of U.S. history as a settler colonial state too often move us to ignore settler colonial acts in our modern time—particularly those of the modern state of Israel, which is seen through a Christian Zionist lens as the same as the ancient Israel referenced in the Bible.
This webinar is moderated by the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Holder Rich and will feature panelists the Rev. Jermaine Ross-Allam, Director Office of Repairs of Historic Harms, PC(USA), the Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb, founder and president of the Dar Al-Kalima University in Bethlehem and Lutheran pastor and the Rev. Dr. Laurie Lyter Bright, executive director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.
Date: Thursday, September 19, Noon ET
Watch a recording of the webinar here
Read a news story of the webinar here
Confronting Christian Zionism – Episode 2
The second webinar in this series will focus on nationalism and Christian Zionism and explore reasons for heightened nationalism around the globe. The discussion will recognize the chasm in church theology and ask: Are we a church that cares about the poor and oppressed, or are we an “empire” church? How have Christian Zionist ideologies led to giving Zionism — a political ideology — a pass by mainline churches? How are Americans complicit in the impunity Zionism enjoys today, which has led to the demonization of an entire people — Palestinians — who are now paying for European sins against their own Jewish populations?
This webinar is moderated by the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Holder Rich and will feature panelists the Rev. Jermaine Ross-Allam, Director Office of Repairs of Historic Harms, PC(USA), the Rev. Addie Domske, Steering Committee of the Israel Palestine Mission Network of the PC(USA), and Jonathan Kuttab, international human rights attorney and executive director of Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA).
Date: Thursday, May 23, 2024
Watch a recording of the webinar here.
Watch a recording of the webinar in Spanish here.
Read the news story of the webinar here.
Confronting Christian Zionism – Episode 1
The 216th General Assembly (2004) approved the “active opposition” by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) “to Christian Zionism and the development of a plan to communicate the theological and political ramifications it engenders within our denomination, in the mass media, and among U.S. government officials.” Twenty years later our Palestinian partners are calling us to challenge a theology that reinforces and supports occupation, annexation and apartheid. This first webinar in a series on the topic will introduce the theology that contributes to the violence Palestinians experience on a daily basis and explore its connection to a settler colonial project that is having devastating consequences on the Palestinian people, including the Christian communities that have lived on the land for two millennia. This webinar is moderated by the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Holder Rich and will feature panelists the Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, the Rev. Marietta Macy and Rabbi Brant Rosen.
Date: Wednesday, April 18, 2024
Watch a recording of the webinar here.
Watch a recording of the webinar in Spanish here.
Read the news story of the webinar here.
The Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza
Moderated by Catherine Gordon, representative for international issues for the Office of Public Witness, speakers include Nader Abu Amsha, director, Department of Service for Palestinian Refugees; Bill Deere, director, UNRWA Washington Representative Office; and Hassan El Tayyab, legislative director for Middle East Policy and Advocacy Organizer. The webinar provides opportunities for action to help alleviate the horrific humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Date: Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Watch a recording of the webinar here.
Read the news story of the webinar here.
Jewish and Christian Voices for Peace
Featured speakers were Rabbi Alissa Wise, lead organizer of Rabbis for Ceasefire, former staff leader at Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and a co-founder of the JVP’s Rabbinical Council and Rev. Fursan Zu’mot from the Arabic-speaking Congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan & the Holy Land (ELCJHL).
Date: Tuesday, December 12, 2023