The Executive Director and Stated Clerk of the interim unifying agencies, the Rev. Jihyun Oh, joined more than a dozen U.S. Christian faith leaders in signing a letter addressed to both presidential campaigns requesting each “work toward a just and permanent solution that addresses the core issues” in the ongoing violence in Gaza and Israel-Palestine.
The Rev. Dr. Teri McDowell Ott, editor and publisher of the Presbyterian Outlook, conducted the following interview with Doug Dicks, a PC(USA) mission co-worker and regional liaison for Israel, Palestine and Jordan. The article originally appeared in the Presbyterian Outlook and is republished by Presbyterian News Service with permission from the Presbyterian Outlook.
Since April, protests in support of Palestine and pro-Israel counter-demonstrations have occupied college campuses across the nation as a new generation of students finds ways to speak and act in accordance with their conscience. According to The New York Times, more than 2,900 people have been arrested or detained on campuses across the country.
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 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.
When a crowd was gathered on the hill to hear Jesus preach and the crowd was hungry, the disciples wanted to send them away. Instead, Jesus instructs them in Mark’s gospel, “you give them something to eat.”
The Presbyterian Mission Agency’s World Mission ministry, in collaboration with the Office of Public Witness and the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations, is launching a webinar series dedicated to the current crisis unfolding in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. The first webinar, scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, Dec. 12, is titled “Jewish and Christian Voices for Peace.”
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has a new online landing page that will allow users to engage with the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict more easily using digital resources.
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, in collaboration with World Mission and the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, has awarded nearly $100,000 in grant funding to support relief efforts in Israel-Palestine. The now month-long conflict continues to escalate and exact a heavy toll on civilian casualties along with crippling home and property loss in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Jerusalem.
World Council of Churches leaders spoke of unity and hope during the hour-long wrap-up press conference for the 11th Assembly Thursday, which can be viewed here.
