THE INVITATION
We’re calling on all Christian ministers to join us in centering Mutual Flourishing this October 6.
After almost an entire year of witness and reflection, the time is now to speak with a collective voice for the sake of peace.
The only future for anyone in the holy land is a future for everyone in the holy land. We repent of our silence and inaction, and choose instead to invest in a new future for Israelis and Palestinians, together.
On October 6, we will use our platforms and pulpits, our prayers and liturgies, our voices and instruments, to honor the victims of war, lament the indignity of violence, and plant the seeds of God’s Kingdom of justice, peace, and reconciliation.
THE CONFESSION
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment?
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
This October 6, we commit ourselves to peace, reconciliation, and nonviolent co-resistance to injustice. We choose to be neighbors to all, rejecting the trap of enemy-making. We own our agency and responsibility to join Jesus in the building of his Kingdom and the transformation of violence into flourishing.
LET US pray for the people of the Holy Land, and to commit ourselves to be the allies of all those who are working to end the siege and destruction of Gaza and to return the hostages.
LET US confess the things we have done as Americans and as Christians to help perpetuate decades of injustice and harm.
LET US also confess the things we have not done and to repent of our silence in the face of what experts have called an unfolding genocide in Gaza.
LET US acknowledge our contributions to antisemitism and Islamophobia and commit ourselves to loving all of our neighbors as ourselves.
LET US denounce and resist violence in all its forms and grieve with all who mourn.
LET US come together to be a people of peace, justice and nonviolence and to build the possibility of mutual flourishing for all people in the Holy Land, Palestinians and Israelis, Jews, Christians and Muslims.