Advent 2023: Suggested Actions To Take this Advent and Christmas Season
Kelly Latimore’s Refugees: The Holy Family
By Rev. Chad Collins
An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-14).
Sisters and Brothers,
As we come upon the holy seasons of Advent and Christmas, seasons that invite us to be still, to be in touch with our hearts’ deep longing, and to wait and watch for God with hopeful eyes, we cannot observe them as we normally would. As the leaders of the church in Jerusalem shared in their recent statement to the Christian world, “these are not normal times.”
In the land of our beloved Jesus’ birth, over 20,000 people have been murdered, mostly women and children. Homes, schools, churches, mosques, hospitals, bakeries, have been bombed beyond recognition. And though there was a six-day pause to the genocide in Gaza, the ceasefire has ended and bombings have resumed! Meanwhile, the West Bank and Jerusalem are experiencing daily attacks from settlers and the Israeli Occupation Forces. Since October 7th, B'Tselem reports, 13 Palestinian villages in the West Bank have been fully and forcibly displaced, and people are being killed nearly every day. A couple of days ago in Jenin, four people were killed, including a nine-year-old boy who was shot in the head by the IOF. These are not normal times, indeed. Or are they?
Though the blood shed is at an all time high (Nakba 1948: 15,000 killed and 750,000 displaced; Gaza 2023: 21,000 killed and 1.5 million displaced), the painful reality is that these days are far too normal. For the past 75-plus years, the Zionist Israeli apartheid government has been waging a violent settler-colonial war against the indigenous Palestinian people: stealing land, restricting resources (food, water, fuel, etc), controlling movement and all other freedoms. Our Palestinian siblings are either living as 10th-class citizens under Israeli apartheid, military occupation (military rule) in the West Bank and Jerusalem, under siege in Gaza, or in all parts of the world as members of the largest community of refugees.
And as Advent is upon us, we remember that the Palestine into which Jesus was born is not too different from the Palestine of the last 75 years. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, under Roman occupation and military rule! He was born in Bethlehem because his parents had to register with Rome, in order to be taxed. After Jesus’ birth, he and his parents had to flee to Egypt to escape Herod’s slaughter of the innocent babies.
As bad as things were for Mary and Joseph during the birth of their first child, what would it be like today? Due to the apartheid wall that completely encompasses Bethlehem, would Mary and Joseph even be allowed in the town? Would Jesus survive his birth? Would his house be bombed? If he were born today, would he be isolated inside his home because of curfews? Would Mary and Joseph be able to escape in order to save Jesus from the massacre of the innocents? Would Israel allow them through all the checkpoints and allow them into Gaza? Would Egypt open the Rafah Crossing so they could get away from Herod?
May these questions lead us all into a spirit of reflection and contemplation. May the God that came to Palestine 2,000 years ago come again and bring Light, Love and Peace with Justice to all God’s peoples. And may we act as partners in God’s work of liberation!
For Peace with Justice,
Rev. Chad Collins, FOSNA National Organizer
Suggested Actions To Take this Advent and Christmas Season
Respond to the Letter from Palestinian Christians calling for the cancellation of most Christmas festivities. To honor the massacred, keep things somber, reflective and focused on the spiritual meaning of Christmas.
Host a Service of Lament, encouraging communities to lead an effort to grieve and lament the genocide and confess our American churches’ complicity in our years of silence and inactivity in ending Israeli apartheid / occupation
To grow and invite others into the movement
Reshape the narrative and challenge dominant narrative
Modified Advent Candle Service
See Preach Palestine
Cut gift budget in half and give half to different organizations that are facilitating urgent humanitarian aid or supporting the people of Palestine; or, match your gift spending with an equal amount to help our sisters and brothers in need
Invitation for Pastors to lead by example
Publicly challenge / disrupt Christmas in the public sphere: at city’s manger scene, Christmas tree, or other public space. Challenge the church to get outside of the walls in a public way.
Ideas for rally in the city / town that you are in, where there is a manger or Christmas tree somewhere and shut it down/take it over. Interrupt the feelings of ease, warmth, etc. Disrupt the normal flow of the American Christmas machine. No Christmas as usual!
Could take place on Christmas Eve or another significant day in your city. For instance:
In Pennsylvania, we are organizing to converge on the capitol in Harrisburg and do an art display that would symbolize the 17,000 martyrs; we might have Janaza (funeral) prayer and other Christian / Jewish prayers
FOSNA co-sponsored a large protest disrupting the Rockefeller Center tree lighting in NYC
PCAP hosted, and FOSNA co-sponsored, a vigil and protest outside of the National Christmas Tree Lighting in D.C.
Claremont (CA) FOSNA takes to the streets at a busy intersection every Friday for a public vigil / demonstration
NorCal Sabeel have attended popular protests, but with explicitly Christian slogans and banners, like: “Christian Voice for Palestine.” Other slogans include:
“Christians against Christian Zionism,”
“Christmas is canceled, Herod is in town,”
“Christians demand ceasefire” (Catholics / Lutherans / Presbyterians, etc. demand ceasefire”)
Biblical passages like: “God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied,” or “God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God,” etc.
Colorado FOSNA is part of a coalition protesting the annual meeting of the JNF.
Many others are also leading by example and engaging in amazing actions, as Christans and people of faith, across the country.
Hold a Christian-led (interfaith) service/vigil/rally at manger / tree / public space
See Preach Palestine for ideas
Alternative Caroling / Christmas Hymns
Engage in crucial (but less physically intensive) collective actions as a faith community
Participate in the Postcards to Biden campaign
Sign and Share the Christians Demand Permanent Ceasefire Statement
Establish a special date/time to:
Flood your representative and senators’ offices with phone calls
Send letters to your representatives
Compose and send “Letters to the Editor” in your local paper
Host a Palestinian speaker/s online or in-person.
Host or attend a film screening
Consider taking the Apartheid-Free Pledge
Engage in consumer boycotts
Emphasize history and theology of Advent in your programming, as it relates to contemporary situation in Palestine. Themes:
Long-expected Messiah to come and set the people free / longing for hope and deliverance / seeking light in a world of darkness
Remembering the first advent while looking forward to the advent to come / God will have the final say / justice will be done
Born into violent world / to people suffering 24-hour violence of occupation / like Palestinians
Jesus was born under military occupation / Rome = USA/Israel
Parents forced to travel to Bethlehem / would not be allowed today
After birth, Herod goes after baby boys - flee / refugees to Egypt
Would have to go through Gaza to get there… Would they even be allowed to go through Rafah to get to safety?
If Jesus were born today, would he survive the bombing? If he were born today would he be isolated in his home because of curfews? If Jesus were born today, this would be what was happening. They fled to Egypt likely through Gaza, what would that journey look like today?
Include imagery (looking for volunteer helpers/designers to create posters)
Historic iconography: “Martyrdom of the Holy Innocents”
Create a nativity scene under rubble, Jesus born in the rubble (thinking about the premature babies in Gaza) - Munther Isaac
Painting of a woman and child in Gaza
Palestinians fleeing for safety as an advent story, maybe holy family leading the procession to safety (Palestinian trail of tears)
Image of Joe Biden/Bibi as Herod
Christmas is Palestinian/Jesus is Palestinian image. The holy story is echoed in the Palestinian story
Organize a “Prayers for Peace” Demonstration
Click Here for a description
Contact chadcollins@fosna.org to learn more
Love Demands Permanent Ceasefire Now!
In the Bay Area, interfaith communities have joined together to place “Love Demands Permanent Ceasefire Now!” banners on houses of worship. Here are some links in case any of your networks are looking for banner designs or more context and how to join this project beyond the Bay Area.
Kumi Now! Actions
Using the template at the following link, contact your local, regional, and national leadership. LEARN MORE.
Fax Ceasefire Flyers: Fill the fax machines of our politicians, churches, and other leaders who continue to let the Israeli military and government get away with it. Look up the fax number of your representative, church, or other community leader – anyone who isn’t using their position of power to call for a ceasefire. Then, use https://faxzero.com/ to send them a free fax. You can download either of the PDF files at http://kuminow.com/action to send. Or, if you prefer email, attach the PDF file to an email message.
Worldwide: Share Ceasefire Flyers and Images
Continue to share Our “A Pause Is Not a Ceasefire” flyers via email or social media. Use the hashtags #Palestine #Gaza #CeasefireNOW #KumiNow
Call for governments, INGOs, and UN agencies to acknowledge the genocide in Gaza: Please read this article, by Sam Husseni, arguing the need to invoke the Genocide Convention against Israel. Then, take action by doing the following:
Contact your country's permanent mission to the United Nations, calling on them to acknowledge the Gaza genocide and invoke the Genocide convention. You can use the UN Blue Book to look up contact information, or find emails at the bottom of the article linked above.
Sign this RootsWeb petition calling for invoking the Genocide Convention.
Sign this petition on AVAAZ urging INGOs and UN Agencies to acknowledge the Gaza genocide.
You can also follow the Gaza Genocide Petition page on Facebook.
Preach Against Apartheid. Stand Against Genocide
"Hope," in the immortal words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, "is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness."
Responding to the call of our sisters and brothers in Palestine, FOSNA calls upon all communities of faith and conviction to stand firm in the light of truth and preach against apartheid this advent season. Added to this is the call to stand against genocide and take any action in your context that might help disrupt the normal flow of the American Christmas machine until there is a permanent ceasefire. This Advent, preach Palestine and work to dismantle the darkness of oppression and segregation endemic to the Israeli apartheid regime, as we also call for an immediate, permanent end to the present horror. We have gathered resources for worship planners from a diversity of traditions and voices that lift up liberation from Turtle Island to Palestine and beyond. Be it:
an entire service or a single prayer,
a study series or a guest lecture, and/or
a film screening or a fundraising event,
we are asking you to Preach Palestine and lift up the Palestinian people such that they would come to experience the joy, justice, and peace of Christ's liberating reign, as a very real light in the present darkness. A list of alternative actions, standing against the normal flow of the American Christmas machine, is found above.
Commit to preach against apartheid and stand against genocide this Advent and Christmas season!
Rev. Naim Ateek's long-anticipated memoir is now available from Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf of Stock publishers.
Call and Commitment: A Journey of Faith from Nakba to Palestinian Liberation Theology.
"Here is Assis Naim Ateek at his most vulnerable and thus at his most prophetic."
Video: Watch last week’s powerful conversation with Alice Rothchild and Jonathan Kuttab.
Weekly
Sabeel Prayer Service. Join Sabeel every Thursday (6pm Palestine) for online Bible Study, discussion, and prayer. Examine scripture in light of the ongoing realities confronting the Palestinian Church and the pursuit of Palestinian liberation.
Wave of Prayer. Subscribe to receive Sabeel's Wave of Prayer, enabling friends of Sabeel around the world to pray over issues of critical concern to the Holy Land on a weekly basis.
Kumi Now! Week 49 - Human Rights
Kumi Now is an online gathering every Tuesday (6pm Palestine) with a guest speaking on the weekly topic. Register here.
On December 10, 1948 the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Sadly, human rights abuses in Israel and Palestine have been well documented by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and other organizations for decades. And yet the violations continue.
Here is what you need to know about these human rights abuses and what you can do so that together we can rise up and ensure that human rights are restored to all citizens in the occupied territory.