Support Emergency Response Efforts for Earthquake Victims
All of us at FOSNA would like to extend our thoughts and prayers to everyone impacted by the earthquakes on the border of Turkey and Syria that have left more than 22,000 people dead and at least 79,000 injured this week.
Rescue efforts are ongoing, and emergency response efforts have commenced as a winter storm has swept the region.
It is crucial that we all raise awareness and take action to support the many thousands of people now left without shelter in freezing winter conditions.
Please consider donating to MERATH, a trusted Christian NGO in Lebanon with church partners across affected parts of Syria, to support their emergency response efforts.
FOSNA News
Father Paul Abernathy is an Orthodox Christian priest, author, and the founding CEO of the Neighborhood Resilience Project. Since 2011, Fr. Paul has labored with his community to address Community Trauma with Trauma Informed Community Development. He has a B.A. in International Studies from Wheeling Jesuit University, and holds a Master in Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh. He also holds a Master of Divinity from St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary and was selected for Harvard Business School’s Young American Leaders Program. A former Non-Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Army, Father Paul is also a combat veteran of the Iraq War. Fr. Paul is the pastor of St. Moses the Black Orthodox Church, and a husband and father of two children.
nyle fort is a minister, organizer, and scholar. His work addresses issues of social justice through activist-scholarship, community-based organizing, and large-scale social movements. nyle is an Assistant Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University.
Thanh Nguyen is a graduating senior at the University of Notre Dame, with bachelors in Political Science and Peace Studies. Before being involved with Sabeel as a summer volunteer in Jerusalem, she led organizing efforts on and off campus, mobilizing students in support of Palestinian rights. Alongside her campus advocacy, she also worked for the Telos Group in Washington D.C. and while there, focused on issues of Christian Zionism and the U.S. evangelical community.
Diane Dulin is Secretary of the FOSNA Board. She is a retired United Church of Christ pastor, having served congregations in Oregon and California over 34 years of ministry. Her Palestine justice advocacy has taken place primarily through United Church of Christ auspices. She has also invested efforts in ecumenical and interfaith advocacy through Occupation Free Portland (Oregon), Kairos USA and FOSNA. Diane shares a substantial portion of her justice activism efforts as a joint effort with her husband Thomas Beilman.
Journey with Jonathan
Our Executive Director Jonathan Kuttab is in Palestine this month. Follow along with his journey and his reflections on the current climate on the ground by reading his entries, starting from here.
Take Action!
Support Revd. Dr. Stephen Sizer's Against his Unjust Victimisation
(Covivencia Alliance) The Church of England has subjected Revd. Dr. Stephen Sizer, Chair of the Convivencia Alliance to years of unjust tribunal hearings due to scurrilous accusations of antisemitism by the Board of Jewish Deputies. While no evidence was found to support the accusations, the tribunal used the unfair and misleading IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism to find him guilty of offending some Jews by criticizing Israel. This finding is itself offensive. The CofE then punished him by forbidding him to officiate for twelve years. This is unjust, unreasonable, and shameful.
We invite everyone to support Revd. Dr. Sizer by signing this open letter, either as an individual or representing an organisation.
Stand with Tent of Nations and the Nassar family
(IPMN) As Daoud Nassar mentioned in his most recent update to the Friends of Tent of Nations, a re-registration hearing has been scheduled for February 12, 2023. With our friends at FOTONNA, IPMN believes it is important to continue advocating for Tent of Nations (TON) with our elected officials leading up to this hearing with the Israeli Military Authority. Please contact your senators and representative—ask them to urge State Department officials to communicate the urgency of the Nassar family’s re-registration process with Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).
Click here for the phone call script and email template for contacts with Members of Congress. We are also offering a template you can send to your Representative and Senators proposing sample language they can use for communication with Secretary of State Blinken. If you need further background information about the TON case, check out this background document about the Tent of Nations, its work, and legal struggle.
Get Involved!
We invite you to join us in the following events and activities:
Sunday, February 12, 2023
Featuring Dr. Yasser Abu-Jamei, Psychiatrist and Director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme
12:00-2PM, in person reception, lecture fundraiser/free will offering to support GCMHP
Foundation for Gaza Community Mental Health Program, 501C3/Zoom link below
Online Registration at: bit.ly/HolyLandZoom
Continuous Trauma and Social Devastation, or Caring for All?
Dr. Abu Jamei will be joined by local panelists discussing social division and racisms globally, in the Gaza Strip, and in Washington, as well as anti-racism, equality and respect as core values going forward for all peoples—“no exceptions!"
With Dr. Nancy Murray, Fida Adely, James Gordon, Kathryn Chefetz, and Richard Chefetz.
In Person at:
St John's Norwood Episcopal Church
6701 Wisconsin Ave Chevy Chase MD 20815
(red line Metro Bethesda/Chevy Chase stop)
February 12: Online
VFHL Film Salon: “‘Til Kingdom Come”
Millions of American Evangelicals are praying for the State of Israel. Among them are a dynasty of Kentucky pastors and their Evangelical congregants in an impoverished coal mining town. They donate sacrificially to Israel’s foremost philanthropic organization, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, because they fervently believe the Jews are crucial to Jesus’ return. This film traces this unusual relationship, from rural Kentucky to the halls of government in Washington, through the moving of the American Embassy in Jerusalem and to plans for annexing the West-Bank. It exposes a stunning backstory of the Trump and Netanyahu administrations, where financial, political, and messianic motivations intersect with the apocalyptic worldview that is insistently reshaping American foreign policy toward Israel.
On Sunday February 12, join an online discussion about the documentary “’Til Kingdom Come” at 3:00pm ET. Learn about the political alliance between US Evangelical pastors and the state of Israel. Register, view the film, then join the event.
March 5: Online
Join our online book discussion of Protecting Human Rights in Occupied Palestine: Working Through the United Nations by UN Rapporteurs John Dugard, Michael Lynk, and Richard A. Falk, with a foreword by Francesca Albanese, on March 5th via Zoom.
Stay tuned for more details!
Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, Jerusalem:
Weekly
Sabeel Prayer Service. Join Sabeel every Thursday (6pm Jerusalem) 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 6) Medical Rights. The blockade of Gaza is a noose around its neck. One of the worst impacts of that noose is the denial of patients’ rights to travel within Palestinian territory for treatment, which is not available in Gaza. As a result, 54 patients died awaiting permission to travel for medical treatment in 2017. Begun in 1994 by the Catholic Church, the World Day of the Sick, observed every February 11, is a day for turning our attention and aid to those suffering from sickness. Join the Kumi Now community and learn about the medical blockade of Gaza and what you can do so that together we can rise up.