Category: Events

 

Please join this Saturday afternoon conversation about the current situation in Israel-Palestine.  Speakers will be Miko Peled, Israeli-American activist for justice and author of The General’s Son: Journal of an Israeli in Palestine, and Maya Garner, advocate for justice in Palestine and founder of Friends of Hebron, an American non-profit working with peace and justice advocates in the West Bank.

	Date:	Saturday, May 20, 2023
	Time:	2:00 PM
	Location:	Bloedel Hall at St. Mark’s Cathedral  & On-line
	Information:	No need to register for in-person participation; to participate online join using this Zoom link.
	Tickets:	Free

Event Details

Following the conversation, Peled will sign copies of the new Tenth Anniversary Edition of The General’s Son, and the Saint Mark’s Mideast Focus Ministry will officially open the collection of resources now housed in the Bloedel “Center Stage” meeting room.

Hosted by Amnesty International: Campaign for Palestinian Human Rights [Pacific NW]; co-sponsored by Saint Mark’s Mideast Focus Ministry, The Bishop’s Committee for Justice & Peace in the Holy Land of the Diocese of Olympia, and Kairos Puget Sound Coalition.

Peter Beinart’s Notebook this week is hosting Eric Alterman, who teaches at Brooklyn College, was for many years a columnist at The Nation and is author of the new book, We Are Not One: A History of America’s Fight over Israel. Beinart syas reading the book, he was struck by how often over the last seventy-five years the same pattern has repeated itself: An American president wants Israel to change its behavior, Israel and its American allies push back, the American president backs down. Are the political dynamics, especially in the Democratic Party, changing enough to break this pattern?

	Date:	Friday, March 3, 2023
	Time:	9:00am PST / 12:00pm
	Location:	On-line
	Information:	Event information here →
	Tickets:	Subscription required for this event

Event Details

More information here →

Please join physician, author, and filmmaker Alice Rothchild to Seward Park Third Place Books.  She will be discussing her newest young adult novel Finding Melody Sullivan, about a 16-year-old who must face her internal demons and the external realities of war and occupation after the death of her mother.

	Date:	Thursday, February 16, 2023
	Time:	7:00pm
	Location:	Third Place Books Seward Park, 504 Wilson Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118
	Information:	Event information here →
	Tickets:	Free, but registration required in advance

Event Details

16-year-old Melody Sullivan is falling apart after the death of her mother. She pours her cynicism and grief into poetry and an intense relationship with her powerhouse best friend, Yasmina Khdour. When Melody’s father drags her to an overseas archeology conference in Jerusalem, she is left to wander alone.

Hanging out on a Tel Aviv beach, smoking dope with her Israeli cousins and their army buddies, sounds like fun. While stoned, she is sexually assaulted by a friend of her cousin. She cannot share this devastating truth with her emotionally distant dad and impulsively flees to Hebron where Yasmina is visiting her family. As a Palestinian, Yasmina is unable to enter Jerusalem. Melody’s only other source of solace is Aaron Shapiro, a shy, religious boy back home with an awkward crush on her, but Aaron’s anxious texts make it clear he believes she’s wandering into enemy territory.

This is a story about trauma and taking emotional risks, about facing internal demons and the external realities of war and occupation, about finding oneself in the most unexpected places.

More information here →

Please put this date on your calendar and join our brothers and sisters at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle.  Additional information in the Events section below.

	Date:	Thursday, January 26, 2023
	Time:	7:00 PM
	Location:	St. Mark’s Cathedral, Bloedel Hall, 1245 10th Ave E, Seattle 98102 In person and also on zoom: register for zoom: http://bit.ly/3k1Aflv
	Information:	Event information here →
	Tickets:	Free

Event Details

When a news publisher in Arkansas, an attorney in Arizona, and a speech therapist in Texas are told they must choose between their jobs and their political beliefs, they launch legal battles that expose an attack on freedom of speech across 33 states in America.

BOYCOTT traces the impact of state legislation designed to penalize individuals and companies that choose to boycott Israel due to its human rights record. A legal thriller with “accidental plaintiffs” at the center of the story, Boycott is a bracing look at the far-reaching implications of anti-boycott legislation and an inspiring tale of everyday Americans standing up to protect our rights in an age of shifting politics and threats to freedom of speech.

Register now and join in a discussion of the film with Peter Beinart, Editor-at-Large for Jewish Currents; JustVision filmmaker Jen Marlowe; and Bahia Amawi, plaintiff in the film. Our moderator will be journalist Mnar Adley, founder and executive director of MintPress News.

REGISTER NOW TO WATCH THE FILM FOR FREE beginning Oct 5th, for four days.
Then join the discussion on Oct 9th.

	Date:	Sunday, October 9, 2022
	Time:	4:00pm Eastern / 1:00pm Pacific
	Location:	On-line
	Information:	Event information here →
	Tickets:	Free, must register to see film and discussion

Event Details

This film is not yet available to the public and is still in the film festival stage. This is a unique opportunity to preview for free a film that will have significant impact when it is publicly released to the marketplace. One or more of the legal cases portrayed in the film may be going to the Supreme Court. Your confirmation email, from Zoom, will include a link to watch the film during the period from now through 4:00 PM on the 9th. This link is for your use only. Please do not share the link with others.

Co-sponsors for this event are the United Methodists for Kairos Response and the Methodist Foundation for Social Action.

More information here →

Please join The Mideast Focus Ministry of Saint Mark’s Cathedral, the Bishop’s Committee for Justice & Peace in the Holy Land, and Kairos Puget Sound Coalition for this symposium, which brings together prominent voices from different religious backgrounds to ask where the struggle to achieve justice and peace in the Israel-Palestine goes from here.

	Date:	Saturday, September 24, 2022
	Time:	1:00 – 4:00pm PDT
	Location:	St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Bloedel Hall, 1245 10th Ave E, Seattle WA. Both in-person and on-line (see registration)
	Information:	Event information here →
	Tickets:	Free, Registration Here

Event Details

Participants will include:

• Rev. Naim Ateek – Founder, Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center
• Rev. Richard K. Toll – Founding Exec. Director, Friends of Sabeel North America
• Rev. Don Wagner, former National Program Director, Friends of Sabeel N.A.
• Jonathan Kuttab, Executive Director, Friends of Sabeel North America
• Mark Braverman, Ph.D. – Executive Director, Kairos U.S.A.
• Alice Rothchild, M.D. – Jewish writer and social activist for peace
• Ranna Harb – Co-Founder, Falastiniyat (Palestinian diaspora collective)

Flyer with Information →

Join our brother Don Wagner for a personal, political, and religious journey from Evangelical Christian faith and conservative politics to solidarity with the poor and advocacy for anti-war, anti- racism, and Palestinian rights.

	Date:	Friday, September 23, 2022
	Time:	7:30pm
	Location:	Phinney Books, 7405 Greenwood Ave. N, Seattle WA
	Information:	Event information here →
	Tickets:	Free

Event Details

After serving for five years as a pastor in a remarkable Black church, Donald Wagner comes to fully understand the original sin of racism. As his journey continues, he encounters another marginalized people—the Palestinians—and witnesses their struggle for justice and equality. Touched by their resilience and fight against injustice, he leaves the pastorate to assume full time work as an advocate for Palestinian political and human rights.

The memoir begins in mid-September 1982, with a gut-wrenching day interviewing survivors of the Sabra-Shatila massacre in Lebanon, as they wept and waited for the bodies of family members to be pulled from the rubble. Donald Wagner’s conversation with the local Imam ended with a challenge: “You must return home and tell what you have seen. This is all we ask. Go back and tell the truth.”

Glory to God in the Lowest is a metaphor for his counter intuitive journey with the victims of the “chosen people” in the “unholy land,” also called historic Palestine or Israel. The irony of the journey reminds us that God is everywhere especially with the disinherited, the victims of the powerful, including the victims of Israeli oppression.

The memoir touches on history and includes political analysis and theological reflection. In it, Donald Wagner describes Israel’s continued colonization and destruction of Palestinian lives and chronicles his involvement in a grassroots movement of resistance that demands justice based on full equality, an end to the Israeli military occupation and settler colonization project, the right of return for Palestinian refugees, and full political rights for the Palestinian people.

Filled with stories—some humorous and some shocking—as well as encounters with people of every race, gender, and religious affiliation working below the radar, this book will inspire, challenge, and offer a narrative that envisions a transformed “unholy land,” where justice, liberation, and equality for all is the reality for every citizen.

More Information Flyer

Please join our brothers and sisters at Churches for Middle East Peace and Embrace the Middle East, for a mini-series in which Colin Chapman presents material from his book Christian Zionism and the Restoration of Israel: how should we interpret the scriptures? (Wipf & Stock, May 2021).

	Date:	June 21 | June 28 | July 5 | July 12
	Time:	2:30-3:45 pm ET |  11:30-12:45 PT
	Location:	On-line, zoom link provided upon registration
	Information:	Event information here →
	Tickets:	Free

Event Details

Christian Zionists argue that Zionism and the creation of the state of Israel should be seen as the fulfillment of biblical promises and prophecies and therefore tend to be very supportive of Israel. But is this the only way to use the Bible to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? What do Old Testament writers say about the nation of Israel and the promised land? And how do New Testament writers interpret these Old Testament promises and prophecies? What does it mean for Christians today to be peacemakers and hunger and thirst after righteousness/justice? All the webinars are designed to be as interactive as possible. The first three include a 40-minute presentation followed by 30 minutes of Q&A, and the fourth contains presentations from speakers with differing viewpoints.

More information here →

Please join our friends of the Palestine Museum US to attend a special event (In-person and virtual) to remember a Palestinian American journalist murdered by an Israeli sniper while performing her duties. The Shireen Abu Akleh Memorial at the Palestine Museum US will also be installed.

	Date:	Sunday, June 19, 2022
	Time:	12:00pm PT / 3:00pm ET / 10:00pm Palestine
	Location:	On-line, and in person
	Information:	Event information here →
	Tickets:	Free, Registration Required

Event Details

More information here →

Please join our brothers and sisters at United Methodist Kairos Response (UMKR) for this webinar which will examine what can be learned to inform and strengthen the movement for Palestinian liberation.

	Date:	Wednesday, May 18, 2022
	Time:	10am PT / 12pm CT / 1pm Et
	Location:	On-line
	Information:	Event information here →
	Tickets:	Free

Event Details

The panel includes two prominent voices for justice, both of whom have recently published insightful commentary on this subject of Ukraine and Palestine.

NADA ELIA is a prominent Palestinian activist and speaker, a widely published author and political analyst, and an award-winning academic on subjects concerning global affairs and ethnic studies.

EDO KONRAD is Editor-in-Chief of +972 Magazine, one of Israel’s leading publications for groundbreaking activist reporting that challenges the current realities of apartheid, occupation and colonialism.

UMKR’s Communications Director, M. Theresa Basile, will be the moderator for this discussion.

More information here →