Being the Church in the Chaos
Last Saturday, I attended the 231st Annual Meeting of the Vermont Conference of the United Church of Christ, where I hold ministerial standing. We met in St. Johnsbury, and how thrilled I was when our keynote speaker started talking about the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land - our six Lutheran sister congregations in the Palestine! Our speaker was the head of the UCC’s Global Ministries which is a partner of the ELCJHL. Rev. Shari Prestemon lifted up the amazing work of this small synod living under unimaginable worsening conditions as a premier example of how to “be the church” amidst chaos. Rev. Prestemon said that this is a “Kairos” moment when the Palestinian churches are begging us to take a side, to stand for humanity over war and occupation.
Under the cover of war with Iran, Israeli military forces continue to target children and adults in Gaza—despite a ceasefire that took effect last October. On April 28, Israeli strikes killed five Palestinians, including a 9-year-old boy. Medics reported that an Israeli drone killed the child, Adel Al-Najjar, in eastern Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. In a separate incident, an Israeli airstrike targeted a vehicle in Gaza City, killing four others.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF / Doctors Without Borders) reports that in the 180 days since the ceasefire went into effect, Israeli forces have killed 733 Palestinians and wounded 1,913. The title of Doctors Without Borders’ latest report says it all: “This is not a ceasefire.” Living conditions for Palestinians remain dire, and Israel continues to deliberately obstruct humanitarian aid—resulting in entirely preventable deaths.
Global campaigns, including the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) and the Global Samud Flotilla (GSF), are working to restore world attention to Gaza and the heinous crimes committed there by the Israeli and U.S. governments. Several Vermonters have been on recent flotillas, with one recently being detained in an Israeli prison where the conditions were dire. We can call on our representatives in Congress to demand safety for participants in legal, peaceful actions, like the flotillas, that call for ending the siege of Gaza. We can also demand that the Vermont governor refuse to authorize any further training of Vermont Air National Guard F-35 pilots, the unit the Trump Administration selected for bombing Venezuela in January and Iran since February 28 when the war began.
This summer, Interfaith Action for Palestine is bringing together an interfaith coalition of organizations to counter Christians United for Israel’s (CUFI) Annual Lobby Summit July 5-7, 2025 in Washington DC. CUFI is the largest “pro-Israel” organization in the United States that promotes hawkish, Christian supremacist, and genocidal policies. Together with Christians for a Free Palestine, they mobilized hundreds in Washington, DC to disrupt CUFI’s supremacist agenda in powerful and creative ways during the past several years. Challenging white Christian Nationalism is even more urgent this year. Please join me in DC!
