Community, Fellowship, and a Passion for Justice |
|
It's time for our annual fundraising campaign. Over the next 3 weeks, we'll bring you highlights of the past year, follow-up on recent stories, and share our vision for the coming year.
When 36 scholars, clergy, and community leaders gathered in Chicago in June 2011 to found Kairos USA, we joined the worldwide community of church-related organizations responding to the Kairos Palestine “Moment of Truth” document. In 2012, Kairos USA's "Call to Action: U.S. response to the Kairos Palestine Document" gave voice to the passion and commitment of U.S. Christians to the Palestinian call for justice. Now entering our tenth year, Kairos USA continues its commitment to providing resources and connectivity for our U.S. network and to the global community of church activism of which we are a part. Palestineportal.org, launched by Kairos USA in 2017, is unmatched as a resource for news, educational and training materials. The monthly newsletter you are reading reaches thousands of subscribers in the U.S. and across the world, drawing them to the Palestine Portal website and providing readers with action alerts and network news.
Kairos USA is an active member of Global Kairos for Justice, a coalition of organizations from every continent founded in 2018 by Kairos Palestine. Global Kairos for Justice is devoted to combatting Christian Zionism, supporting BDS, and pursuing political advocacy. In June, Global Kairos for Justice and Kairos Palestine issued "Cry for Hope: a Call to Decisive Action." Renewing the call of the 2009 "Moment of Truth" document, it summons the churches of the world to fulfill their prophetic calling through seven action steps.
|
|
Supporting the growth and effectiveness of the expanding global network of Kairos organizations is at the heart of our mission.
|
|
Will you make a gift today to help us continue our work in 2021? Donate online or by check to Kairos USA, PO Box 340, Carlton, OR 97111.
|
|
|
The Church Struggle in Our Day |
|
Appealing to his fellow Germans and to the ecumenical movement of his time, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: "theology...stands wholly at the service of the living, confessing, and struggling church." In Bonhoeffer's time and in every generation since, churches have often struggled to take a prophetic stand against tyranny, racism and oppression in the face of resistance from their leadership and often from their own ranks. Nowhere has this struggle been more dynamic today than in Europe, where churches are being challenged from their grassroots to oppose the heresy of Zionism and the oppression of the Palestinian people. Kairos USA has followed these developments closely. Read about them in Palestine Portal's Community News report, "The Global Church Responds to 'Cry for Hope," or in last month's newsletter.
|
|
In a related story, the Board of Directors of Kairos Palestine has addressed a letter to the heads of the Protestant and Catholic churches of Germany regarding the German churches’ upcoming campaign against antisemitism. In the letter, they take issue with a statement found in the campaign announcement which connects antisemitism with demonizing the State of Israel. The 16 signatories, representing the broad range of churches and Christian civil society organizations in Palestine, pointedly express the "hope that both the Catholic Church and the Evangelical Church in Germany will base its campaign on international law and the Biblical call to recognize the human rights and dignity of all people."
|
|
Support the Mission of Kairos USA |
|
The church struggle continues -- here, in Europe, and on every continent (watch for news from Africa, Asia, and Latin America in coming editions). The work of our global community depends on how information flows across the network and on the strength of the connection between groups and organizations operating at local, national, denominational and ecumenical levels. Our work helps carry the voices of the Palestinians, their voices growing ever stronger in their persistent resistance. Kairos USA, through Palestineportal.org and the "Celebrating our Global Community" newsletter brings you these stories, linking the global community through information, news and tools for advancing the work of our movement. Strengthening our community is our passion and our mission. |
|
Won't you help by making a gift today to help us continue the work in 2021? Donate online or by check payable to Kairos USA, PO Box 340, Carlton OR 97111.
|
|
|
In case you missed our story last month, it's not too late to benefit from an annual treasure -- the Kairos Palestine Christmas Alert. In his essay for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Marcelo Leites, Director of the World Student Christian Federation of Latin America and the Caribbean, and member of the Executive Committee of Global Kairos for Justice, conveys a powerful message of hope and transformation:
"I wonder, how to have hope?" asks Marcelo. "Even more difficult, how to speak of hope to the peasant facing the bulldozer, to the mother who lost her son to arms, to the families divided under the walls of shame? I see how, during this pandemic, this prevailing system has worked to continue curtailing the most fundamental rights of people— those who dare to rebel against it and those who, willing or not, are subject to the hegemonic narratives that undermine our ways of being and thinking... They call us to imitate the example of those who want to dominate us. As a result, great majorities yield to the description of the powerful of 'the way the world is.' These narratives work then to reduce a people to pessimism: "There is nothing we can do, the world is simply like this. We can’t change it....'"
|
|
"As the pedagogue Paulo Freire used to say, 'No one is saved alone, no one saves anyone, we are saved in community.' From different parts of the world, Christians and people of good will have responded to the Cry for Hope coming from the Christian communities in Palestine. This call is an example of hope put into prophetic action. It is a call from the margins, born in community and promoting solidarity. We will be there, telling stories and sowing the uncomfortable but liberating seed of hope. Only in this way, hope is kept alive by transforming the world and ourselves. Our call is to announce the power of hope in the face of the powers of Empire...The hope that transforms is a call to liberating action. Hope arrives to break the power of hegemonic forces. This hope is anchored in a transforming faith based on justice."
|
|
Our annual fundraising drive begins today! Please consider making a tax-deductible gift. |
|
|
Palestine Portal is a program of Kairos USA.
|
|
THIS JUST IN: The Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) is holding a webinar series on The IHRA Definition and the Fight Against Anti-Semitism, "examining how a problematic definition of antisemitism is being used to quash criticism of Israel and threaten freedom of speech." The IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition of antisemitism has become a flashpoint for groups concerned that it serves those seeking legal means to suppress activism for Palestinian rights. The series runs all week with an impressive lineup of topics and panels. Click here for schedule and registration.
|
|
Palestine Portal
PO Box 304
Carlton, OR 97111
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
