Dear Friends,

As I write I am absorbing a disappointment; a disappointment that a planned visit to Palestine has been cancelled and subsequently my BA flights have also been cancelled, so instead of rushing to Heathrow after our ‘All Souls’ service on November 3rd I shall remain here with you in Chaldon.

I am sharing this piece of personal news with you because I think it has implications for us all…….

What are we as Christians called to do about the horrors we see in our world?

My decision that, in spite of my pledge never to fly again (because of the huge environmental impact of the airline industry), I should take the opportunity to do something to show solidarity, came as a result of years of watching, studying and reading about the plight of the Palestinian people.

Now that I can no longer do so face to face what am I left with?

I have to remind myself that although one option has closed to me, I still have agency, that we all have agency and we see this in the life of Christ

Here are some ways in which Jesus shows us how to act:

Before his crucifixion and resurrection Jesus spent at least 30 years listening and learning in his community, and then at least 3 years teaching his followers a new way of being. We too are called to listen and to learn, to be aware of injustices and oppression, to understand their roots, to study scripture and to learn a new way of being.

Jesus never looked away from suffering, we should not look away, we are called to stay with the suffering just as the women at the foot of the cross stayed. Maybe your circumstances dictate that you watch from afar as I must do now, but wherever we place ourselves we are called to witness to the our broken world. A regular prayer in our prayer basket in church, is for the oppressed women of Afghanistan – that petition comes from someone who will not avert their eyes from the suffering.

In the gospels, Jesus prays both alone and with others, just as we can pray together at church but also in our daily lives.

Unable to fly, I am grounded here looking on from afar, and so I must do that which is part of all faith traditions – pray. Our capacity as a community of faith to pray regularly for the broken people and places in our world is a vocation that is both individual and corporate and open to all.

Jesus also took practical action, he stepped towards the need in the world.

We can too and do this in so many ways

– we can make informed choices about our giving
– we can make informed choices about our purchases
– we can be Christ centred about how we speak of world events
– we can be intentional about the use of our time to help others

My original decision to travel to Palestine came out of a combination of listening to the voices of Palestinian Christians, including Rev Munther Isaac, and prayerful attention to the best use of my time and resources.

In the light of the cancellation, I have continued to try to discern what best to do instead. One of the things I will do is take a silent retreat which means living alone and in silence at a retreat in Wales (https://www.rscjuk.org/llannerchwen) .

It will be the opposite of the ‘doing’ I had planned for that time, and will instead be a time of ‘stopping’. I think you can imagine which of these modes of being I find easier!

I will be away from Nov 12th to 18th when I hope you can all enjoy a week free of my emails, Facebook and Instagram posts!

Projects I had hoped to visit and support in Palestine include two Palestinian Christian families trying to live on their inherited land in the hills surrounding Bethlehem. If you are able to donate to their work I know it would be gratefully received and would make them feel less alone.https://tentofnations.com/about-us/ and https://linktr.ee/savealmakhrour