Nine months have passed since that dark day when Hamas launched its surprise attack on Israel from its stronghold in Gaza. Since then, we have witnessed much suffering on the part of Palestinian civilians at the hands of the Israeli military. My wife and I regularly watch the PBS Newshour, which has thoroughly covered the…
Bondye konnen – God knows. This phrase is often spoken in the communities of Haiti. Not spoken in tones of hopelessness but with assurance, with the deep hope that even in the darkest situations, God’s light shines. He knows. It’s early Wednesday morning, 6 a.m., March 13, and I am being driven by our Children…
“I do not see hope. I make hope. Hope is something I create,” said Israeli peace activist Maoz Inon, taking inspiration from a Palestinian activist who used the same words (you can read more in my article “Making hope, demanding peace” in CC‘s April 2024 issue). It is an admirable attitude to hold in the…
“I could not, not see the image of a table set with tea in the midst of rubble. It had been in my mind for years,” explains Karen Tamminga-Paton, the Alberta artist whose art installation, Peacetalks, recently exhibited at Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre in British Columbia. Tamminga-Paton was beginning an artist’s residency in France with…
On March 31, one of the most unusual auctions in the world went live for the third time. “Icons Save Lives” is a collection of Ukrainian Orthodox icons painted by 34 contemporary artists who used empty ammunition boxes and bullet casings from the ongoing war against Russia as their canvases. Proceeds from the auction will…
Where do you see hope?” It’s a question that Maoz Inon, Israeli peace activist, learned to answer from a Palestinian peace activist, who said “I don’t see hope. I make hope. It’s something I create.” And since then, Inon said, he makes hope too – along with his family, individuals and organizations. It’s a task…
Born and raised in England in a Jewish family originally from central Europe, Tony Judt trained as a historian of Europe and taught at the City University of New York until his untimely death from Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2010. Judt was a dedicated commentator on current affairs, and after his death his widow published…
Light can be understood in the physical sense as the radiation of energy in our surroundings. It enables sight. Light also symbolizes goodness and hope as opposed to darkness. To Christian believers, light has a rich theological depth because it reveals both the illumination of God and the inner God-like attributes of human beings. Just…
What leads to the eruption of physical violence – the fist fight, the storming of the Capitol, the bombings, the kidnappings of hostages? What does it take to change the entrenched stories that keep “them” apart from “us”? How do you bring sworn enemies to the same table to discuss peace? These are the questions…
From mid-October to early December 2023, I painted “Ghosts of Lemon Groves Past.” Inspired by a film called The Lemon Tree (2008), I explored the nature of a people’s love for a land. The lemons in the painting are not yet ripe, but carefully tended to by a farmer. Formerly part of a Palestinian village,…
“We, the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem, call upon our congregations to stand strong with those facing [sadness and pain] this year by foregoing any unnecessarily festive activities. We also invite the faithful to advocate, pray and contribute generously as they are able for the relief of the victims of this war…
Reflecting on Sylvia Keesmaat’s “Prayers for peace in the midst of the Israel-Hamas War” (CC online, Oct. 23), I recall a line from another of Bruce Cockburn’s songs, “Justice”: “Everybody loves to see justice done on somebody else.” These are troubled times. I struggle with memories of when I lived among the peoples of Palestine:…
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