As we write this, the space that Israel guaranteed as a refuge for the 2.2 million Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza is being bombed. This is the darkest moment yet in a four-month-long nightmare.
Peacemakers, over the past 130 days, we’ve invited you to listen and learn…advocate and worship…transform and invest.
This Lent, we invite you to join thousands around the world who are putting our bodies into the movement by organizing or joining a Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage in our own cities.
As you’ll hear in this clip between Australian organizer Jarrod McKenna and Jer, this is a global movement of Everyday Peacemakers organizing or joining local walks the length of the Gaza Strip (25 miles / 41km) in prayerful solidarity with our Palestinian kin, many of whom have been forced by violence to walk that very distance.
We’ve made organizing or joining so simple that pilgrimages are already being organized in 100 cities representing 15 countries around the world. Over the season of Lent, #GCPilgrimages will look like:
- friends walking the distance together in segments over multiple days
- congregations walking five miles a day together during Holy Week
- ecumenical/interfaith alliances organizing and inviting those in their cities to take a one-day 25-mile trek together
In his Christmas sermon, Christ in the Rubble, Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac invited us to ask our future selves, “Where was I when Gaza was going through a genocide?”
Everyday Peacemakers, may our answer be, “We were in costly solidarity.”
P.S. Global Immersion is one of several partners organizing a pilgrimage in Spokane, WA on March 30. Here’s more information.
P.P.S. If you organize or join a pilgrimage, please email us and let us know and tag @GCPilgrimages, #GCPilgrimages, and @globalimmerse in all your posts. We’re eager to amplify your stories.
Repentance
Walking in the dark at 5am on Ash Wednesday, Jarrod McKenna reflects on the Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage as an act of repentance appropriate to the Lenten season that’s just begun.
Encouragement to Organizers
Walking at 5am in prayerful solidarity with the people of Gaza as part of the Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage, Jarrod McKenna gives encouragement for those considering participating in the pilgrimage in their own city.
Creative Non-Violent Action
Jarrod McKenna casts vision for the power of creative non-violent action as he walks the Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage before the sun rises in Australia.