We are a center of community for our members and friends, and we are a community center for the greater Portland area. Among other purposes, we are a place where people can foster meaningful connections across differences and divides. We are a place where people can count on hearing impactful information about the ethical issues of our time.

The escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas and the humanitarian crisis that has ensued is an example. It is important that we not turn away from the mounting loss of life and the psychological, spiritual, and physical injury that has occurred. The scale of devastation is hard to take in, but in whatever ways you are able, I encourage you to learn about what is happening.  I also encourage you to engage in spiritually nourishing practices that can sustain you as you do. 

Last week, we hosted a community event organized by healthcare workers to get first-hand accounts from medical professionals who recently returned from Gaza. The UN Rapporteur on the Right to Food and a poet laureate of Oregon were also speakers that night. Eliot Chapel was filled with an important segment of our neighbors – many nurses, doctors, medical students, and other healthcare providers from around the Portland area. By the way, medical professionals are among the few, and maybe the only people, who can enter Gaza at this moment. They are being allowed in to offer their support to the crumbling medical infrastructure.

You are invited to view the whole presentation at the link below, and here is some of what I have been reflecting on over the last week and a half:

• The size of the displacement of peoples is enormous. The city of Rafah in the southern part of Gaza’s population has gone from 300 thousand people to 1.5 million people. 
• 2.3 million people have been made to go hungry at an astounding speed. It is stark. People inside the walls of Gaza are starving, while we saw pictures of miles and miles of food aid trucks and provisions just outside those walls waiting to get inside. 
• The situation in hospitals is dire. Doctors and nurses have been coming to work without being paid for six months. Many medical professionals have been displaced from their hospitals, so there isn’t enough medical personnel and the ones left work extraordinarily long hours. They are also doing so without many of the supplies and equipment needed to provide adequate medical care. One example, we saw photos of incubators with babies doubled up and quadrupled up – that is to say, with four babies inside of them.
• The hospitality and resilience of the Palestinians was clear. They made sure the visiting medical professionals never went hungry and shared what little they had. We were shown videos of children being children amidst this horrible time. They were flying kites amidst the rubble.  

Dana Buhl, our Social Justice Director, and I have been discussing how informative last week’s event on the health crisis in Gaza was for the many gathered Portland area nurses, doctors, and medical students. We are committed to providing more opportunities for all of us to continue to learn and to be able to act collectively in ways that center love. 

If you feel moved to do so, now is a time to write and call your representative to share your support for an immediate ceasefire: https://sos.oregon.gov/blue-book/Pages/national-representatives.aspx

We are also working on another opportunity for our members and friends to learn together about the present-day atrocities and about the historical challenges between Israel and Palestine through a series on the evenings of Tuesdays, May 21, May 28, and June 11. Our lens will be one of human rights and desire for the liberation and well-being of all our kin in the human family. 

In faith,

Rev. Alison 

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You can click this link to view the entire presentation of Gaza Grand Rounds: A Panel Presentation about the Health Crisis in Gaza from April 8^th

Click here: To Make a Pastoral Appointment with me.