Seattle, WA (December 19, 2023): Mennonites staged 40 protests with over 1500 people at the offices of elected officials across the U.S. and Canada, calling for action to end the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. In Seattle, an intergenerational gathering of over 50 Mennonites, Christians, and people of conscience took action in front of Senator Patty Murray’s office.
In the cool drizzle, protestors sang Mennonite hymns in four-part harmony, singing, “Lord, listen to your children praying…send us love, send us power, send us grace.” A prayer of lament cried out, “Places of worship, healing, and living are bombed, blood-stained, and reduced to rubble. How long, O God? How long?” Event organizer and social justice auntie Laura Schlabach read to children of all ages a children’s book called These Olive Trees, a story about the displacement of a Palestinian family from Nablus in 1967.
Readers amplified the voices of Palestinian friends of Rev. Weldon Nisly, who has spent time in Palestine with Community Peacemaker Teams. Usama, a Palestinian Christian who grew up in Bethlehem, wrote to Rev. Nisly to say, “War turns life into a nightmare where fear and anxiety prevail in every moment. It’s difficult to grasp hope in the midst of the destruction surrounding us…We live in a state of emotional and psychological exhaustion.”
Backdrop to the speakers was an heirloom Mennonite child’s quilt, marked with bloody footprints to represent the many thousands of Palestinian children killed, maimed, and orphaned. The blood stained quilt also shows Christian complicity in settler colonialism, and the possibility for love and solidarity in walking in the Way of Jesus with the children and people of Gaza.
Sarah Augustine, co-founder and Executive Director of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, spoke from her perspective as a Pueblo (Tewa) woman and Mennonite. Augustine implored Senator Murray to act as a mother would and demand a permanent ceasefire now.
“Patty Murray, I am calling on you, as an elder of this nation to stop bringing shame to us all. I am calling on you as a mother. I am invoking the first law, the natural law, the law of the mother that says senseless death and killing is wrong, no matter how you justify it,” said Augustine. “And we must as a nation stop it, and we must call for a ceasefire, and I am demanding of that today.”
Rev. Megan Ramer, Lead Pastor of Seattle Mennonite Church, spoke to Christian complicity in colonization, Christian Zionism, antisemitism, and Islamophobia. And she implored the crowd, “We show up to participate in God’s vision of a just peace for all. We refuse to turn away from violence and oppression. When it is our own government funding and resourcing the genocide in Gaza and occupation of Palestine? We are compelled to cry out: No! We will not comply! We will stand with the oppressed, and we will seek the liberation of all God’s beloveds.”
Event organizer Rebecca Allen explained why she took action as a Mennonite and parent. “I’m the daughter and granddaughter of Mennonites who taught me to take action in the face of violence and harm. My faith guides me to follow the teachings of Jesus, who confronted and disrupted the abusive injustices of empire. I’m also a mother, and I want safety for all children: Jewish, Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Christian. I want Senator Patty Murray to be accountable for the immoral actions she’s taking. We will not be silent in the face of such horrific injustice.”
This action was organized in collaboration with a new movement called Mennonite Action that has emerged in the last several weeks. Thousands of North American Mennonites have joined, planning webinars and organizing other members of their congregations to take public action demanding their representatives call for a ceasefire. The actions on Tuesday were the new movement’s first public actions.
“We are watching as Palestinian and Jewish people are demanding a ceasefire even while they are forced to reckon with unspeakable tragedies,” said event organizer and Seattle Mennonite Church member Greg Thiessen. “We believe we have a duty as pacifists and Mennonite Christians to join public action to demand an end to the genocide in Gaza, to create a just and lasting peace, and to end the U.S. and western funded occupation of Palestine.”
At the end of the gathering outside the Federal Building, a delegation of two Mennonite pastors delivered the blood-stained quilt to Senator Murray’s office. The door was locked and closed, but a sign on the door said to call in case of emergency. The quilt delegation determined that over 20,000 dead and 90% of Gaza displaced was, indeed, an emergency. A staffer came to the door, and watched as delegates displayed the quilt with footprints of all sizes staining the intricate hand stitching. “This is a gift of love, especially for the children of Gaza, who could be safe if Senator Patty Murray and members of Congress took action to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, and an end to military funding of Israel,” said Rev Megan Ramer
Mennonite Action is a movement of Mennonites bonded by a common belief that we have a responsibility to use our voices as powerfully as possible for the cause of peace and justice. We are members of an historic peace church who are mobilizing fellow Mennonites and Anabaptists across the United States and Canada to use creative nonviolent actions to demand a ceasefire, end the US and western funded occupation of Palestine, and build for a lasting peace.
