Stories from Palestine

Katryn Harris, who travelled to the West Bank in October 2024, will join us for Sunday worship and a Lunch & Learn on September 21, to share her experiences from her journey, and talk about the current situation in Palestine. 

Some questions many of us deal with may include: what is the reality on the ground beyond what we see in the media? How can we deal with what is happening without being paralyzed by grief or anger - or turning way? How can we, here, make a difference? During the church service, we will explore some of these questions together, along with personal stories from the 'holy land.'    

"During my travels, one man I met with in Bethlehem took me up on a rooftop and said 'here is the holy trinity of the West Bank: a refugee camp, the wall that surrounds Bethlehem and keeps us contained, and an illegal settlement'.  I told him I often wonder how we can call it the holy land, and he replied that 'the land itself is holy; it's the acts that are done on it that are not.'"

During the Lunch & Learn, we will have the opportunity to hear individual Palestinians' stories about their struggles, oppression and where they find hope, along with what it is like to travel in the West Bank in these times. There will also be goods available for sale, which come directly from artists and artisans in the occupied West Bank.  This is one concrete way of providing support to people in Palestine who have amazing skills but no longer any way to sell their products (due both to the occupation and to the complete collapse of any tourism). 

Items range from olive wood carvings to blown glass, to hand-painted ceramics and embroidery.  As a man who works at the Wi'am Palestinian Center for Conflict Transformation said, "it means a lot to know that [the items] are still being shared and finding their way into people's homes and hearts.  Every small act of awareness counts; each person who learns about our reality becomes part of the wider circle of hope and justice."

A catalogue of the artisan items for sale is available to view at the bottom of this page.