Dear friends,

Tomorrow, January 20th, is a significant day in the United States and around the world. We’ll witness the commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, the inauguration of president Trump, and the first full day of the ceasefire in Israel-Palestine.

On this significant day, I warmly invite you to join me and Pastor Munther Isaac from Bethlehem for 30 minutes of prayer at 11am Central (12pm Eastern; 8pm Ethiopia). Our meditation will focus on Jesus’ promise, “Blessed are the nonviolent, because they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). I can’t think of a more timely theme for this important day and the unpredictable days ahead.

Our online prayer gathering is hosted by Churches for Middle East Peace and is free for all. You can learn more and register here.

I also warmly invite you to listen to my 60-minute conversation with Pastor Munther and Ben Norquist from last November. We discussed Jesus’ Beatitudes and how they speak to our world today. I was deeply moved by Pastor Munther’s moral clarity and prophetic challenge, and trust you will be as well.

In his powerful book Strength to Love, Dr. King wrote, “The way of violence leads to bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. But the way of nonviolence leads to redemption and the creation of the beloved community.” As so often, Dr. King was echoing Jesus’ promise that the nonviolent “will inherit the earth.”

I hope you’ll join us tomorrow as we pray together and recommit ourselves to Jesus’ way of nonviolence. This is the way to a future of mutual dignity, security, and hope for all of us.

Yours with gratitude,
Andrew