By Christine Sheller
Saturday, December 2, 2023 Iowa Peace Network hosted their
Annual Holiday Open House and Alternative Gift Fair at the Des Moines Mennonite
Church, in which the IPN office is located.
More than twenty five persons came through.
The Alternative Gift Fair and Open House started at 1:30 pm
Saturday afternoon. Complimentary
refreshments: holiday treats as well as a plate or two of fruit, and a
charcutterie plate were available, and people had the choice of shopping for
fair trade items from Palestine, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Central America and
Africa, as well as other places. These
items included Equal Exchange items such as coffee, tea, and chocolate, made
available by Ivester Church of the Brethren (rural Grundy Center, IA); Catholic
Peace Ministry (based in Des Moines) had Palestinian oil; First United Methodist Church (Des Moines)
had olive wood items and textiles from Palestine, Ivester Church of the
Brethren (of Grundy Center, IA) and IPN worked together to sell Guatemalan
handcrafts from Heart of the Sky Fair Trade, and lastly, Iowa Peace Network had
various things for sale such as peace and justice themed pottery from Russ
Leckband, a longtime supporter of IPN, fair trade jewelry from Lost and Found,
a ministry out of Hong Kong helping human trafficking victims, and other items
for sale such as books and holiday cards.
At 2:30 pm, people gathered in the sanctuary for the presentation
by Doug and Julie Olson: “Palestine & Israel: A Journey of Pilgrimage &
Education.” Iowa Peace Network learned
of Doug and Julie Olson and their presentation they’ve done in several churches
since their trip at a screening of the film “Boycott” earlier this year. IPN was very pleased with their acceptance of
the invitation to speak. Kathleen
McQuillen also agreed to speak shortly at the end of their presentation to give
more info on the current situation in Israel/ Palestine.
Doug and Julie are
from Waukee, and attend Heartland Presbyterian Church. They participated in a study pilgrimage to
the Holy Land sponsored by the Des Moines Presbytery in March of 2022. Their
presentation for Iowa Peace Network included a slide show of photos from sacred
sites of the life and ministry of Jesus and information concerning life and the
ongoing conflict in Israel/Palestine garnered through meetings with Christian,
Muslim and Jewish communities working to bring peace to the area through
nonviolent means. Those gathered enjoyed
photos of the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, a church on the place
where Jesus may have been born, and photos of Jerusalem and sites there, as
well as many others. They also spoke about
the crippling checkpoints they had to go through to travel all the places their
group went. They spoke of the difficulty
of Palestinians to just live every day.
Of course, now there is now the devastation of the war, and they spoke
on that as well. They shared resources
and of organizations connected to justice for Palestine such as Tentofnations.org,
and fosna.org (Friends of Sabeel North America). Kathleen McQuillen, Director at Catholic
Peace Ministry, formerly worked for AFSC and founder of MEPEC also spoke on the
current situation. MEPEC is a Des Moines
based organization: Middle East Peace
Education Coalition. Julie and Doug are
active with that organization now too.
Questions included comments about the nuclear arsenal of Israel. Kathleen spoke about the activity in Des Moines
going on the last two months to speak out for peace in Palestine. She also spoke about the effort to speak and
write to congresspersons. All
congresspersons contacted, said “Israel has a right to defend itself.” They have left literature with congresspersons
in lieu of being able to have a conversation.
The Open House closed at 4:30 pm. A good event, and IPN is very thankful for
each person who attended and made IPN a part of their holiday plans!
Christine Sheller is Editor and Coordinator at Iowa Peace
Network. She is a graduate of Bethany Theological
Seminary, in Richmond, Indiana.
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