As a queer and trans person, my relationship to Christianity has been fraught, to say the least, but it is also a significant part of how I was raised and who I am today as an anti-racist organizer in the South. So in October, as I was throwing myself into Gaza solidarity efforts alongside lots of Muslim and Jewish comrades (and lots of you!), people started asking me, “What are the Christians doing?”
Fast forward six months, and I finally have an answer. Earlier this week, a new national formation, Christians for a Free Palestine (CFP), took action in Washington, DC, hosting a public communion service and then shutting down the Senate cafeteria while declaring, “Congress and their staff will not eat today, until Gaza eats.” Over 50 people, including many clergy, were arrested, and business as usual was decidedly interrupted.
CFP is an ecumenical, multi-racial, grassroots, nonviolent, and volunteer-led movement dedicated to mobilizing Christians across the U.S. to take action in solidarity with Palestinians. The leadership team currently consists of six people, including two alum of Catalyst Project’s Anne Braden program — myself and Rochelle Watson. Together, with a rapidly growing national base, we are building an anti-empire, pro-liberation movement that understands the imperative of challenging all forms of violence and oppression, including white Christian supremacy.
In this all-hands-on-deck, rapid response moment, Catalyst Project is committed to helping build infrastructure for people entering Palestinian solidarity. As part of that commitment, Catalyst Project empowered Rochelle, one of Catalyst’s four full-time staff members to devote half her working hours to this new undertaking, providing critical expertise and coaching to CFP in our early days of development.
This is one of the crucially important “invisible” roles that Catalyst has played over the last 20+ years — supporting organizers and movement leaders as they respond to key political moments, build new formations, and help organizations pivot to navigate changing conditions.
Rochelle’s contributions — and Catalyst’s support — have been an absolute game changer for CFP’s growth and development, which is why I’m becoming a monthly sustaining donor to Catalyst Project today. Will you join me? Just click the link below and choose “yes count me in” under “make it monthly.”
In solidarity,
Cole Parke-West
Alum of the 2013 Anne Braden Training Program
P.S. If becoming a monthly sustainer is out of reach please consider making a one time donation so Catalyst can continue this critical work.