For the second year in a row, we invite Christians and those of any faith (or none) to join a global ecumenical movement of people walking in prayerful solidarity with the people of Gaza and the West Bank. Here in Vancouver, we will begin at Christ Church Cathedral, and spend 5 hours (10:00 am - 3:00 pm) walking 10 km through the city, with stops at five churches, where we will pray through five ceasefire-related themes and reflect on how they connect to the story of Jesus' co-suffering love. Visit this website for more details about the walk route, and to register for lunch. Even if you don't register, you're welcome to show up, either for a portion, or for the full pilgrimage."
Rough Schedule
10:00-10:30 am – Christ Church Cathedral - 690 Burrard St
10:30-11:00 am – walking
11:00-11:20 am – Artisan Church- 487 Alexander St
11:20 am -12:15 pm – walking
12:15-1:00 pm – Grandview Church - 1803 E 1st Ave
(Lunch included - sign up for lunch below)
1:00-1:45 pm – walking
1:45-2:10 pm – Open Way Church - 1530 E 22nd Ave
2:10-2:30 pm – walking
2:30-3:00 pm – Trinity Grace United Church - 803 E 16th Ave
Lunch Sign Up
As part of our walk, we will have lunch at stop 3. To help us order the right amount of food, please complete this sign-up form by Tuesday, 15th of April. We'll be ordering The Assorted Syrian Wrap Platter from Tayybeh.
To help cover the cost of the food, please bring some cash to donate towards it.
If you are seeing this after Tuesday 19th, you can still join us without signing up. The reason we are asking is to ensure we have enough food.
FAQ
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A: This is an event being organized in many cities around the world during this season of Lent. We are walking almost 10 kilometers together - the distance between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, with several stops mimicking checkpoints along the way. We walk in public solidarity with the people of the West Bank and Gaza, as a way to pray with our feet.
Our Gaza Ceasefire Prayer is five-fold:(1) An enduring and sustained ceasefire
(2) The immediate flow of humanitarian aid
(3) The release of all hostages
(including those in the Israeli prison system)
(4) An end to the occupation
(5) Reimagining a just peace -
A: This is a pilgrimage that shows public Christian solidarity with the people of Palestine, and an opportunity to pray together with and build community with other people of faith who share our vision for a peace rooted in justice. Chants are difficult because we will be walking on the sidewalks, not the streets, and we will be quite spread out. We recommend using the walking time to chat and make new friends, or spending the time in silence and prayer.
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A: People of all faiths (and people who do not identify with any faith) who share our vision for this "peace rooted in justice" are very welcome to join us for the pilgrimage. Our focus times at the church stations will include Christian scriptures and prayers, and you're invited to participate, or to opt out of those times if you prefer. There will be no evangelizing or proselytizing - no bait and switch.
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A: In the Christian tradition, Holy Saturday is the day between the crucifixion and resurrection - the day when Jesus is in the tomb. It is a liminal space, a day of waiting, weeping, and facing an unknown future. Some Christians believe Jesus spent this day in hell, freeing those held in bondage there, so it can also be a day of remembering Jesus' solidarity with those who suffer hellish conditions. It's also the last day of the season of Lent, a time of repentance, and an appropriate season for confessing western Christian complicity in the suffering happening in Gaza.
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A: As you arrive at each checkpoint, you may use the bathroom, refill water, and grab snacks. You're also invited to join in a 10-minute group focus time, which will include prayer, song, poetry, scripture, and a short reflection on one of the 5 themes. At the end of that time, we will offer you a specific Palestinian seed or fruit before we head out for the next section of the walk. (The Grandview Church stop will be a bit longer, with time to eat lunch.)
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A: We'd recommend good shoes, a water bottle, and weather-appropriate clothing (raincoats or sunscreen/hats). Keffiyehs, flags, and signs are also helpful ways to visibly express your call for a ceasefire - check the first question above for 5 themes that may inspire messages on your signs.
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A: We'd recommend transit - our first stop, Christ Church Cathedral, is across the street from the Burrard skytrain. The number 19 bus runs between our last stop (Trinity Grace United) and first stop, and the 8 bus will quickly take you to the Expo line at Main Street Science World. One idea is to park a car near Trinity Grace at 9:20 am, and bus to Christ Church for the start of the pilgrimage. Evos and bikes are also great options.
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A: We will have some safety marshalls ensuring everyone knows where to go, and is safe at traffic crossings. Each church checkpoint will have washrooms, water, and snacks available. And a "Host Car" will travel along with us carrying a first aid kit, snacks, water refills, and access to transportation in cases of "emergencies" (true emergencies will be handled with professional attention).
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A: If you're signing up for lunch, and you're able to bring some cash to contribute to the costs, we'd be grateful. But even if you can't, you're welcome to eat with us!
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A: We will proceed with the pilgrimage, rain or shine!
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A: We don't know - it will probably depend on the weather! Last year there were over 100 people who walked with us.
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The Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage is rooted in a clear Theory of Change, adapted from the work of Harvard's Marshall Ganz. At its core, the movement believes that when Christians worldwide participate in these pilgrimages, Palestinian Christians—who often feel isolated and unheard—experience meaningful global solidarity. These actions directly counter Christian Zionism, which has frequently provided theological cover for policies that result in human rights violations. The initiative emerged as a faith-based response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, organizing public prayer walks and demonstrations that embody Jesus's teachings of nonviolent love while making specific demands: a lasting ceasefire, immediate humanitarian relief, release of all hostages, and an end to occupation.
What distinguishes this movement is its dual emphasis on spiritual practice and concrete action. Participants walk in prayerful pilgrimage while amplifying Palestinian Christian voices, raising funds for relief efforts and advocacy, and demonstrating that Christians who support Israel's military actions don't speak for the entire Church. The pilgrimages serve as public witness that many Christians stand firmly against violence and occupation, grounded in eight core convictions that reject hatred in all forms while embracing nonviolent solidarity. This initiative represents a growing segment of global Christianity reclaiming a theology centered on justice and peace rather than uncritical support for state policies.
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1. The Way of the Cross / Walking in God’s Nonviolent-Resurrection-Power
“Resistance has a price. It leads to the cross. The disciples should not have been surprised.”
– Palestinian Theologian, Rev Dr Mitri Raheb
The cross is a brutal ancient imperial mechanism of suppression of dissidents. Those who dared to dream outside the limits of ‘how things are’ could expect their bodies to become billboards advertising what challenging the Empire would make inevitable. Yet in the New Testament, talk of the cross is transfigured in Jesus’ own life and ministry to become a paradox and, for those undergoing liberation, “the very power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)
This side of the Resurrection, we can name the cross as Jesus’ confrontational unmasking of the principalities and Powers of domination, sin and death: Powers that demand our complicity under threat of humiliation, torture and death. It is these Powers that the ancient church proclaimed have been disarmed, made a spectacle of, and triumphed over by Jesus upon the cross. (Colossians 2:15)
This side of the Resurrection, the cross can also name the horrific site where Jesus most clearly reveals the mystery of God to be a nonviolent-love that does not overcome evil by mirroring evil but overcomes evil with what Desmond Tutu called “a force more powerful”. As African American Theologian, Rev Dr Kelly Brown Douglas has said, “There is no greater testament to the love of Jesus, and thus God’s love for creation, than the cross.”
For us the way of the cross is our paradigm for a fearless, provocative, nonviolent faithfulness that refuses to collude with any form of domination, oppression or exploitation. The cross Jesus invites us to take up is freedom from capitulating to the forces of death and trust in another power – God’s nonviolent power – Resurrection.
2. Prayer.
The Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage movement’s theory of change starts with prayer. Prayer for us is not an added extra or something done in parallel to our activism.Rather, prayer is the opening of ourselves to the life of the triune God; the willful submission and collective alignment of our thoughts, emotions, motives, choices and actions to God’s restorative and transforming presence and activity in our world. As Greek Orthodox Bishop Kallistos Ware has said, “If prayer is to be transmuted into action, then this Trinitarian faith which informs all our praying must also be manifest in our daily life… our faith in the Trinity put us under an obligation to struggle at every level, from the strictly personal to the highly organised, against all forms of oppression, injustice and exploitation.”
Prayer for us is not the conclusion of compassion.ather, humble prayer is the place where grief is transmuted into grace, lament mixes with praise, and despair wrestles with deliverance until compassion is conceived and is birthed into the action of taking up our cross and trusting in the nonviolent power that raised Jesus from the grave. As Palestinian Anglican Priest Naim Ateek reminds Christians, prayer is deeply connected to Resurrection.
“Resurrection means,
Victory of life over death.
Victory of light over the darkness of occupation.
Victory of love over hate.
Victory of justice over oppression
Victory of compassion over hardness and callousness of heart
Victory of hope over despair
Victory of peace over conflict and war
Victory of reconciliation and forgiveness over revenge and vengeance
Victory of nonviolence over violence
Victory of peace, security, and wellbeing over chaos, insecurity, and fear.
This is what Resurrection means for us. It also carries with it responsibility and accountability. This must be our earnest and fervent prayer to God as we remember Christ’s victory over evil and death.”
Prayer for us imitates our Lord Jesus of Nazareth’s own model; prayer is an opening to intimacy, vulnerability and a place of abiding from which we seek to do the will of the One whom Jesus called Abba, in the power of the Spirit. Prayer is where we open to this Triune life to receive strength in our weakness, hope in our despair, grace in our time of need. Prayer for us is compassion as action. Prayer for us is responding to God’s goodness by doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with our God. For us, pilgrimage is another form of prayer.
3. Solidarity.
“If one part suffers, we all suffer…” -1 Corinthians 12:26
Prayer opens our hearts to share in God’s heart with those who are suffering. The Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimages seek to listen to, learn from, and lead with Palestinian Christians in each location. In doing so, we build community, encourage solidarity and organise in unity with those who experience these horrors most directly. Catholic theologian, M. Shawn Copeland writes,
“There is no more concrete example of the cost of self-transcending love than the cross of the crucified Jewish Jesus, and it is from the ground beneath his cross that Christian discipleship as solidaristic praxis or compassionate action arise and is always judged.”
In Matthew 16:24, we receive an invitation from Jesus to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Him.To deny the self which is formed in the patterns of dehumanisation is to reject the calculations like, “It is too costly for me to stand with our Palestinian sisters and brothers?”. To take up the cross is to share in Christ’s sufferings that seek to end the suffering of others. To follow Jesus is to be found where he is found, with those considered last, least, lost, looked over, scapegoated and forgotten. As Palestinian Lutheran Pastor, Rev Dr. Munther Isaac reminds us, “Where is God as Gaza is being bombed? God is under the rumble.” The question for us is, will we be with God as God is with them?
4. Transfiguring Trauma.
As was highlighted by Blinne Ni Ghralaigh in South Africa’s case in the International Court of Justice, this is the “first genocide in history where its victims are broadcasting their own destruction in real time in the desperate, so far vain hope that the world might do something." It is not merely the direct victims of physical violence and forced removals who are affected; everyone who carescarries this horror in our bodies through vicarious (or direct) trauma. Puerto Rican Pentecostal Samuel Solivan uses the term “orthopathos” to describe the process of turning suffering into liberation. “Ortho” from the Greek for upright, or true, and “pathos” meaning suffering or feeling. On Pilgrimage we will work with our trauma, metabolise its truth, alchemise its power and welcome God’s healing. We will do so not through avoidance, but through engaged solidarity as we prayerfully map Gaza onto our own locations with our bodies.
5. Healing Hatred.
“Jesus rejected hatred. It was not because he lacked the vitality or the strength. It was not because he lacked the incentive. Jesus rejected hatred because he saw that hatred meant death to the mind, death to the spirit, death to communion with his Father. He affirmed life; and hatred was the great denial.”
-Howard Thurman
In imitation of Jesus, we too reject hatred. As it reads in our core convictions, “We make a stand against any form of hatred including antisemitism and Islamophobia. We hurt the movement (and are not faithful to Jesus) when hatred of anyone or any people clouds the clarity of naming the war crimes being committed by the modern nation state of Israel. Hatred (be it racism or some other dehumanising practice) also hurts the much needed collaboration essential to end this horror. We are clear that “our battle is not against flesh and blood” but against the Powers responsible.” If we are to walk in the creative power of God’s redeeming love we must first allow ourselves to be lifted from the nihilism of hatred into the energising reality of enemy-love.
6. Offer an alternative vision to Christian Zionism (and those in Palestine).
"...if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it." -1 Corinthians 12:26
Our solidarity with our Palestinian siblings in Christ is not merely of pastoral importance but is also a prophetic unmasking of the lies of some Israeli politicians that claim, “there are no churches, no Christians in Gaza”. “Christian Zionism” is the largest financial and political backer of the current Israeli government’s apartheid policies, including illegal settlements, demolition of homes, unjust imprisonment, and the ongoing ‘plausible’ genocide in Gaza. Christian Zionists want a narrative that positions the conflict in Palestine as being between Muslims and Jews and the only option for Christians as one of unconditional support for the Israeli government. Amplifying the perspectives, experiences and voices of the Palestinian body of Christ disrupts both of these points. . Our proclamation that the full work of salvation and ongoing restoration has been accomplished through the cross disrupts the misguided theology that there is more action necessary for “history to turn out right” than our faithful obedience to Jesus’ example and teachings, action which includes supporting the Israeli government’s war crimes on Gaza. As Anglican Theologian, N.T. Wright has written,
“To suggest, therefore, that as Christians we should support the state of Israel because it is the fulfilment of prophecy is, in a quite radical way, to cut off the branch on which we are sitting.... It is a way of saying that in the cross and resurrection God did not actually fulfil his whole saving purpose; that Jesus did not in fact achieve the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy; that his resurrection was not the start of God’s new age; that Acts is wrong, Romans is wrong, Galatians is wrong, the letter to the Hebrews is wrong, Revelation is wrong. Say that if you like, but don’t claim to be Christian in doing so.”
The Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimages are planned to:
a) help local communities meet, listen to and organise with Palestinian Christians
b) highlight the church in Palestine that has existed since Pentecost
c) demonstrate solidarity with Palestinians, and
d) change the narratives which have propped up the violence for 75 years.
7. Mercy (Fundraising for Aid and Advocacy).
Mercy (Fundraising for Aid and Advocacy).
The Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimages are not merely symbolic. As it reads in our “Is this a fundraiser?” Section:
“Yes. Like James’ initial walk, Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage events are fundraising for three things: one) Relief. Humanitarian relief in the form of food, water, medical supplies etc. two) Refugees. Supporting those who are seeking safety. Three) Arrival of Relief and Refuge. Groups working to make sure the relief is arriving to those in need and refuge is being provided to those seeking safety. We ask that each Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage divides money raised evenly between these 3 priorities.”
Handouts
