Reporting back on the Advocacy Tour!
We were recently privileged to have Sahar Francis and Revd Ashraf Tannous here with us in the UK for an advocacy tour. Here’s how they got on…
Wow, what a week! From engagements in parliament, to acts of public witness, to speaking in churches, our speakers had a jam-packed week of events which reached a large number of people and impacted many in their journey of solidarity and support of Palestinian Christians. Have a look at the photos below to see what they got up to!
Parliamentary engagements:
Working in partnership with The Council for Arab and British Understanding, and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, we took Sahar and Ashraf into parliament twice to meet MPs and Peers in the House of Lords.
Sahar meeting Baroness Helena Kennedy in an evening reception hosted by Helena and her staff.
Sahar and Ashraf speaking to the Britain-Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group.
Church engagements:
Our speakers had church engagements in Manchester, Southport, Liverpool and Leeds!
A deeply powerful session at Luther King Theological College in partnership with the URC. Moderated by Lawrence Heath-Moore.
You can watch the Gaza in crisis Zoom event again here:
And listen to Palestine now: a biblical and theological podcast with Ashraf Tannous and Sahar Francis here: https://youtu.be/Xz3xxTHYG_o
Ashraf and Sahar also addressed students and alumni at Cambridge University School of Divinity in partnership with the Cambridge Centre for Palestine Studies.
Revd Ashraf addressed a large crowd at Leeds Minster organised by Ruth Thomas.
Our trustee Lynn organised a coffee morning in Southport, and Revd Ashraf spoke at a rally for Palestine there too.
Following that Revd Ashraf then addressed a gathering at Liverpool Cathedral, and later on Liverpool Parish Church.
Our Conference and act of public witness
After a wonderful (and very busy!) week with our speakers, we were delighted to have both of them speak at our own Conference at St John’s Church Waterloo, where over 130 of us gathered to listen, share and respond in faithful action to the witness from our Palestinian siblings. It was a fantastic day, and we were so grateful to everyone that made the journey to be there. Look out for next years’ event!
And we even let them do a little sightseeing…
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