Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage is a global network of 40 + autonomous Christian groups (including Peace Catalyst) who are engaging in a peaceful and prayerful show of solidarity with the people of Gaza by walking the length of the Gaza strip in cities around the world during Lent. As peace catalysts, we’re helping to organize a few walks around the United States. So far, we have one scheduled in the Twin Cities on March 23rd and one in San Diego on March 30th.

When I recently arrived in South Africa at the end of January to join my husband for a few months while he is on a temporary deployment with his job for USAID, I wondered how I would spend my time - what I would learn and whom I would learn it from. One thing I knew almost the first day I arrived is that I wanted to learn more about the concept of Ubuntu.

We are excited to announce that the Nanovic Institute for European Studies at the University of Notre Dame will be leading a group of students to work with us in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in May of this year. The trip will be led by Mahan Mirza, Teaching Professor at the Keough School of Global Affairs, and Executive Director of its Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sparked significant reflection and questions about the merits of nonviolent civil resistance in the face of massive violence, injustice, and war. Is nonviolent action a viable response when tanks are rolling in or authoritarian rulers threaten people with prison for speaking out? Is it possible to combine nonviolent action with armed resistance? Questions like these are playing out before our eyes as Ukrainians heroically defend their land against Russian aggression using both armed and nonviolent resistance strategies. For those who follow Jesus, many are asking themselves, what is a faithful response?

Our Peace Catalyst team in Seattle recently hosted its first live peacemaking event in over two years. Two local churches combined their efforts to host the local Uyghur American community in a community-wide Listening Event on the last day of the Winter Olympics. The timing was in solidarity to the worldwide Uyghur community whose concerns about holding an Olympic games in a nation where genocide is happening in real time were ignored by the IOC.

COVID-19 is upon us, but don’t let yourself be overcome by stress and anxiety. Here are some ways to deal with it in healthy, constructive ways and use it for positive transformation in yourself, your relationships, and your community.

A friend recently told me, “Rather than Bosnia becoming more like America, America is becoming a lot more like Bosnia.” Bosnians look onto the vicious exchanges between political parties in the U.S. with a certain amount of grief. Although many feel that the West has made a lot of harmful mistakes in the Balkan region, they strongly prefer American leadership in the world to an autocratic Russian or Chinese influence. While we grieve and become frustrated about social fragmentation in the U.S. and rhetoric that dehumanizes people, our Bosnian friends often remind us of what is so great about America and why its ideals, although imperfectly enacted, are desperately needed in the world today.

How can religious tourism and peacemaking go together? In a place like Bosnia, where the negative impacts of division, conflict, and war are tangible, travelers can’t avoid being confronted with the violent past. When that happens, there’s a choice about how to engage with the past, and to either contribute to peace or division.

Our Bosnia “Catalyze” peacemaking trip wrapped up a couple weeks ago after an exhilarating and rewarding 10 days filled with new relationships, dialogue, history, and learning across religious and ethnic differences.