On Maundy Thursday, we are joining with Christians across the world in a pilgrimage for a ceasefire in Gaza. (More information here: https://www.gazaceasefirepilgrimage.com/)
1. Timings for our pilgrimage:
Start, 5am: Peckham Rye station
First stop, 7:20am: Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church
Second stop, 12:50pm: Bonny Downs Community Association
Third stop, 3:20pm: The Britannia Village Hall, E16 1TU
Fourth stop, 5:30pm: St Paul's Shadwell, 302 The Highway
Last 5km, 6:50pm: Druid Street Stop C (south of Tower Bridge)
End, 8-8:30pm: Amott Road Baptist Church for closing reflection and prayer, food and refreshments
2. Important links for more information:
I will continue to update the FB event: https://fb.me/e/4Ng6uiX0Y
There is also a WhatsApp group for the pilgrimage. Please contact me on 07579774371 if you are joining on the day and want to be added to the group.
We will use that for sharing information in the days ahead of the pilgrimage and also for updates, where we are and timings on the day.
3. Visibility on the day
We will have a couple of people in hi-vis vests to keep the group together and to be points of contact along the route.
Please feel free to bring along posters, banners, flags to highlight who we are and what we are doing. Just by way of reminder, the 4 main calls to action and prayer are:
A. Enduring and Sustained Ceasefire.
B. Immediate flow of life saving food, water, aid, fuel and humanitarian assistance.
C. Release of all hostages – both the Israeli hostages held by Hamas – and the Palestinian hostages held in the Israeli prison system.
D. End of occupation so a just-peace can begin.
From the Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage website: "We encourage you to speak through symbols; wear keffiyehs, bring Palestinian signs of sumud (steadfast endurance), carry crosses, or icons, or coffins, or signs. We do ask:
1. No demonising
2. No scapegoating
3. No dehumanising
Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage seek to humanise and honour lives lost. Even signs that would be appropriate for a sit-in or a rally might not be appropriate for this particular action given they might detract from the focus of the humanity of those suffering.
To mention explicitly again, no antisemitism will be tolerated. We hope our Jewish friends and neighbours will feel free to join us in calling out the nation state of Israel’s war crimes and what experts overwhelmingly identify as genocidal intent in the ongoing war against Gaza."
4. Donate to 'Embrace the Middle East'
If you can't join us for the walk but would like to show your solidarity with the movement, please consider making a donation to support the work of Embrace. Your donation will support the response of Embrace’s Christian partners now and in the aftermath of this catastrophic war. Their partners will be working to heal wounds and respond to the widespread destruction of human life, social fabric and physical infrastructure, in Gaza and more widely in Palestine and Israel. https://gofund.me/5a9084e1
Let us know if you are coming along or joining along the way!
Finally please do get in touch with any questions at this stage. If you know that you are coming, it would be great if you could indicate that on the FB event as we have people offering to provide food at some of our stops and it would be great to be able to give them a rough idea of numbers. https://fb.me/e/4Ng6uiX0Y
We will end our pilgrimage with a short gathering for Maundy Thursday including sharing food, reflection, prayer and foot washing at Amott Road Baptist Church.