Church leaders call to make ceasefire permanent as Anglicans launch international fundraising campaign for St. George’s College, Jerusalem
Updated with new material Feb. 19, 2025.
Archbishop Anne Germond, acting primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, has joined Lutheran, United and Presbyterian church leaders in welcoming the temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, while also calling for a permanent ceasefire.
In a Feb. 4 open letter, Germond, National Bishop Susan Johnson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC), Moderator the Rt. Rev. Carmen Lansdowne of the United Church of Canada and Moderator the Rev. Patricia Dutcher-Walls of the Presbyterian Church in Canada call the Jan. 19 temporary ceasefire “a first step and potentially a meaningful one toward a permanent ceasefire and peace in this fractured land.”
The four church leaders reiterated that since the Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, they had called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, immediate and safe release of all captives, humanitarian aid for Gazans and safe return of Gazans to their homes.
“A permanent ceasefire would cease hostilities, release all remaining hostages, liberate thousands of Palestinian prisoners detained without cause or charge, ensure continuing and increasing humanitarian aid in all forms—medical, food and psychological—and result in the withdrawal of occupying forces,” the letter said.
Each of the four leaders also expressed concern that Israeli occupation forces and illegal settlers are escalating violence against Palestinian refugee camps, orchards, homes and lands in the West Bank. “Only when the occupation of all Palestinian territories ends can genuine peace be realized,” they said.
The Anglican, Lutheran, United and Presbyterian leaders called for prayer for all who “have served tirelessly and in the direst conditions to support life with dignity” over the past decades and 15 months. They mourned all those who had died, particularly children.
They called for hearing the appeals of global church partners for the adoption of a full ceasefire agreement and for regional leaders to invest in peacebuilding; for learning about the history of the Holy Land and realities of war and occupation; for speaking out against antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism; and for Canada to play a key role in leading international efforts and making resources available to achieve a “lasting, just and equitable peace” between Israelis and Palestinians.
Calls of the church leaders echoed Resolution A160 from the 2023 Assembly, in which the Anglican Church of Canada and ELCIC as full communion partners reaffirmed their commitment to pursuing “peace with justice for all in Palestine and Israel.”
Trump’s proposal alarms World Council of Churches
Since the signing of the temporary ceasefire, returning U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Feb. 4 in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States will “take over” the Gaza Strip, potentially with U.S. troops, and that Palestinians who live there should leave.
The Rev. Jerry Pillay, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC)—of which the Anglican Communion is a member—called Trump’s proposal “tantamount to full-scale ethnic cleansing and neo-colonization of the homeland of the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza.” He added that the proposal violates every principle of international humanitarian and human rights law and disregards the fundamental rights of the Palestinians who have struggled and suffered for many decades.
“Coming after so many months of unrestrained violence, death, destruction, and displacement inflicted on the population of Gaza by Israeli armed forces, supported by the USA, this proposal for the ethnic cleansing of the territory unveils the unconscionable end goal of this conflict, long sought by extremist elements in Israeli politics and society,” the WCC general secretary said.
Pillay called for unequivocal rejection of Trump’s proposal and urged churches and Christian communities around the world to speak out in support of Palestinians’ lives and rights and to push their governments to reject any plan that would facilitate ethnic cleansing and permanent occupation.
Let Light Shine: St. George’s College facing ‘major crisis’
For the moment, the ceasefire has allowed breathing space for those in the region, including church institutions, to begin recovery from effects of the 15-month attack on Gaza.
St. George’s College Jerusalem, a continuing education centre of the Anglican Communion operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, has faced severe impacts on its operations from the Gaza conflict. In response, Anglicans in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand have launched coordinated fundraising campaigns to support the college.
Let Light Shine, the Canadian Campaign for St. George’s College Jerusalem, aims to raise $250,000 to pay staff salaries and related operations at the college in 2025.
A brochure for Let Light Shine, which runs until April 2025, says the college is facing a “major crisis” due to ongoing conflict in the Middle East, particularly since October 2023. St. George’s has a $2-million annual budget mainly supported through revenue from pilgrims’ fees, gift shops sales and lodging fees—a source of funds the Gaza war has completely disrupted, forcing the college to cut staff salaries.
“The violence that quickly sprung up after the Hamas attack and events in Lebanon and everything else has pretty much shut down the college’s capacity to receive pilgrims and therefore greatly compromised its revenue,” says Bishop of Ottawa Shane Parker, chair of Let Light Shine and board member for the North American Committee for St. George’s College Jerusalem.
With pilgrimages unlike to resume in 2025, Let Light Shine says, St. George’s doesn’t have enough money to cover even reduced staff salaries or essential operations for the year.
Though many health and relief institutions in the region have received emergency funding, Parker says, it can be harder to make a case for St. George’s College because unlike other Anglican institutions such as Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, it is not providing humanitarian care.
“The college is not a little institution in Jerusalem,” Parker says. “It is integral to the ministry of the diocese of Jerusalem.” Parker calls the college, which stands beside St. George’s Cathedral, “a gateway for people from around the world”—principally but not exclusively from within the Anglican Communion—into Jerusalem, Israel and Palestine.
“It’s a place of hospitality, pilgrimage, welcome,” he adds. “But critically, it’s also a place which allows people who are coming to visit to encounter the Israeli narrative, the Palestinian narrative; to understand the Jewish presence, the Muslim presence, and the Christian presence in the Holy Land; and to have opportunity to engage with the ‘living stones,’ as we call the contemporary Christians of that land. It’s a place that promotes encounter and reconciliation in a very important way.”
As of late January, Parker says, the Canadian campaign had raised around $40,000. He says the hope of fundraising efforts is that they will allow St. George’s College to sustain itself for the balance of the year.
“The idea is to enable the college to function with minimum payment for essential staff and programming and maintenance, so that it’s ready once the world calms down and pilgrims are able to come in numbers again.”
Donations to support St. George’s College Jerusalem through Let Light Shine can be made online via CanadaHelps at canadahelps.org/en/dn/124044 or by mailing a cheque to the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa.
