Both the Communion service and the obstruction of the cafeteria were designed to draw attention to the “urgency of the famine” in Gaza, Ernst said, explaining that Christians for a Free Palestine followed the advice of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights in focusing Tuesday’s action on the famine.
Ernst said organizers wanted the protest to be “a transformative faith experience,” and many spent the day before in Bible study, prayer circles, community-building and workshops.
For Washington-Leaphart, Tuesday’s protest was about discipleship.
Jesus’ “work navigated a tension between comfort and safety that one may find in faith and disruption and risk and adventure that one finds in faith,” Washington-Leaphart said. “If I’m not taking enough risks, then I’m not really pushing myself to the limits of my faith.”
This story has been updated to clarify that Nichola Torbett now lives in Pennsylvania.
This article originally appeared here.
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