Common Table Podcast UMC

Wall to Wall: Palestine/Israel. Sahar Francis speaks justice from Ramallah

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 20:00:00 -0400

Attorney Sahar Francis leads Addameer, a non-profit legal aid and human rights organization that advocates for Palestinian prisoners and citizens. From her work in the courts, her conversations with detainees, and her encounters with the Israeli Defense Forces, she offers a powerful firsthand account of the daily injustices faced by the Palestinian people.

Join us for this compelling conversation from Ramallah — a voice of truth that will awaken your sense of justice, deepen your compassion, and renew your love for the people of Palestine.

The Common Table Podcast UMC is supported by the Creation Justice Team (part of the UNY AC UMC General Board of Global Ministry) and Peace with Justice for Palestine/Israel (also UNY AC UMC). Our focus is on Creation Justice, Creation Care, and the urgent need for peace with justice—recognizing how climate change and war disrupts the health of the Earth and all living things. We seek to prayerfully respect and love the creation we were born into, caring for all that lives.

We invite you to join us for conversations rooted in justice and compassion. Every episode is produced by volunteers, and we publish as often as we are able.

Our mission is to lift awareness, foster education, and encourage faithful action within the human community—in the name of Christ.

Hosted by Rev. Dr. Robin Blair.

Wall to Wall: Palestine/Israel, Rev Alex Awad

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0400

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Rev. Alex Awad, born in Jerusalem in 1946, has lived through every phase of Palestinian–Israeli conflict and hope for peace. After decades of ministry in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Gaza, he speaks to the reality of genocide, displacement, and injustice facing Palestinians today. Grounded in Christ, Rev. Awad offers an urgent call to pursue peace with justice and to confront the limits of a two-state solution.

We invite you to join us for conversations rooted in justice and compassion. Every episode is produced by volunteers, and we publish as often as we are able.

Our mission is to lift awareness, foster education, and encourage faithful action within the human community—in the name of Christ.

Hosted by Rev. Dr. Robin Blair.

Wall to Wall: Palestine/Israel Jeff Halper, PhD, Resisting Apartheid in Palestine

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0400

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This multi-episode series features voices of speakers, leaders, and activists working for peace with justice in Palestine and Israel, recorded during my May 2025 trip to the West Bank and Jerusalem. Among them is Jeff Halper, a 2025 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, who offers thought-provoking insights into what a path toward peace might truly require.

Through these conversations, you’ll hear the compassion and dignity that people—especially Jeff—bring to the sacred land we call the Holy Land. Many dismiss peace with justice in the Middle East as impossible, citing history, conflict, and deep divisions.

Yet alongside those realities, there is also hope: hope rooted in the belief that we are all God’s people, called to trust in something greater than ourselves, and to risk a holy vulnerability that makes room for compassion, respect, and understanding—even toward those we might once have called “other.”

For more information on Jeff Halper, the books he has authored, the non-profits he helped to found and the activism he works for justice, compassion, and peace, visit:

www.ICAHD.org

Common Table Podcast UMC is produced by Rev Dr Robin Blair. This series of episodes was blessed with the engineering talents of: Will Russell, Sandy Hey, Andy Malcolm, and John Bagale.

We invite you to join us for conversations rooted in justice and compassion. Every episode is produced by volunteers, and we publish as often as we are able.

Our mission is to lift awareness, foster education, and encourage faithful action within the human community—in the name of Christ.

Hosted by Rev. Dr. Robin Blair.

Wall to Wall: Palestine/Israel: Gideon Levy, Journalist

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 11:00:00 -0400

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In our May 2025 podcast series recorded in the Holy Land, we had the privilege of sitting with award-winning journalist Gideon Levy, who shared with our group profound truths from his decades of reporting. As a seasoned writer covering Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, Levy offers a perspective that cannot be ignored. He speaks plainly about what he has witnessed and challenges listeners to look beyond the narratives shaped by commercial Western media. He does not spare his Israeli colleagues, criticizing their silence in the face of colonial realities unfolding at the expense of Palestinians. With conviction, he asks how any of us can live with ourselves if we remain passive in the face of genocide.

This series of episodes has been supported by Peace with Justice in Palestine/Israel of the UNY AC UMC

Sandy Hey, Andy Malcom, Robin Blair, engineers

We invite you to join us for conversations rooted in justice and compassion. Every episode is produced by volunteers, and we publish as often as we are able.

Our mission is to lift awareness, foster education, and encourage faithful action within the human community—in the name of Christ.

Hosted by Rev. Dr. Robin Blair.

Wall to Wall: Palestine/Israel - Rev Ashraf Tannous, Pastor, Christmas Lutheran Church, Bethlehem

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 16:00:00 -0400

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Rev. Ashraf Tannous is a young Christian Palestinian pastor, recently installed at the congregation of Christmas Lutheran church in Bethlehem, with a deep passion for the Lord, a powerful gift for preaching, and a compassionate heart for the people of the Holy Land. As one whose faith roots and historic lineage reaches back to the first Pentecost (Acts 2), he believes it is God’s desire for all people to live together in peace in this sacred land.

He is keenly aware of the vulnerabilities around him and lives in the tension of watching the international community — and the global church in particular — remain silent while people are murdered, dismissed, and beaten. He has seen olive groves, cared for through generations, burned to the ground — not only by military forces, but also by civilians known as “settlers” who illegally seize land legally owned by Palestinian farmers and families who are offered no legal recourse in the Israeli legal system. As he says, "living is very hard right now", but that, "we are to love everyone", and he is asking for our help in prayer and purpose.

Rev. Tannous calls us not only to pray for peace but to take part in the sacred work of building it — for Palestinians and Israelis alike — for all human beings created in God’s image and worthy of God’s grace.

https://christmaslutheran.org

We invite you to join us for conversations rooted in justice and compassion. Every episode is produced by volunteers, and we publish as often as we are able.

Our mission is to lift awareness, foster education, and encourage faithful action within the human community—in the name of Christ.

Hosted by Rev. Dr. Robin Blair.

Wall to Wall: Palestine/Israel - Breaking the Silence

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 16:00:00 -0400

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Breaking the Silence is a not for profit group in Israel that offers support to veterans and soldiers of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). From their website:

www.breakingthesilence.org

They are an organization of veteran soldiers who have served in the Israeli military since the start of the Second Intifada and have taken it upon themselves to expose the public to the reality of everyday life in the Occupied Territories.

Luiz, a former IDF soldier, shares his powerful story and why he chose to join Breaking the Silence. His testimony is compelling—offering an inside look at the struggles faced by soldiers who confront the reality of systemic oppression and cruelty inflicted on the people of Palestine. Luiz speaks candidly about the orders he and others received—orders that, in his words, went against their faith, their will, and their deepest sense of right and wrong. He now works to reach others, whether they are stepping away from IDF service or still within its ranks, to help them see another way forward.

Read a couple of quotes from their website:

“The official mission was to open a logistical route for maneuvering, but in practice, the bulldozers were simply destroying homes. The southeastern part of Rafah is completely destroyed. The horizon is flat. There is no city.”

______________

“This is a just war,” and on my last day on reserve duty, I woke up in Sde Teiman and simply saw how an Abu Ghraib (a detention facility in Iraq which was made infamous when American military abused detainees in the early 2000s)-like thing was taking shape. You see normal, pretty ordinary people, reaching a point where they abuse people for their own amusement, not even for an interrogation or anything. For fun, to have something to tell the guys, or [for] revenge. The average Israeli who sees these things simply scrolls past it. They don’t see it. I don’t know if there is a greater impact if a soldier says it (that there was abuse) or not. It’s crazy that I say: “There are plenty of witnesses. There’s no need for me to testify about that.” But for real, it (Palestinians’ testimony) doesn’t count.

War is devastating for anyone who serves—but what we’re seeing now is something more: a collision of religion and political power, where the Zionist government cloaks greed in the language of faith. This oppression contradicts the heart of Jewish teaching and the vow to never repeat the horrors committed against Jews during the Holocaust.

In this episode, hear from Luiz and explore the stories shared at www.breakingthesilence.org. Ask yourself: Who truly has rights to the land? And is there space for everyone?

Thank you for listening to Wall to Wall: Palestine/Israel. In this series, we share the voices of those living within and around the walls of the Holy Land—people holding fast to their truth while

We invite you to join us for conversations rooted in justice and compassion. Every episode is produced by volunteers, and we publish as often as we are able.

Our mission is to lift awareness, foster education, and encourage faithful action within the human community—in the name of Christ.

Hosted by Rev. Dr. Robin Blair.

Interfaith Power and Light with Rabbi Glen Jacob

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 11:00:00 -0500

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Rabbi GLENN JACOB leads the New York affiliate of New York Interfaith Power and Light (IPL). It is an independent nonprofit (501C3) organization established in 2004. IPL represents over 110 communities of faith and thousands of individuals to be the moral response to climate change in New York State. Rabbi Jacob articulates the vision of the not-for-profit organization well, suggesting the need to care for Creation is upon us all, and that there is not a "single plot" of land in NYS that is not affected (negatively) by climate change.

He shared some of the challenges in front of New Yorkers, and many of the faithful responses, too.

While it is still available and not stripped of funds, if you would like to know more about support for clean energy improvements for your community of faith, house of worship, or other NFP ministry, check our the Inflation Reduction Act:

Click this link: https://www.whitehouse.gov/cleanenergy/directpay/?utm_source=www.cleanenergy.gov#other

We invite you to join us for conversations rooted in justice and compassion. Every episode is produced by volunteers, and we publish as often as we are able.

Our mission is to lift awareness, foster education, and encourage faithful action within the human community—in the name of Christ.

Hosted by Rev. Dr. Robin Blair.

Dr. Andrew Hartley, Chair of the Creation Justice team UNY UMC AC

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 08:00:00 -0500

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Andrew Hartley, PhD, is the Chair person of the Creation Justice team of the Upper New York UMC Annual Conference. Dr. Hartley is passionate about Creation Justice and Creation Care. His passion and commitment to the health of the planet drives his life through faith and gives direction to the team which harnesses the energy of the UNY AC UMC. The team brings information to the life of a faith community in caring of the planet in practical, meaningful ways.

Please listen to this episode of Common Table Podcast UMC and be in touch with the Lord to engage in faithful, earth-healing practices as a way to honor God and live your faith.

We invite you to join us for conversations rooted in justice and compassion. Every episode is produced by volunteers, and we publish as often as we are able.

Our mission is to lift awareness, foster education, and encourage faithful action within the human community—in the name of Christ.

Hosted by Rev. Dr. Robin Blair.

Imagine No Racism? The United Methodists of UNY AC Offer An Invitation

Wed, 27 Sep 2023 20:00:00 -0400

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The Social Holiness team of the UNY AC UMC is involved with the denominational effort to dismantle racism in our culture and our church. We offer this podcast as a way to bring awareness to the justice matters of racism in our midst, and sense of hope that all God's people are able to see one another in light of God's grace. Specifically, the UNY AC assembled a task force to work with the Conference Commission of Religion and Race (CCORR) and the General Commission on Religion and Race (GCOR) to bring awareness to the racism that harms us all. This task force was requested to educate us on personal and systemic racism, make us aware of our bias assumptions, invite us into grace-filled relationships to dismantle racism, and hold us accountable for the acts of racism. The population of the United Methodist community of UNY AC is approximately 97% white folks of European ancestry.

We will hear from Dr. Boggin, UMC Archives and History, Rev Dr Arroyo, GCOR, Bishop Moore-Koi-Koi, Western PA AC UMC, and Rev Evelyn Woodring and Georgia Whitney, both on the task force at UNY UMC.

This faith-centered conversation is filled with information that a might be familiar to some, yet brand new to many. We hope you will listen with the grace and light of eager love to bind the wounds that need healing as we all reach to, Imagine No Racism.

A Few Resources:
Imagine No Racism, UNY AC UMC
Resources in addition: https://www.unyumc.org/images/uploads/Comprehensive_Anti-Racism_Resources.pdf
Books and videos: https://www.unyumc.org/images/uploads/CCORR_Resource_List.pdf
What is it to be privileged? https://www.r2hub.org/wait-thats-privilege
General Commission on Religion and Race: gcorr.org

Contact Georgia Whitney for questions to be answered, or time and place to experience the Imagine No Racism curriculum: 585-410-4370
(please not before 9:00am, or after 9:00pm)

We invite you to join us for conversations rooted in justice and compassion. Every episode is produced by volunteers, and we publish as often as we are able.

Our mission is to lift awareness, foster education, and encourage faithful action within the human community—in the name of Christ.

Hosted by Rev. Dr. Robin Blair.

A Bridge Not a Wall: Standing Next to Native American Spirituality, in Christ

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 13:00:00 -0400

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n The spiritual truths we share are part of the universal human experience. In this Common Table UMC Podcast, Rev. Dr. Robin Blair speaks with Ansley Jemison, Cultural Liason of Ganondagan Historic Site in Victor, NY.
Ganondagan State Historic Site located in Victor, NY is a National Historic Landmark, the only New York State Historic Site dedicated to a Native American theme (1987), and the only Seneca town developed and interpreted in the United States. Spanning 569 acres, Ganondagan (ga·NON·da·gan) is the original site of a 17th century Seneca town, that existed there peacefully more than 350 years ago. The culture, art, agriculture, and government of the Seneca people influenced our modern understanding of equality, democratic government, women’s rights, ecology and natural foods. www.ganondagan.org

Mr. Jemison is a member of the Seneca Nation and shares with us some of the historic realities of the Iroquis people (Haudenosaunee) and some of his own personal journey. Please listen with your heart to imagine the weight of his laments.

Listen for how God speaks to you with this bit of information geared toward the truth of Jesus words:" Love one another as I have loved you" (Jn 13:34), and see where your heart calls you to journey with our neighbors.

Recources:
Giving Our Hearts Away, Native American Survival
by Thom White Wolf Fassett

Native American Ministries and the UMC

www.ganondagan.org

Sullivan Campaign

Native American Boarding
Schools

Original People Podcast, Ansley Jemison, Host

Other

Resources:
Giving Our Hearts Away, Native American Survival
by Thom White Wolf Fassett

Native American Ministries and the UMC

www.ganondagan.org

Sullivan Campaign

Native American Boarding
Schools

We invite you to join us for conversations rooted in justice and compassion. Every episode is produced by volunteers, and we publish as often as we are able.

Our mission is to lift awareness, foster education, and encourage faithful action within the human community—in the name of Christ.

Hosted by Rev. Dr. Robin Blair.

Common Table Podcast UMC: Domestic Violence Awareness, Support, and Prevention

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 15:00:00 -0400

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October is Domestic Violence Prevention Awareness month in the USA.

Brittany McCray is the Adult Advocate for Safe harbors of the Finger Lakes (SHFL), a domestic violence counseling not for profit center in several central NYS counties. The SHFL centers exist to help people whose violent victimization has harmed, wounded, and perhaps overwhelmed their lives; because what once was a loving relationship to them has become something fearful and violent, confusing and heart-breaking. New York state has a coalition of organizations to help victims:
New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence

Of course, every month is domestic violence prevention month, because this awful thing that happens inside of intimate relationships harms its victims and extends its harm and confusion to friends and families. Domestic Violence (DV) is not only one partner taking a swipe in anger at another - but it is also spiritual abuse, gaslighting, emotional abuse, controlling the money and inducing fear generally in the household. Domestic Violence touches 1 in 3 women. Again, Domestic Violence touches 1 in 3 women, in our country.

This is a matter of faith and justice, healing and education. We must act with love and say Domestic Violence is rejected in the name of grace and love.
Christians, we reject the harming of one another in the name of Christ.

We call upon all communities of faith to pray how to get involved to keep women and children from harm and provide healing; we also pray that abusive men have a path to learning how to respect and love the people with whom they are partnered.

Listen as Rev. Dr. Robin Blair of the Social Holiness Team in the UNY AC UMC, and Brittany McCray from SHFL talk about DV prevention and offer hope to those suffering this spiritual, emotional, physical and psychic abuse at the hands of domestic partners.

We invite you to join us for conversations rooted in justice and compassion. Every episode is produced by volunteers, and we publish as often as we are able.

Our mission is to lift awareness, foster education, and encourage faithful action within the human community—in the name of Christ.

Hosted by Rev. Dr. Robin Blair.

Common Table Podcast UMC: Understanding Differences, Learning Shared Values

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 15:00:00 -0400

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Common Table Podcast UMC (CPT) is honored to welcome Ralph Singh, Founder, Wisdom Thinkers Network. He is an educator, speaker, author, and practitioner in the Sikh religious tradition. Ralph is devoted to finding and naming our shared values in a diverse culture and a pluralistic religious landscape. Many voices, many ideas, many religions, and many ways of loving one another through a faith language.

Listen in as Ralph and the Rev. Dr. Robin Blair, host of CTP, discuss these shared values, and how the Sikh's were attacked just after 9/11, outside of Syracuse, NY. Listen in and hear how mercy was the first thing that came from the hearts of the congregation as the temple burned, and how Ralph spoke forgiveness at the sentencing trial of the arsonists.

As a matter of justice, the Social Holiness Team of UNY AC UMC offers that as Christians our call from Christ is: "to love one another as I have loved you", Jn 13:34. No exceptions! So to set aside people who wear turbans and practice their beloved faith differently that do Christians, is not a loving thing for a Christian to do. Listen to CTP for ideas on how to see shared values that build bridges, not differences that build walls between us.

For more on Sikhism: https://www.sikhnet.com/pages/who-are-sikhs-what-is-sikhism
For more on Ralph Singh and his organization: https://www.wisdomthinkers.org

We invite you to join us for conversations rooted in justice and compassion. Every episode is produced by volunteers, and we publish as often as we are able.

Our mission is to lift awareness, foster education, and encourage faithful action within the human community—in the name of Christ.

Hosted by Rev. Dr. Robin Blair.

Common Table Podcast: Peace with Justice in Israel Palestine, with Rev Alex Awad

Tue, 10 May 2022 15:00:00 -0400

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Peace With Justice in Palestine/Israel, with Rev Alex Awad

Common Table Podcast gives voice to those whose voices are quieted by culture and privilege. When one is given the dignity of voice, of being heard as invited to the table of grace, leadership in faith is developed in the telling of the stories that awakens and inspires Christ’s purpose in our lives.

The Holy Spirit gives flight to the human spirit that needs a space to be heard. It is our hope that hearing the stories of the marginalized and wounded the church will be continually moved to compassion, inspired by the Holy Spirit to reach out and be a part of the healing and unity for God’s purpose. Listening to these stories is a call to prayer and love.
"Love one another as I have loved you." John 13:34

Please contact our UNY-UM Conference TaskForce on Peace w/ Justice in Palestine/Israel, Linda Bergh <lindagarybergh@gmail.com> 315-492-8507 or Karen Peterson <dpeterson1@stny.rr.com> 607-739-3141 with your interest in participating in their work, as disciples of Jesus, affirming the dignity and sacredness of all people, standing against oppression and injustice, and working for peace with justice in Palestine and Israel. Scholarships are available for those wishing to visit Palestine/ Israel to learn what will contribute to peace with justice in the Holy Land.”

Task Force on Peace w/ Justice in Palestine/Israel book suggestions:

(In addition to Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour and Alex's family story):

The General’s Son (Journey of an Israeli in Palestine) by Miko Peled.

2016 -Just World Books/Just World Publishing LLC

Faith in the Face of Empire (The Bible Through PalestinianEyes) by Mitri Raheb.

2014 - Orbis Books, Box 302, Maryknoll, NY 10545-0302

Fatal Embrace (Christians, Jews, and the Search for Peace in the Holy Land) by

Mark Braverman. 2010, Synergy Books, P.O. Box 30071, Austin, Tx 78755

A Palestinian Theology of Liberation (The Bible, Justice, & the Palestine-Israel Conflict) by Naim Stifan Ateek. 2017 - Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY 10545

and for a thorough and accurate historical account by an Israeli Jewish academic:

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe. 2006 w/ reprints- 2017 -

Oneworld Publications, 10 Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1B 3SR, England

We invite you to join us for conversations rooted in justice and compassion. Every episode is produced by volunteers, and we publish as often as we are able.

Our mission is to lift awareness, foster education, and encourage faithful action within the human community—in the name of Christ.

Hosted by Rev. Dr. Robin Blair.