While the Biden administration proclaims “a season of Light and Peace” as the theme of its Christmas celebrations this year and thousands gathered in Washington on December 5th to view the lighting of the White House tree, a group of around 50 activists held another kind of commemoration of Jesus’s birth.
Lined up along 17th Street, in full view of the crowd heading toward the Ellipse to hear Biden’s speech and performances by James Taylor and Tricia Yearwood, Christians4Ceasefire, a Pax Christi-affiliated ecumenical organization formed right after the Hamas attacks of 2023, highlighted Christ in the Rubble.
In a dramatic departure from the traditional nativity scene, their Baby Jesus was all alone in a bombed-out space. And the carols they sang, sounding so familiar to the crowd at first, turned out to be ceasefire songs.
According to the flyer advertising the event, it was inspired by a photograph of the creche displayed at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem last Christmas and the words of the church’s pastor, Munther Isaac: “If Christ were born in our world today, he would be born under the rubble in Gaza.”
Beyond their one-off tree-lighting vigil, Christians4Ceasefire wants Christ in the Rubble events to spread throughout Christian communities across the U.S.
“We want a national movement,” said Nicole Breedlove, one of the event organizers.
Lindsey Jones-Renaud, another organizer, added, “How can Christians sing ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ without speaking out against the slaughter of our brothers and sisters in Palestine? “
Their message seems to be catching on. At St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill, parishioners spent hours in the area’s first blast of winter cold on Thursday building a Christ in the Rubble public display. You can’t miss it if you’re anywhere near the heavily trafficked corner of 3rd and A St. SE.
In far-away Burlington, Vermont, one woman inspired by the flyer pulled a keffiyeh-wrapped Baby Jesus surrounded by stones up and down Church St. last week. But the group has set their sights on bigger targets. Philip Farah, who has lost many family members to the bombing in Gaza and now helps lead Palestine Christian Alliance for Peace, said, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could get a (Christ in the Rubble) display at the National Cathedral or at the (Catholic) Basilica? “
At the vigil Thursday night, bitter cold did not deter the activists for Palestine from serenading their captive audience of revelers for almost two hours. As one of the organizers myself, I said to the crowd, “We are here because we want you to remember the people of Gaza this Christmas, who have so little to celebrate, who are homeless and starving…and we want you to stand with us in calling for an end to this terrible genocide…”
Some of the people in line paused for a minute, some got out their cameras and took photos, most just kept walking. But they all had to hear, as they headed toward the White House and the star-studded show, the last two lines of our ceasefire version of What Child is This: “Haste, haste to speak aloud/Our silence is not holy.”
Laurie Gagne has a Ph.D. in Theology and has taught Religious Studies and Peace and Justice at the college level for 40 years. She is the former director of the Edmundite Peace & Justice Center at St. Michael’s College.
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