I am writing to acknowledge the impact of the war in the Middle East on our team members and our students.
I’d like to send my deepest condolences to those of you for whom this has had, or is having, a direct impact on your lives. Though I stand beside you in solidarity, I cannot authentically imagine what you are going through.In these last few fevered days we have seen many rapid fire reactions, opinions and declarations, some well informed and some less so. I don’t wish to add another opinion to that pile and I will leave an analysis of the causes of the latest conflict to those with a deep and objective knowledge of the region and its complex history. I can only approach the subject as a fellow human being.
Above all we should work to not create new divides as we seek to understand the suffering. Perhaps instead we can take some time to reflect on our own community, to the meanings we are trying to create together and to the stand we are taking for a better future.
Amongst other things at Catalyst, we stand for the possibility that our differences of identity are of little consequence when compared with the things that we have in common. That is not a ‘truth’. It is simply a stand we take. It is not some impossible or naïve dream. It is a choice. Many people, organisations and movements around the world are choosing to live from a similar stand on a daily basis.
In this world there is intense pain, there is unimaginable suffering, there is death and destruction, but alongside these things, there is also the possibility of hope, healing, resolve and a new future.
We will always be stronger together.