Michael's Blog

SOUTH AFRICA, PALESTINE, & THE US – Lessons for the Church, Lessons for All of Us

ICMEP is a non-sectarian organization. This is a sermon Michael preached about the trip he recently led to South Africa (Emmaus Road Mennonite Fellowship, Berne, IN, October 19, 2025). It is intended for a Christian congregation, but hopefully, all people of good will find some inspiration in it. Reading: 2 Timothy 4.1-5      In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom,

Read More »

Guest Blog – Rev. Sara Ofner-Seals

A VOICE CRIES OUT IN THE WILDERNESS: Meeting the great Gideon Levy One of the great privileges of my last trip to Palestine was getting to meet Gideon Levy, an Israeli journalist who lives in Tel Aviv, and probably the most high profile Israeli journalist who is willing to tell the truth about Israel and Palestine. Our group met with him for about an hour, as we passed through Tel Aviv on our way to the Galilee region. Gideon

Read More »

“We are the shooter!” – A Guest Blog by Pastor Anita Rediger, Berne, IN

     Anita Rediger is part of the Pastoral Team at Emmaus Road Mennonite Fellowship, Berne, IN. She has been a member of MennoPIN, and is active in promoting the Palestine struggle for full civil, political, and human rights.  Zoughbi Zoughbi and Bethlehem’s Wi’am Conflict Resolution & Transformation Center are partners with Emmaus Road Mennonite Fellowship. In a recent conversation, Anita made this comparison:      On August 27, Robin Westman carried out a heinous shooting attack on children at Annunciation

Read More »

From the People’s Conference for Palestine – August 2025

Indiana Center for Middle East Peace sponsored seven of our Millennial and GenZ leaders at the People’s Conference for Palestine in Detroit last weekend, August 29-31. Board chair, Pam Etheridge also joined them. I was able to attend on Saturday. In the midst of the US and Israeli genocidal project against the Palestinian people, 4500 gathered in Detroit, most of them under the age of 40. A sign of hope, energy, courage. and sumud. Here are a few of

Read More »

A Time Such As This – A Sermon by Michael Spath @ Emmaus Road Mennonite Fellowship, Berne, IN, August 3, 2025

The last couple of weeks, while most of the prurient media has been obsessed with the slow roll-out of salacious and titillating news from the Epstein files, there were other more disturbing, underreported new stories that should concern us in the church.  On Monday the US Office of Personnel Management issued a memo allowing federal employees to pray publicly at work, as well as to try to “persuade others of the correctness of their own religious views.” Last Saturday,

Read More »

Handala attacked; Starving Gazans targeted; Israel & US committing genocide

Dear friends,      I alternate between violent rage, a welling up of unwept tears, frustration, utter speechlessness, and rage again. I don’t have words, but sometimes all we have is words, and if we don’t speak up, if we don’t act, then who will.  We, people of privilege, we in the US and in the West, with blood on our hands.      Some thoughts:      ONE.  Yesterday, Saturday, July 26, Israeli forces intercepted the Gaza Humanitarian Aid flotilla ship,

Read More »
Scroll to Top