While local peace activists were preparing to rally in Glenwood Springs over the weekend calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, one Carbondale woman was acting out her faith-based views inside the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
Katrina Toews, who helps lead the Western Slope Mennonite Fellowship, took part in a hymn sing sit-in for peace while gathered in a tight circle with about 150 fellow Mennonite activists and allies beneath the House Cannon Rotunda on Jan. 16.
Toews is prominently seen in some of the videos of the event posted to the Mennonite Action Network’s social media pages and captured by national news media, helping lead the hymns in American Sign Language. One of her young daughters is hard of hearing.
“We came in peace, and it was very disarming for the Capitol Police to see and hear a group of protesters singing in four-part harmony and acting peacefully,” Toews said.
Still, 139 of the participants, including Toews, were ultimately arrested for essentially blocking passage through the space, which comes with a $50 fine in order to be released.
Toews said she was fully prepared to join her counterparts in handcuffs, if, and when, it came to that.
“I’ve never been arrested before, but I did go in with a plan that I would be standing up for my First Amendment rights,” she said. “It’s part of our democracy, and I think it’s really important that we do that when we feel strongly about something.”
The hymn sing was preceded by a “peace training” the day before, which followed a much larger national march for peace in Gaza on the Washington Mall on Jan. 13. That event involved some 400,000 people, according to news reports, with participation by both organized secular peace groups and other faith-based groups.
“As a Mennonite and a pacifist, I found the actions of Hamas were horrific on Oct. 7 [2023],” Toews said of the attack by the Palestinian terrorist group on Israeli citizens, which provoked Israel’s massive military retaliation in the occupied Gaza region that continues today.
“I also thought that Israel’s response only created more bloodshed,” Toews said. “As an American, I am complicit in funding this war with my tax dollars. We were already giving Israel over $3 billion before this war. The US is profiting by creating more bombs and weapons. I say, not in my name!”
The Mennonite Action Network (MAN) is a newly formed nonprofit that began teaching from the Mennonite’s historical perspective of nonviolence in the wake of the most-recent conflict between Israel and Palestine in Gaza.
Toews explained that the Mennonite Central Committee has been working in Israel regarding Gaza since 1948. MAN has joined other religious groups in leading the latest call for a ceasefire.
“Our learning sessions centered on hearing voices from American Jews, Israelis and Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and those who had already fled to America,” she said. “We also learned about the social movements of our past to build on needs for today.”
The Mennonite action involved two gatherings, including a permitted event on the lawn outside the Capitol that involved about 250 participants with more singing, speeches and children’s events, and then the flash-mob style hymn sing inside.
Following the events, Toews said she and others from the Mennonite contingent were approached by Jewish and Muslim groups thanking them and other Christian groups for adding their voice.
“I met one woman who had helped to bring nine buses of people from Indianapolis to support the national march, and she was intrigued that a religious group would want to call for nonviolence, because she hadn’t experienced that before,” Toews said.
In response to those who defend Israel’s actions, Toews said her reply is that both sides should lay down their arms and work toward a peaceful resolution.
“We want to see all hostages released, both Israeli and Palestinian, and we want safety, freedom and peace for all involved,” she said. “We know that under an apartheid rule in Gaza and the West Bank, the Palestinians have not been free. This does not create love, but a deeper hate. To secure the future peace of Israel, means that we must secure the future peace for Palestinians.”
Toews was joined at the demonstration by other Colorado Mennonite representatives from Denver, Colorado Springs and Alamosa.
She said her motivation to jump up and offer to use sign language and dance to help lead the songs was spontaneous.
“I come from a dance background and I have a daughter who is hard of hearing, so we are learning ASL with a deaf mentor,” she said. “The leadership welcomed me in, and (during the singing) I was overcome with emotion. …The intersectionality is something that inspires me to continue to work for peace and include our deaf and HH [hard of hearing] friends into the circle.”
Toews said she is also grateful for friends in Carbondale and the extended Roaring Fork Valley who helped her husband, Aaron, and two daughters with child care, meals and emotional support while she was away.
“I could have never gone to D.C. to lift my own voice without the support of the ‘family’ back on the Western Slope,” she concluded.
The Western Slope Mennonites meet twice a month on Sundays, alternating between the Masonic Center in Grand Junction and First United Methodist Church in Glenwood Springs.