Fifteen travelers from the Diocese of Ohio attended the Christian Witness for Peace held in Washington , DC , on March 16. A few offered individual reflections on their experiences.

On March 16 I went to Washington , DC , with a small group of people from the Diocese of Ohio to participate in a vigil service at the National Cathedral and a peace action on the lawn of the White House.  The vigil was a service of remembrance for the victims of the war, both American and Iraqi, an opportunity for repentance in our complicity, and a witness to the war’s effects and ramifications.  The Peace Action, which could be participated in one of two levels, was also a remembrance and a witness, but also a strategic action, parallel to a military campaign, with a specific objective, to raise public awareness of the problematic nature of the U. S. war as it is currently being waged.

Eleven of us gathered in the Church House parking at 6 a.m. to drive to DC by 2 so that some could attend workshops, scheduled before the vigil service, in community organizing, political action, nonviolent resistance, and other topics.  However, our drive through rain, sleet, and then snow took us until after 3, and we saw many who had slid off the road.  We had barely time to check into our hotel, grab a quick bite, and negotiate the “metro” transportation to the Cathedral.  A great crowd gathered, even in the wind-whipped sleet.  By the time the service was scheduled to start, the Cathedral, which seats four thousand, was filled to overflowing.  We waited through a delay while later comers were routed to the nearby Presbyterian Church, where another thousand filled it, and telepresence monitors were set up for them.

At the vigil we prayed, sang hymns, observed silences, and listened to readings from Scripture and from the witnesses: reflections from a soldier about what it was like to have to keep his gunsights on a group of eight-year-old boys, from an Iraqi journal about trying to keep his business afloat in the chaos of street-fighting, from an Iraqi woman, missing her son, going every day to the morgue: “I hoped I would not find what I was looking for,” from a detainee at Abu Ghraib, about being tortured and humiliated, from the journal of a slain Christian peacekeeper: “We offered what we had, a witness that things did not have to be this way.”  We heard tales of the journeys of those present, that reflected all our longings.  Forty-eight states were represented in the congregation; one group of four had driven all the way from Spokane , Washington , only to get into an accident in Pennsylvania in the ice, and they had hitchhiked into DC to be at the service!

Interspersed, we heard the reflections of several leaders.  Celeste Zappala, a member of the advisory board of the National Council of Churches, and mother of one of the first American soldiers slain in Iraq : “Consider what it is like to open the door to a highly-decorated officer who hands you the notice that your son has been killed in action.”  Raphael Warnock, current senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church , where Martin Luther King, Jr. was spiritually nourished, invited us to consider the witnesses of King and of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, both of whom spoke out against the war-waging of their own governments.  Bernice Powell Jackson, North American President of the World Council of Churches, reminded us of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, which echoes in our own land both the scale of destruction borne by Iraqis and the injustice suffered by the poor in such chaos.  Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine and author of God’s Politics, called us to mount a true “faith-based initiative” and to bring an end to this war.

As the vigil ended we were sent outside in two orderly streams, one for those who would do the four-mile march to the White House and another for those who needed carriage either to the White House or hotels.  We marchers lit our chemical and electrical candles, put our hoods up against the sleet and prayed for it to cease, which it did, eventually.  As we marched we sang, sometimes in parts, “We Are Marching in the Light of God,” “This Little Light of Mine,” “Down by the Riverside,” “We Shall Overcome,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Dona nobis pacem,” and other hymns and protest songs, and we observed the parade boundaries as police zipped back and forth clearing traffic for us.

The Peace Action consisted of two levels, a legally permitted parade and through-the-night sit-in demonstration outside a perimeter that police had erected around the inner grounds of the White House, and a civil disobedience, staged about midnight, in which non-violence-trained participants deliberately crossed the perimeter.  About two hundred were arrested in an orderly fashion.  Meanwhile, the leaders of the sit-in outside gave speeches, and then read the names of fallen American soldiers and staffers and Iraqis of all walks of life, one by one, and we chanted, “We remember you!” to each name.  I stayed until nearly 1 a.m., then found my companions and returned to the hotel, but the demonstration went on, and busses kept disgorging people who would stay through the night, then march the next day.

On our return van trip Saturday, we eleven all expressed new hope; we were not alone, but part of a great throng that thirsts for peace and for justice.

My reflection on this is very simple.  None of this is news to us; we all know about the prevarication that kept the Vietnam War going until 30,000 of our soldiers were slain, we’ve all heard about the missing “weapons of mass destruction,” stolen rights at Guantanamo, torture at Abu Ghraib, neglect of our returning wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital, and civil war in Iraq that Iraqis now say is worse than living under Saddam.

Let us as people of faith take the initiative as citizens.  Write to your Senators and Congress-people; cut the funding for this war.  The agents of the war will then be empowered to “do the right thing” with a coherent, if humiliating, exit strategy.  Write to the Blade, to your blog, to your friends and colleagues; as activist Molly Ivins put it, “raise hell.”  This effort needs all of us; as the words of an old protest song of the sixties put it, “One man’s hands can’t tear a building down, but if two and two and fifty make a million, we’ll see that day come ‘round.”

--from David Christian Nelson, Trinity, Toledo

March 16 Peace Witness Reflections

I couldn’t see the criminal dragging the cross-beam
     for the press of the crowd.

I couldn’t hear the soldier’s order – the words of sentencing
     for the jumble of noise.

I couldn’t get close enough to find out if the robe was for sale
     for the banners and flags.

I lagged behind.
I was tired.
I didn’t like the dark,
     and it was very very cold.

My legs hurt.
I was tired.
I felt the sleet,
     and wondered how He managed.

I never did actually see the Face.
They say it was all bloody and worn.
Just like a criminal’s.

A lot of people died after that; most were killed by men in suits with medals.

Then there was a long long silence.

--from the Rev. Dr. Elaine McCoy

Reflections from the March 16, 2007 trip to the National Cathedral in DC for the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq Peace Service.   

Those key words of “Christian Peace Witness” in particular caught my eye in January and I knew right away that I had to go.  Wow, what an exciting thought of gathering and praying with other Christians who also may be tired of having our Christian faith and patriotism as citizens lumped together and called into question because we want an end to this unjust war.

It was 6:00am on Friday, 3/16 when the 11 of us gathered at Trinity’s parking lot to pack up the Cedar Hills van and head to Washington DC .  The weather turned lousy when we got on the PA turnpike and did not get better even as we all gathered at the National Cathedral for the service at 7pm.  But it was different, the cold, crisp, wet sleet coming down couldn’t take away the feelings of excitement and joy surrounding us all gathered from around the country on this common and holy ground.  

Since writing is not my strong suit, I will offer this thought of our whirlwind overnight trip - WOW, WOW, WOW !!!!   The Christian Peace Witness for Iraq Peace Service had a profound sense of awe and thanks.  I say “thanks” because of the many thoughts, words, prayers, letters, and people gathered and shared that evening in the Cathedral.  Many are also my thoughts and prayers – maybe yours too. 

I would like to share some of the message from Rev Jim Wallis, of Sojourners, as he called us, the congregation into action and sent us walking,     

“…it’s personal for millions of us now…the war in Iraq is actually more than personal - it has become a matter of faith.  By our deepest convictions about Christian standards and teaching, the war in Iraq was not just a well-intended mistake or only mismanaged.  This war, from a Christian point of view, is morally wrong - and was from the very start…(T) this war is not just an offense against the young Americans who have made the ultimate sacrifice or the Iraqis who have paid such a horrible price.  This war is not only an offense to the poor at home and around the world who have paid the price of misdirected resources and priorities – this war is also an offense against God…so we are here tonight, very simply and resolutely, to begin to end the war in Iraq – not by anger, though we are angry; not just by politics, though it will take political courage; but by faith, because we are people of faith…it will take faith to end this war.  It will take prayer to end it…[I]it will take a revolution of love to end it, because this endless war in Iraq is based ultimately on fear, and Jesus says that only perfect love will cast out fear…Ironically, this war has often been cloaked in the name and symbols of our faith, confused American imperial designs with God’s purposes, and tragically discredited Christian faith around the world, having so tied it to flawed American behavior and agendas.  Millions of people around the world sadly believe this is a Christian war.  So as people of faith, let us say tonight to our brothers and sisters around the world and as clearly as we can – America is not the hope of the earth and the light of the world, Jesus Christ is!....let us march tonight, believing that faith is stronger than fear…hope is stronger than hate…that the peace of Christ is stronger than the ways of war…all of this must be wrapped in the power of prayer.  Because we believe that God can still work miracles in and through our prayers – and that prayer followed by action can turn valleys of despair into mountains of hope…we leave this Cathedral humbly hoping to be God’s instruments of peace and the earthly agents of the kingdom of God .” (SoJo Mail 3-22-07  Marching Orders by Jim Wallis, pages 1-2, Hearts & Minds)

As we left the Cathedral to begin the four mile walk to the White House - the snow stopped, winds died down, and the air was filled with a peaceful calm. 
    Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.
    Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.
    Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me.
    Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.

May Peace Prevail Upon the Earth

--from Debbie Hunter, Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland
 

I have new hope that people can make a difference IF they risk raising the subject of beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks that we may make war no more forever. It is time to make one's views known to friend and stranger alike, and to speak up for the idea that the bumper stickers from the Episcopal Peace Fellowship proclaim- "War is NOT Christ's Way". 

-- from Lenore Goist, Christ Church , Kent