Action Alert: Communal Fast in a Time of Calamity - A Multireligious Call / Oct 8
Communal Fast
in a Time of Calamity:
A Multireligious Call for October 8
Dear friends,
How do we announce a major religious event, such as the October 8 Fast calling on America to move from conquest to community, from violence to reverence -- and to end the Iraq war?
When the steering committee of the Fast began discussing this, our first response was the conventional one in American society -- a press conference.
But then we recalled that there are ancient traditions for making the announcement of such a religious act itself a religious act. In the Talmud, for example, there is described a way of Calling a Communal Fast in Time of Calamity. (The calamity might be a drought, a famine, a war.)
For a multireligious event like the October 8 fast, we of course should draw on the symbols of several traditions. And in our society, we should see "the media" as themselves a kind of trumpet, a conch shell, a ringing of bells -- to reach the wider public.
So we offer you the following outline of a ceremony intended to invoke God's presence and the community's commitment for the Fast.
We recommend that in each community where the Fast is planned as a public commitment to turn away from the Iraq War and other forms of violence, religious leaders agree to meet and speak for the following ceremony, and the media be invited to cover it and report it.
The ceremony could be used ahead of time to announce the Fast, or on October 8 itself as the framework for a vigil calling for an end to the Iraq war.
Feel free, of course, to modify this ceremony to meet your needs.
You can give and receive more information about the fast and especially enter your own plans in your own community, to encourage others , by clicking to --
And check our Website at http://www.shalomctr.org for the full text of the Call and its signers. (Among the newest: Sister Joan Chittister, OSB, and Rabbi Shirley Idelson, dean of Hebrw Union College.)
For additional texts and ideas for announcing the Fast, see also --
http://www.shalomctr.org/node/1281
Feel free, of course, to modify this ceremony to meet your needs.
Shalom, salaam, peace --- Arthur
Multireligious Call
to a Communal Fast
in a Time of Calamity
A "master of ceremonies" welcomes the religious leaders, the media reporters, and the community; explains that the leaders will speak in the context of religious ceremony, and that reporters will be welcome to ask questions at its end, as in a regular press conference.
Ceremony begins:
The ram's horn blows the sacred notes of grief and alarm.
A muezzin calls the world to prayer.
The foreheads of the leaders and the sacred instruments of the different traditions -- e.g., the cover of a Torah Scroll -- are daubed with ashes.
A bell begins to toll: ten strokes. It is tolled again as shown below.
Then the leaders say one by one, paragraph by paragraph:
In grief we see that our culture, our society, our public policies, are honeycombed with violence. Daily murders in the streets of our cities, recurrrent mass murders in our schools, violence in our families, on our television programs, our films, our computer games - and in Iraq.
Today we gather to focus on the last and bloodiest of these. We must end the shattering of Iraqi and American lives by offering American generosity and support -- but not control -- for international and nongovernmental efforts to assist Iraqis in making peace and rebuilding their country, while swiftly and safely bringing home all American troops.
A bell begins to toll: ten strokes.
Today we call for Americans to join in a fast from sunrise to sunset on Monday, October 8, to bring the spiritual renewal and empowerment of fasting to bear on healing ourselves --
To help us move from conquest to community, from violence to reverence.
A bell begins to toll: ten strokes.
Just as Isaiah called the People Israel to hear the Yom Kippur fast as God's call to feed the hungry; just as Jesus fasted in the wilderness, just as Christians through Lenten fasting and Muslims through Ramadan fasting have focused on spiritual transformation, just as Mahatma Gandhi, Cesar Chavez and others drew on fasting to change the course of history, so we call on all our communities of faith to draw now on fasting as a path toward inner spiritual transformation and outward social transformation.
A bell begins to toll: ten strokes.
Ending this war can become the first step toward a policy and a society that embody a deeper, broader sense of generosity and community at home and in the world.
By turning away - even for a day -- from filling our bellies, we more easily open our souls to the One, our hearts to compassion, our minds to wisdom, and our hands to acts of peace. Today, we ask the question ? what acts of turning do we want to turn to, in light of this calamity of war?
A bell begins to toll: ten strokes.
Individual leaders speak their own messages, for a maximum of [two? five?] minutes each.
All join in this chant/ song (to the melody of "Dona nobis pacem"):
Grant us peace, God of peace, grant us peace - Grant us peace, God of peace.
Dona nobis pacem pacem -- dona nobis, pacem.
Shalom aleichem, shalom aleichem ---
Asalaam aleikum -
Namaste, shantih om, shantih om --
Grant us peace, God of peace, grant us peace - Grant us peace, God of peace.
Ceremony ends. Opportunity for questions from media.
- Stephen Rockwell's blog
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Comments
ALL ROADS LEAD TO JERUSALEM
When we speak of the Middle East we must comprehend that ALL ROADS LEAD TO JERUSALEM!
Tony Blair admitted that 70% of the worlds problems with terrorism can be traced back to the conflict in Israel Palestine, and until we the people wake up and connect the dots, we cannot change anything!
On my first of five trips to Israel Palestine, I attended a conference at Notre Dame Cathedral that was satellite-linked to the world and moderated by Dan Rather from D.C.
The interfaith panel were all moderates attempting to reclaim the battlefield of ideas from extremists on both sides.
Rev. Theodore Hessburgh, president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame began the evening with a pledge:
“The peace of the world begins in Jerusalem.”
Dr. Tsvia Walden, of the board of directors of the Peres Center and Geneva Initiative, offered, "There are more people in this region interested in making concessions; they all want peace so desperately.”
The coordinator of World Bank emergency services to the PA, Rania Kharma, affirmed, “We all need to be the bridges to our leaders and carry the message that only justice, equality, and human rights will bring peace. Give people justice, and they will reward you with peace.”
Sheik Imad Falouiji warned, “Religions must go back to their origins. God commands us to love each other and live together. This Holy Land was given to all people. This land is on fire. There is an occupation that must be removed. The language of peace cannot succeed without justice for all.”
President Bush PROMISED in his second inaugural address: “In the long run, there is no justice without freedom, and there can be no human rights without liberty… All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know the United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for liberty, we will stand with you.”
The bishop of Jerusalem, Rt. Rev. Riah Abu Assal, said, “Peace is an act. Blessed are the peacemakers, not the peace talkers. Peace is possible in the Holy Land. The root cause for the lack of peace since 1967 is the occupation. For peace to make progress in the Middle East, we need to deal with the root cause. Religion was not meant to bring death. All those involved in searching for peace should commit themselves to work for justice and truth.”
After the conference, I walked in deep silence in the dark and all alone back to the Ambassador Hotel and wondered about the words Roman Catholic mystic Thomas Merton wrote:
"Oh God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not necessarily mean that I actually am. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will always lead me by the right road, although I may know nothing about it… and I will not fear.”
The Doctrine of FEAR was implemented after THAT DAY we call 9/11, but the GOOD NEWS IS:
"You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free."-Jesus Christ as quoted in John 8:32
THE TRUTH is that the 40 year occupation of Palestine and four year occupation of Iraq are connected; it is empire we must confront and challenge!
After all, Jesus Christ was never a Christian; but he was a social justice radical PALESTINIAN devout Jewish Road Warrior who ROSE UP [in Arabic that translates to INTIFADA] against the corrupt Temple authority by teaching the people they did NOT need to pay the Temple High Priests for ritual baths or sacrificing livestock to be OK with God, for God LOVED them just they were:
sinners, poor, oppressed and OCCUPIED people!
Of course we must Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. and etc
BUT also pray we the people of America WAKE UP!
Eileen Fleming,
Reporter and Editor of
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Author "KEEP HOPE ALIVE" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"