wfn.org | NCC calls for tolling of bells for U.S. dead and wounded

["NCC News" <pjenks@ncccusa.org>]

Families ask that fallen soldiers
Be honored Sunday by a tolling of bells

New York, August 24, 2005 -- The National Council of Churches USA is asking
persons of faith to honor the men and women who have fallen in the Iraq war
with a nation-wide pealing of bells Sunday.

Faithful America, the NCC's Web-based community of 100,000 faith-inspired
activists across the country, is calling for a weekly nation-wide tolling of
bells to extend the profoundly spititual tone of the vigil of Gold Star
mothers outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Tex. The President's
five-week vacation in Crawford ends next week.

The use of bells to symbolize national support for U.S. troops and their
families was suggested by consumer activist and former presidential candidate
Ralph Nader, whose organization, Democracyrising.us, is working to end the
war. Nader passed the idea along to NCC General Secretary Bob Edgar.

August 24 is the last Sunday Mr. Bush will be in Crawford, and Gold Star
Families will join activist Cindy Sheehan in a prayer service outside the
ranch. Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq, has attracted worldwide
attention by camping outside the Bush ranch.

In an e-mail alert sent today, the FaithfulAmerica team asked its members to
help keep the Gold Star vigil alive by ringing bells this Sunday and on
future Sundays. 

"We ask your faith community to remember our nation's fallen soldiers and
their families by tolling your bell," wrote Vince Isner, director of
FaithfulAmerica.org. "Let us all pause to remember their sacrifice, to
remember their families as we seek God's help in sharing the burden of Cindy
Sheehan, Celeste Zappala, and the other Gold Star families" who are asking
why their children had to die.

Zappala, a United Methodist laywoman, lost her son, Sherwood, in Iraq action.

Isner said the ringing could include church bells, hand bells, school bells
and any other available bells. He suggested that the bells be sounded each
Sunday, tolling once for every soldier who died the previous week. Churches
may also opt to ring their bells every day, he said.

To date, nearly 1,900 U.S. soldiers have been killed and more than 15,000
have been maimed and wounded. There are no official records of the numbers of
Iraqi citizens who have died in the invasion and its aftermath, but estimates
range in the tens of thousands.

The tolling is part of a pastoral effort to support the families of the dead
and injured, and to help keep the nation's "attention focused on the
well-being of our heroic men and women in uniform and the families who worry
about them every day," Isner wrote.

Additional information, and resources for reflection, can be found at
www.FaithfulAmerica.org 

The National Council of Churches is composed of Protestant, Anglican,
Orthodox, historic African American and peace communions representing 45
million Christians in 100,000 local congregations in the United States.

Contact NCC News.  Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2252, pjenks@ncccusa.org; Leslie
Tune, 202-544-2350, ltune@ncccusa.org; and Vince Isner, 202-544-2350,
visner@ncccusa.org.