wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Peacemakers plan White House prayer and fast

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #9057 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

06004
Jan. 4, 2005

Peacemaking team planning
White House prayer and fast

Group will mark Epiphany by calling for end of Iraq occupation

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - About a half-dozen members of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPTs)
will pray and fast outside the White House for three days to celebrate
Epiphany (Jan. 6) and urge churches to demand an end to the U.S. occupation
of Iraq.

	The team has requested a meeting with President George W. Bush.

	CPT, a pacifist human-rights organization, has documented prisoner
abuse in Iraq and communicated its concerns to the media when the Abu Ghraib
scandal broke. The group attracted more attention six weeks ago when four of
its members were taken captive in Baghdad by a previously unknown group that
calls itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigade.

	The kidnappers threatened to execute their hostages, but let their
deadline pass without incident. So far there has been no further information
about the whereabouts or condition of the hostages.

	"Up to this point, we've considered no news to be good news," Cliff
Kindy, one of the organizers of the Epiphany event, told the Presbyterian
News Service by telephone from his home in northern Indiana. "It is a very
difficult time, but it is no more difficult than what Iraqis are living
through."

	Kindy said the fast will launch what CPT calls its "Shine the Light"
campaign to expose torture, hostage-taking and abuse of detainees in Iraq and
elsewhere.

	The campaign will begin officially on Jan. 15, Martin Luther King
Day, and run through Jan. 29, when CPT and its supporters will lead
candle-lit processions in front of the Pentagon, the State Department, the
U.S. Capitol, CIA headquarters and other government or private institutions
that support the war.

	The Epiphany fast will begin on run from 8 a.m. on Jan. 6 through
noon on Jan. 8.

	Anita David, a Chicago Presbyterian and a member of CPT's Baghdad
team, said in a Dec. 30 letter that the wait for word about the four
kidnapped men has been terrible. The CPT members have been focusing on how to
secure the release of their colleagues.

	David said the kidnapping raises difficult issues and forces team
members to ponder whether we have the right to advocate peace if we are not
prepared to pay the cost of non-violent peacemaking?

	She said she wonders why others - including radio pundit Rush
Limbaugh - accept the consequences of war. She said Limbaugh has been
critical of CPT's work in Iraq and apparently is pleased that the kidnappings
are testing a group of what he calls "leftist feel-good hand-wringers."

	"We thank our Iraqi friends continuously for standing by us and
continuing to work with us," David said. "Their presence with us puts them in
real danger. We continue to shop in the market, and when we walk down our
streets, our neighbors ask about our teammates - Have we heard? Has anyone
called? What are we doing?"

	Kindy said CPT members hope to be able to convey to the President the
concerns of ordinary Iraqis.

	Asked whether he thinks the group will get to speak to Bush, he
recalled a visit a CPT group made to Fallujah in the company of Muslim
peacemakers. The group was told that entry was impossible, but	several
carloads went ahead, and got into the city.

	"We'll make ourselves available," Kindy said. "God will work the
miracle."

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