Note #9178 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
06142 March 3, 2006
Vigils scheduled to mark 100 days since peacemakers' abduction in Baghdad
Interfaith events will feature prayer for safe delivery of hostages
by Alexa Smith and Ecumenical News International
LOUISVILLE - Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) have issued a worldwide appeal asking churches to observe the first Sunday of Lent by lighting 100 candles to mark the number of days since four western peace activists were kidnapped in Baghdad.
Sara Reschly, a spokeswoman for the Chicago-based organization, told the Presbyterian News Service that some cities, including Chicago, are holding public vigils, and some churches are integrating candlelight services into their regular worship.
"We continue to maintain hope, and we really believe that the gentlemen who are holding our friends will recognize that we are working for peace and justice ... working to end the war in Iraq," Reschly said.
She said CPT's own vigil in Chicago will start at 6 p.m. Sunday at Water Tower Plaza, at the intersection Chicago and Michigan avenues.
The candles also are intended to honor the largely unnoticed peacemaking efforts of Sunni and Shi'a Iraqis at a time of escalating civil strife in Iraq, she said.
The hostages are Harmet Sooden and Jim Loney, of Canada; Norman Kember, of Britain; and Tom Fox, of the United States. They were snatched in a carjacking in central Baghdad last fall. A previously unknown group that calls itself the "Swords of Righteousness Brigades" threatened to kill them unless the U.S. and Iraqi governments released Iraqi prisoners.
A video that surfaced in late January indicated that all four hostages were alive.
CPT is protesting the U.S. occupation of Iraq and helping Iraqi families locate missing relatives who have been detained or jailed by security forces. The organization maintains that more than 14,000 Iraqis are being held without charge.
A number of vigils are scheduled in the United Kingdom on March 4 and 5, including an interfaith gathering in Trafalgar Square in London on Sunday. Kember's pastor, the Rev. Bob Gardiner, is among the organizers of the events in Britain.
The commemorations are being organized by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an international network of religious pacifists; the Roman Catholic peace organization Pax Christi; the umbrella organization Churches Together in Britain and Ireland; and the Baptist Peace Fellowship, of which hostage Norman Kember is a member. British Muslims also are expected to participate.
Prayers, litanies, and other related materials are posted at http://www.for.org.uk/bpf.html.
In a message to be read at the Trafalgar Square ceremony, Kember's wife, Pat, will note that her husband has always been involved in peacemaking, from the time he chose to do hospital work instead of compulsory military service.
Beth Pyles, a candidate for ordination in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is one of seven CPT activists living in CPT's apartment in Baghdad.
"We're getting more and more requests (for help in finding missing family members)," Pyles told the Presbyterian News Service by telephone. "We were visited today by a man whose brother was taken two years ago by the U.S. military, and they've been unable to find him since."
Pyles said the Baghdad team will mark the 100th day since the abductions, but in a quiet way. "We keep asking ourselves ... What is the difference in the first day, the 99th day, the third month? ... We're trying to continue in our work. Maybe then the people who have our guys will release them. Maybe they will see that they have work to do, and will let them go."
Pyles said four candles are lit during morning worship at the group's apartment to represent the missing men, and a fifth candle to represent the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Although the media have covered escalating tensions in some Sunni and Shi'a neighborhoods after the bombing of a mosque late last month, Pyles said, there has been little coverage of the reconciliation work under way.
She said a Muslim group has held several demonstrations in central Baghdad asking for the release of the four western peacemakers, and the response from passers-by has been positive. Joint Sunni and Shi'a peace efforts are also under way, she said, including work toward rebuilding Baghdad.
"It doesn't take a whole civilization to commit violence and destruction ... only a very dedicated few," she said. "The vast majority of people here want peace."
Reschly said the yearning for peace is what gives CPT hope. "There is lots of prayer happening," she said. "We really believe in the power of prayer."
Reschly said her Mennonite community on Chicago's West Side keeps four red CPT baseball caps in its worship space during services, as well as four red candles lit to represent the missing men.
CPT promotes organized, non-violent alternatives to war, and puts teams of trained peacemakers in regions of conflict, including Colombia, the occupied West Bank and Baghdad. It was founded as a violence-reduction initiative of the historic peace churches - Mennonites, Brethren and Quakers - but its members now represent numerous Christian communions.
PC(USA) Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase, of Tucson, AZ, is a CPT member. He has served in Hebron in the West Bank. Anita David, a Chicago Presbyterian, is living in CPT's Baghdad apartment with Pyles and five other Christians.
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