P.O. Box 81, Swarthmore, PA, 19081-- brandywine@juno.com (610) 544-1818
Christmas Candlelight Vigil for Peace, Friday, December 21, 2007 7PM
Candlelight Vigil w/bell-tolling and reading the names of Iraq War Dead
(from PA and equivalent number of Iraqis)
*Isaiah 9: 2 - 6 *Carol: Silent Night * "On Living Darkness", Sharon
Browning, Just Listening (read her essay)
*The Christmas Story/Luke 2: 1 - 20 * Carol: It Came Upon a Midnight
Clear
*From The Time of the End is the Time of No Room, Thomas Merton
*Carol: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel * "The World Through Jesus Eyes", Rev.
Al Krass, Coalition for Peace Action
* Litany for Christmas in a Dark Time
(response [all]: In a dark time, the eye begins to see!)
Reader: In a time of war....In the face of every person that hungers for
community and justice, is a reflection of this time of war and empire,
the time of Lockheed Martin, the worlds largest weapons producer and war
profiteer. In the knowledge and presence of the poor, the victimized, the
tortured and imprisoned - all those
on whom, and at the expense of, war is made - whether that be in Iraq or
Afghanistan, Colombia or North Philadelphia, in the prisons of
Guantanamo, Abu Graib, Graterford , is also, paradoxically, the presence
of that child born without dwelling, who would die the tortured death of
a political prisoner.
Response (all): In a dark time, the eye begins to see!
Reader: In a time of war...The number of Iraqis killed since the U.S.
occupation of Iraq began is now unimaginably estimated at over one
million. The U.N. estimates that there are now over 2 million Iraqi
refugees in Syria and Jordan Like the thousands and thousands of Iraqis
killed, each of the now 3, 895 U.S. deaths in
Iraq (and the more than 28,000 wounded and maimed) are more than victims
of a particular policy built on lies and public deception. They are also
casualties of a far deeper, systemic disease - the ambition of empire and
the greed of militarism, the real business of war and the weapons
makers, the business of Lockheed Martin. A friend of Brandywine e-mailed
us just the other day in response to
tonights invitation: My stepdaughter worked for Lockheed Martin, she
went to Iraq and Aghanistan to earn money from those war profiteers 4
times...Its my understanding she was paid an obscene amount of our tax
dollars. This is criminal! Response (all): In a dark time, the eye
begins to see!
Reader: In a time of war...the weight of war and empire bores down on our
society. U.S. military spending for 2008 is projected at $750 billion,
and that doesnt generally include the cost of wars in Iraq and
Afganistan, which easily will cost more than a trillion dollars. The New
York Times conservatively reports that more than 34 million people in the
U.S. live in poverty, what Gandhi called the greatest form of violence, that one in five children under the age of five in the U.S. is poor. The
so-called gap between rich and poor now exceeds the economic
disparities of the Reagan era . Every bit the casualties of war:
health care, mass transit, shelter and sustenance. An estimated 3.5
million people in the U.S. will be
homeless this winter; for 2008, Lockheed Martin projects earnings of
$42.75 billion. That is war! Response: In a dark time, the eye begins
to see!
Reader: In a time of war...All the stories that hallow this season are
about the return of hope when the earth is in its darkest moment. Lamps
of resistance burning on oil that should have run out, the return of the
sun and the lengthening of days, the return of the Earths fertility
after a season of cold and fallowness, and a baby born under a brilliant
star in a land under occupation The birth of Jesus, in his time and
ours, is a enactment of disarmament and peace, an act of nonviolent
resistance to the war-makers and bomb wielders, right in the face of the
ideologies of violence, profit, power, and empire. It is a message of a
disarming child that bursts the walls between faith and practice,
politics and experience, of God and a suffering humanity. It is a making
way for peace. Where there was no room to be born, there is now room for
us all in the struggle for justice, the presence of peace, and the
springing forth of hope. Response: In a dark time,
the eye begins to see!
Poetry, Laurie Pollack
*Concluding Carols: Joy to the World
2008 - Brandywine Peace Community Enters 4th Decade!