“They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift sword against nation, nor shall they learn war anymore.” Isaiah 2:4,5

The theme this evening is Remembrance and Resistance ~ and I submit to you my sisters and brothers ~ that Remembrance IS Resistance.

To Remember is to Re-Member, to name who we are in all that we’ve been and will be together, to re-constitute and recommit ourselves as a community; and

To Remember is to Re-Member ~ to intentionally beg for, participate in and submit to the process of change;

To Re-Member is to Resist ~ to speak into existence the Promise of Peace among ourselves and then throughout the world, to prepare ourselves to receive that promise, to become that promise of peace;

to Re-Member is to resist ~ to declare the world is other than what we see on CNN or hear in the State of the Union address,

To Remember is to Resist and thereby change the world in this moment.

Remembrance IS Resistance.

I’m going to share a few vignettes by which we can Remember and Resist:

In 1999, on the Fourth Sunday of Advent a time when the Christian church is preparing for the birth of Christ, Prince of Peace, I along with Phil Berrigan, Steve Kelly, SJ, and Susan Crane entered the Warfield Air National Guard base outside Baltimore, MD. Using household hammers, we enacted the vision of the Prophet Isaiah ~ hammering and pouring our blood on two A-10 Warthogs, small, single-pilot planes which had fired depleted uranium, or radioactive, ammunition.

We were convicted of destruction of property and conspiracy ~ misdemeanor charges ~ in the State of Maryland. Receiving the lightest sentence of my co-conspirators, I served 11 months and 20 days in jail. This action was the sixty-somethingth Plowshares disarmament action since the original King of Prussia Plowshares, on September 9^th, 1980 ~ 25 years ago this past week. Phil Berrigan, presente. Elmer Maas, presente.

Remembrance IS Resistance

I had been out of jail for almost ten months when, on my brother’s 33^rd birthday Sept. 11^th, 2001, two other planes struck the towers of the World Trade Center, another the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in western Pennsylvania. In our Catholic Worker community at the time I remember, Shannon McManimon, Wendy Leitner-Sieber and I were filled with dread ~ yes at the destruction and loss of life that day and in the aftermath. Our other community member, Erin, Wendy’s husband, was in jail at the time for a protest at the Pentagon earlier that year. We were all filled with dread at how President Bust would lead our military to retaliate ~ we dreaded the un-necessary loss of life to come.

Remembrance IS Resistance.

This past May and June, I went on a delegation with Fellowship of Reconciliation to Israel and Palestine. Shaina Adams, who is here tonight, and I will be sharing more about that trip at Brandywine’s October 9^th gathering. I was part of a sub-set of the delegation ~ Trainers in the Creating a Culture of Peace Nonviolence Training for Personal and Social Transformation. We split from the rest of the delegation about 2/3rds of the way through the trip to spend time working with Palestinian Nonviolence Trainers from Holy Land Trust in Bethlehem. It was an intense and remarkable time ~ not just because the trainers in that program were young men, mostly men ~ ages 24-30, not because they had a radical commitment to nurturing youth leadership, but because that’s who the leaders in their community are. Men who’d been arrested at age 14, or had their house fired upon in raids of refugee camps. I’ll tell more stories about this in October, but one thing I wanted to share tonight was that on the fifth and final day we spent with these folks, we learned that Holy Land Trust had received a contract to train the entire police force in Bethlehem in Nonviolence.
Remembrance Is Resistance.

Closer to home, in Ithaca in 2003, on St. Patricks day, a group of four folks affiliated with the Catholic Worker community entered a recruiting station, poured their blood, knelt and prayed for an end to the war on Iraq and the senseless loss of life. They were charged and tried by jury last year. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and the defendants were free to go. Later, through one of the jury members, we learned that the vote was deadlocked at 9 votes to 3 ~ 9 in favor of acquittal!
The Federal Government has now filed charges and the defendants return to trial later this month.
Remembrance Is Resistance.

And then there’s Bob Smith, who has himself faithfully prayed, marched, sat-in, died-in, vigiled, demonstrated, leafleted, petitioned, and handcuffed himself for peace for more than 25 years ~ Bob who has also organized others ~ us ~ to bear witness over the decades in front of City Hall, the Federal building, Lockheed Martin in King of Prussia and Moorestown NJ, where else, bob? Bob, thank you for the gift of this gathering ~ and all the gatherings throughout the years. Remembrance IS Resistance.

So, let’s resist.

Was anyone is this room at the first meeting of the Brandywine Peace Community, please stand up?

How many of us since sometime in the 1980’s, please stand?

How many of us got on board sometime in the ‘90’s?

How many of us have come to this community in the past five years?

We are ReMembering as we remember…

Tonite, there is at least one person for whom this is her first experience in this community ~ I met Shaina Adams as we were preparing to go on a Fellowship of Reconciliation Delegation to Israel and Palestine in May of this year. This summer, she moved to Philadelphia and lives here in West Philly ~ please welcome Shaina to Brandywine.

To remember is to Re-Member.

Let us continue to Remember and Resist. Think for a moment ~ who are the individuals, living among us now, or in the cloud of witnesses, who have inspired you to remember and resist? Think for a moment ~ what groups, communities, organizations do you belong to, do you know of, have you heard or read about ~ who have helped the long arc of the universe bend toward justice? Small or large, existing now or throughout history?

Remembrance is Resistance ~ let’s take the next bit of time to speak aloud those names ~ of people and communities, who have walked before us or walked with us. And as we hear these names spoken, let us be re-Membered and renewed. Let our recommitment to being the Promise of Peace take root in the depths of our hearts and souls tonight.

From May 24-June 11, Elizabeth Walz traveled in Israel and Palestine with one of Fellowship of Reconciliation's peacemaking delegation.  The delegation met with numerous groups of Israelis and Palestinians working for a nonviolent resolution to the conflict there.  Liz was part of a sub-set of 8 nonviolence trainiers in FOR's Creating a Culture of Peace, Nonviolence Training for Personal and Social Transformation program.  These 8 trainers worked with Palestinian nonviolence trainers in Bethlehem ~ observing trainings in a Palestinian village and then working intensely with trainers themselves for five days.  She will share stories of this experience.

ELIZABETH WALZ