Independence Mall Vigil for Peace

Report #11: 15 June 1999

On Sunday, June 13th, at five o'clock, five Friends were joined by two peace activists from Wisconsin to hold our weekly prayer vigil for peace in the Balkans. Two Friends who had attended the vigils regularly in the past came to say good-bye to the group. They felt that now that a peace agreement had been signed, their need to participate in the prayer vigil had ended. They asked why we were continuing.

The first answer was that though an agreement had been signed, peace was not yet accomplished and prayer was still needed. For some of us the vigil has confronted us with our silent contribution to the ongoing war preparations and the violence in this country and the world. We have been touched by the need not only to pray for peace for the whole world but also to offer ourselves to God as faithful agents of God's will in the world. For some, this war and the varying ways Friends have responded to it have revealed a great need in our Quaker community to reawaken to our peace testimony and to work more intentionally for peace.

Still, as we stood on Independence Mall praying together, some of us were asking why we were there and if we should continue. Interestingly, many passers-by gave enthusiastic signs of agreement with our signs. Then one young man walked up to talk to us.

"I don't know what's going on in Kosovo right now," he said. "But I live in North Philadelphia and there's a war going on in my neighborhood all the time. Every night we hear gun shots." He seemed surprised to learn that several of us also live in North Philadelphia. We engaged him in some conversation, asking what he thought his community needed. Jobs, he said, and decent schools, and for people to care about what is happening there.

Three young people who had joined us in the vigil last week from the Training for Change workshop, including two Europeans, were threatened at gunpoint in the streets of Philadelphia this week, a symptom perhaps not only of the violence prevalent in our culture, but of systematic social inequalities underlying such violence.

All of this served as reminders that if we want to be agents of God's peace on earth, we must not only pray and witness for peace during war, but we must also live lives that work to address the root causes of violence, here and everywhere.

We will gather again next Sunday from 5 to 6 to hold another prayer vigil for peace in the Balkans at Independence Mall, on Market Street between 5th and 6th. Afterwards we will talk about the future of such vigils, and about our leadings for ongoing forms of witness and work and prayer for peace. Please join us.

For more information, contact Marcelle or Jorge at cityquake@aol.com.

We conclude with some poetry by Ron Galdi, of Frankford Meeting, who attended many of the vigils and who often found himself inspired to write afterwards:

Under a warm setting sun, silent cries echo across,
from far away; as the clock in the tower strikes five.
Between dark curtains parted, a thin white cross
slammed against the old state house wall; watches.
Confused, lost, worn faces walk through my mind;
One face, one head crowned with thorns.
Horses pulling carriages, passing teenagers driving
by; cameras snap, tourists wave, not at the cross.
As the sun bathes us standing in prayer:
the bombs fall, the people flee their homes, cry
WHY!
In the stillness a space opens up;
A light from within guides my journey through the darkness!

Love,
Jorge and Marcelle

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE Independence Mall Vigil for Peace

Please join us at our weekly prayer vigils for peace in the world, held in front of the Liberty Bell on Market St. between 5th and 6th, every Sunday from 4 to 5 PM. For more information, contact cityquake@aol.com. In our reports, participants share their experiences of the prayer vigils and explore beliefs related to their participation. Reports reflect the experience of each author and do not necessarily represent the beliefs or practice of all vigil participants. We welcome your responses, which are forwarded to the individual authors (when possible). We sometimes include part of a response in a future report, unless you ask us not to. It is meaningful to us that you share in the vigils by reading these reports and in other ways, such as joining us in prayer.

Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:18 AM