Dear Friends:
We were seven again on Independence Mall, including one child, praying for peace in the world on Sunday, October 3, 1999. Tourists, pictures taken, a few interested persons coming by to look at our materials... The prayer vigil seemed to be uneventful in the outside. Except, perhaps, for the visit of another small group of boys. Like the boys in the previous week, they seemed to reveal the tension between mockery and wonder; they shook the hand of one of us and took our literature. As they strolled away, I sensed an air of gravity and peace in their walk.
Inside, I was receiving another lesson in prayer. By the time the prayer vigils started, I had been good at praying for myself, for what I wanted (things small and lofty), people I loved or liked, poor people suffering far away... The prayer vigils for peace confronted me with the huge task of praying for people whom I did not feel I loved or liked, or who might be causing pain to others, perhaps having a good time all the while! Praying for them has been for me like going through a very narrow pass. Last Sunday I found myself still pushing through it. Praying for military personnel and commanders, government officials, corporate executives, even common folk around the planet, was not easy. Then, I prayed for their families and relationships, and their relatives' relationships. I felt the barriers, and felt the barriers fall; and felt the freshness of new air flow. I felt the pass grow wide.
Having completed half a year of witness in the streets, some of us gathered after the prayer vigil to celebrate with guitars and peace songs. News from a Friend in Minneapolis has brought new joy to us and more reasons to celebrate. Mike Bischoff, a member of Twin Cities Friends Meeting, writes:
I helped initiate a weekly prayer vigil here in Minneapolis back in April. We continue to meet every week for an hour, in silence, on a bridge over the Mississippi... Reading (your reports) has been very helpful in remembering and deepening my intent with the vigil we do every week... We normally have a group of about 20 folks at the vigils, and spread out on both sides of this bridge, each holding signs for the cars and pedestrians who go past. The signs initially focused on the bombing in Serbia — but now they are mostly referring to suffering in Iraq (bombs & sanctions). Some of the signs are more broadly about peace ("there are alternatives to violence")... Many thanks for your witness at Independence Hall, and in your writing.
- A notice regarding the life of one indigenous people of Colombia:
Helen Pollock, from Germantown Monthly Meeting, has forwarded an urgent plea for help on behalf of the U'wa people in Colombia, who are in a desperate struggle to stop the Los Angeles-based oil company, Occidental Petroleum, from drilling on their homeland.
The U'wa People stated in August 1998: "We will in no way sell our Mother Earth, to do so would be to give up our work of collaborating with the spirits to protect the heart of the world, which sustains and gives life to the rest of the universe, it would be to go against our own origins, and those of all existence."
Numbering five thousand, they inhabit the cloud forest of Sierra Nevada de Cocuy, near the Venezuelan border. Experience has taught them that cultural decay, toxic pollution, land invasions and massive deforestation have followed oil companies' operations in the Amazon basin. In Colombia, these operations have been also followed by an increase in violence. The U'wa voiced their consistent opposition to the oil project since 1992, when Occidental first received an exploration license. Three activists who were organizing support for their cause were killed last March (two of them were women). On September 21 the Colombian government announced the granting of a permit for Occidental Petroleum to begin exploratory drilling on the U'wa ancestral homelands. The U'wa have declared that they are ready to choose collective suicide rather than passively letting oil businesses destroy them and their environment.
What is at stake from the Colombian government's and Occidental Petroleum's perspective? Two billion barrels of oil. The equivalent of three months of U.S. oil consumption! I have felt shocked by such a concrete and sad illustration of the connection between our affluence and the habits it sustains (our use and abuse of cars is but an example of those habits), and the destruction of the ecologies and peoples around the world. Yes, we Friends and peacemakers do need to look at ourselves and see whether our own ways sow war or sow peace.
If you would like to respond to the U'wa's plea for help, please contact Helene at hpollock@haverford.edu. An international campaign of support of the U'wa is being organized and your solidarity could be decisive.
Thank you all, Friends, who are keeping your witness wherever you are. Thank you also for your support and words of encouragement. Greetings from Marcelle, who is right now helping to facilitate a Quaker retreat in New York.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE
Independence Mall Vigil for PeacePlease 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