August Faith and Resistance Retreat 2006
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And how did it go? so nearly helpless as to be simply indispensable. |
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And so we take heart - the abomination of desolation redeemed and rebuked... so nearly helpless as to be simply indispensable |
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Upon his return to NYC after the weekend here, Daniel Berrigan wrote the following:
Dear Everyone at Jonah House;
I paused when I scrawled the above names, summoning your faces, saying 'thank you' in lips and heart. What a celestrial (and so earthly) sendoff to beloved Elmer, what Eucharist and food and fondness and friends - all created and cherished by yourselves.
And then the 6th and the "abomination of desolation in the sanctuary," redeemed and rebuked by all. thanks. Thank you.
We go on, so nearly helpless as to be simply indispensable. Blessings Daniel.
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The circle was comprised of about 100 friends who gathered first under the large borrowed tent(complete with instructions on its set up). People had come for a farewell to Elmer: the ceremony designed by Art Laffin in consultation with our jailed sister, Susan Crane. Music was supplied by Bud Courtney and Paul Fesefeldt; readings were generously shared; the reflection was led by Steve Kelly, S.J.; Eucharist was presided over by Daniel Berrigan; the grave site was prepared and the box constructed by Gary Ashbeck; the marker was made by Wendy Leitner-Sieber; Elmer's own musical composition filled the air around us as we laid dirt and flowers over his box of ashes. |
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Then all were ready to depart for the University of Baltimore and the East Coast Premiere of the film, Convictions, on the witness of The Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares. Ardeth and Carol responded to questions from an audience that comprised friends and would be friends and even a smattering of foes. And many gathered back at Jonah House to celebrate the gift of one another in community. St. Peter's Cemetery became a camp ground hosting at least 60 folks. We met under the big tent in the a.m. to prepare for the witness at Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum . Some of the children facilitated this process by ringing a bell outside each of the tents and announcing the meeting time. Mary Novak and Gary Ashbeck facilitated an introduction to the space, suggestions for witness, probable consequences, and dividing into groups for witness there. Cars began their caravan to Virginia by 10:45 a.m. |
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Officials at the museum were well prepared for our arrival. The museum was full of police of various stripes who prevented us from doing some of what we had planned. But we were able to engage the tour guides in front of the Enola Gay and to explain and decry the horrors of this weapon of mass destruction to all near and about. The presence there went on for nearing an hour until we processed out of the museum. Meanwhile, signs mysteriously appeared in rest rooms telling some of the truth about the museum and its celebration of weapons and some of us stood with signs at more contemporary displays of weapons of mass murder doing some truth speaking.
Then on August 9, the 61st anninversay of the U.S. nuclear bombing of Nagasaki, as well as the anniversary of the martyrdom of Frans Jagerstatter (the Austrian Catholic father of three who was beheaded for refusing to serve in Hitler's army), about 20 members of the Atlantic Life Community held a nonviolent witness at the Pentagon. Holding photos of burnt bodies and the destruction caused by the U.S. plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki , the Sermon on the Mount was read and prayers were offered remembering the victims of U.S. warmaking--past and present--from Hiroshima and Nagasaski to Vietnam , from Central America to Iraq to Lebanon . Five of us (Gary Ashbeck, Eden Coughlin and Eda Uca from Jonah House, Bill Frankel-Streit from the Little Flower Catholic Worker and Art Laffin from Dorothy Day Catholic Worker were arrested at the southwest pedestrian bridge entrance of the Pentagon. Four were charged with failure to obey a lawful order and Art was charged with disorderly conduct. The truth is that the Pentagon is guilty of war crimes! We didn't break any laws but rather were upholding God's law and International law. We did what we could to bear witness to the truth. Court dates are set for Sept. 22 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria , VA.
We Celebrated the Life of Elmer Maas With a Liturgy and Interment of Ashes
We viewed the East Coast Premiere of "Conviction" on Saturday, Aug. 5, 2006
at the University of Baltimore. Performing Arts Theatre at the Student Center
Conviction is a documentary about the Sacred Earth and Space plowshares action of Dominican Sisters Jackie Hudson, Carol Gilbert and Ardeth Platte at a Minuteman III missile silo in Colorado. The documentary explores the role of religion in politics, the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. foreign policy and the role of international law in the federal courts.A discussion with Carol and Ardeth, the felonious nuns who have recently been released from prison, followed the film.
Conviction is a Zero to Sixty Production produced by Brenda Fox.
We gave witness against the abomination of desolation on August 6, 2006...at the Udvar-Hazy Museum where the Enola Gay - the B-29 that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima - is on permanent display. (The display fails to acknowledge the death and devastation that the bomb delivered to the people of Hiroshima. More, it fails to help anyone face what the nuclear age - ushered in by this bomb - has done to our earth, its people and our very souls.) Other exhibits celebrate propaganda images of the Iraq and Afghan Wars and nuclear weapons delivery systems.