Showing posts with label War. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

From the desert ancient communities come... please consider how you can help them. They face extinction.

If you have been concerned about what you hear of the goings-on in Northern Iraq with regard to Christians and other minorities, here is your opportunity to do something constructive ....

Further reading:

Minorities in Iraq
Who are the Yazidis and why is ISIS hunting them?
GENOCIDE: Christians, religious minorities flee violent persecution in Iraq
No mass said in Mosul for the first time in 1600 years
Mosul

Monday, March 17, 2014

A Prince of Peace! Why not a Minister for Peace?

The picture below has come from Geraldine Robertson
wmnsweb@iprimus.com.au

Women's Web - Women's Stories, Women's Actions
www.womensweb.com.au
Women Working Together suffrage and onwards
www.womenworkingtogether.com.au
Prejudice and Reason
www.prejudiceandreason.com.auT

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Children bearing the cost of politics and war: the Holy Innocents and a Peace Procession

Many Christians think that Jesus did not enter into the political fray. No disparaging name-calling for him. I can't stand the "Gentle Jesus meek and mild" version of Christianity, particularly as portrayed in modern forms as a gentle-faced, fairish blue-eyed Jesus. The scriptures might say He was meek - but do we understand what that word means to-day? And Jesus was certainly far from mild. In Luke 13:32, Jesus refers to the then reigning member of the Herods as a fox. I wonder where that view, that description came from?

I think of a family living in Nazareth. Like all families there are stories and "remember whens". How huge a thing in the life of the Ben David family it must have been when Joseph and Mary, warned by an angel, fled with their young son into Egypt to escape the massacre of young children by Herod the Great (Matthew 2:13). There they remained until there was a change in political leadership from Herod the Great to his son, Archelaus.

When the Ben David family returned from Egypt they did not go back to Bethlehem but to Nazareth. Even if the boy Jesus had no memory of his own regarding these events, he would have been immersed in his family's history and story. How could a family have retold this story without making political comment or passing on a view of those who instigated their refugee status?

The Herod Jesus refers to in Luke is another son of Herod the Great, Antipas: Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea; political opportunist and collaborator under Roman rule in Judaea. Surely, Herod Antipas was a fox indeed: sly, wily, treading warily through the pitfalls and pratfalls of Roman rule. Would the Herods have kept alive the story of the massacre of the little children? I think not. But the Ben David family did. Only by divine intervention did they save a very precious son.

To-morrow, 28 December, the Massacre of the Holy Innocents is remembered. The children who died because of the bloodlust and envy of a powerful and wily king have never been forgotten by the Christian church.

Picture from here

To-morrow in Melbourne, the remembrance will take a contemporary turn:

Wednesday 28 December, 10 am – 11.30 am: Feast of Holy Innocents Peace Procession

In the days after Christmas, while most people are recovering from the indulgence of Christmas Day or deeply immersed in the liturgy of the Boxing Day Test, the Church calendar commemorates the Holy Innocents, the children killed by Herod in a bid to maintain his power and privilege. This is a part of the Christmas story which gets little attention in churches, yet it forms a major part of the biblical birth narrative. It is a day when we remember children and other innocent people killed by today’s Herods, who consider such innocents to be acceptable collateral damage in their quest for power and security. Children are still the most deeply affected by wars around the globe – 65% of Afghans are under the age of 18. 90% of those killed in wars are civilians. Join us for a peace procession from Victoria Barracks in Melbourne to Defence Plaza. We will begin at 10 am with prayers at Victoria Barracks on St Kilda Road, and process to Defence Plaza, 661 Bourke St. Melbourne, for further prayer and reflection.

Children of war: fight, dying, surviving

"The source of most human violence and suffering has been a hidden children's holocaust throughout history, whereby billions of innocent human beings have been routinely murdered, bound, starved, raped, mutilated, battered and tortured by their parents and other caregivers, so that they grow up as emotionally crippled adults and become vengeful time bombs who periodically restage their early traumas in sacrificial rites called wars."

- Lloyd DeMause
Hat Tip to Iain Macadair

Monday, July 12, 2010

When will we ever learn? The War Prayer by Mark Twain - and thoughts of christian pacifism

On a hat tip from Waging NonViolence, I went to this site. I post below Mark Twain's War Prayer.

Further Reading and Viewing:

The War Prayer

The War Prayer

The Original Revolution: Essays on Christian Pacifism (Christian Peace Shelf Series)

Through the Desert Goes Our Journey
Video trailer here

Testament of Youth

Vera Brittain: A Life

TESTAMENT OF FRIENDSHIP (VIRAGO CLASSIC NON-FICTION)

Testament of Experience

One Voice: Pacifist Writings from the Second World War

Ordinary Courage by Donna Mulhearn

Further reading:

Peace Pledge Union

Pac Chrisit Australia

Pace e Bene Ausralia

Quaker Peace Testimony

Writings on Christian Nonresistance and Pacifism from Anabaptist-Mennonite Sources

Bonhoeffer Peace Collectives: A Movement of 'costly grace' to end war

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

NGO ROUND TABLE FORUM ON PALESTINE & ISRAEL - MELBOURNE - 13 JULY 2010

Overview

Act for Peace invites you to hear from two prominent Palestinian Christians currently working and advocating for the rights of Palestinian communities in the occupied

territories. Rifat Kassis and Constantine Dabbagh are in Australia to help raise awareness of the plight of the Palestinian people and outline recommendations for peace and justice-based solutions to the confl ict in Palestine and Israel.

Our Guest Speakers

Rifat Kassis is a prominent human rights activist, author and Coordinator and Spokesperson of Kairos Palestine. He has previously held senior positions with the World Council of Churches, the YMCA/YWCA as well as the Ecumenical Accompaniers Program in Palestine and Israel – EAPPI.

Constantine Dabbagh is the Executive Secretary of the Near East Council of Churches Committee for Refugee Work in Gaza, the implementing partner of Act for Peace. He oversees the provision of health care, education and community services to over 80,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

For further information and to RSVP, please contact

Ben Fraser, International Programs Coordinator,

on 03 9650 6811 or email him at: bfraser@ncca.org.au

Please RSVP (essential) by: Monday, 5 July 2010