Swords into Plowshares

HIV/AIDS Awareness Sunday

October 12 - Presbyterian HIV/AIDS Awareness Sunday is an opportunity each year for Presbyterians to reflect on the ways that HIV and AIDS affect individuals and our local communities, and to think about how we can respond to the global pandemic. Every Presbyterian has an important part to play in this observance, either through planning or participating in events in local congregations. Find out how you can observe Presbyterian HIV/AIDS Awareness Sunday.

The Presbyterian AIDS Network has additional resources for this day.

HIV/AIDS Awareness Sunday is also a time to make connections between peacemaking and AIDS. There is a flyer (PDF) and bulletin insert (PDF) that can help folks see those connections.

Stop the U.S.-India Nuclear Deal

President Bush’s Administration is encouraging Congress to pass a U.S. - India nuclear cooperation agreement. Because India’s civilian and military nuclear programs are not separated, the U.S. could be supplying India technology that directly allows India to produce weapons grade material. This is particularly possible because India has only agreed to have a portion of its nuclear reactors inspected.

At a time when efforts are being made to restrain Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, the U.S. is setting up a double standard.  It is rewarding India, who has detonated nuclear devices and who did not sign on to the Non-Proliferation Treaty with nuclear technology, while pressuring and threatening Iran, who did sign on to the treaty, not to develop its nuclear capability.  Many other aspiring nuclear powers will take note if this inconsistency and behave accordingly. In addition, it could create further tension between India and Pakistan and offer nonnuclear states an incentive to withdraw from the nonproliferation treaty.

This is a critical time for the U.S. to take leadership in the international community for reducing nuclear arsenals — including our own. Nuclear weapons are a threat to our national security, and to global security. This dangerous deal with India would do the exact opposite: violating international agreements and increasing India's capacity to produce new nuclear weapons.

Please contact your Representative and ask him/her to oppose the U.S.-India Nuclear deal.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has always stood firmly behind the Non-Proliferation Treaty.  Since 1946 Presbyterian Assemblies called for international disarmament and arms control measures (PDF) as a path toward long-term security. 

NOTE: This posting is based on an article in the September 22, 2008 issue of "Witness in Washington Weekly" (PDF) by the Presbyterian Washington Office.

The Momentum Builds - International Day of Peace

My colleagues at the Presbyterian United Nations Office forwarded me a letter from the folks at the United Nations who are working on the International Day of Peace - Sunday, 21 September! A couple interesting things:

CNN’s iReport, a news-oriented kind of youtube, just launched a special page for the International Day of Peace! Just get registered and put your calls for world leaders and personal peace stories in videos, photos and texts online to everyone to see. We would love to know about what YOU think of peace and do for peace! And if you are lucky your story may appear on CNN.

The TXT 4 PEACE campaign is getting bigger and bigger. Several hundred messages have come in so far!

Please keep sending your text messages to world leaders with the word ‘PEACE’ and then your message to 69866! The goal is 10.000 text messages by Sunday, 21 September! Help spread the word.

By sending a message you give permission to the United Nations to publish it in any media.

Respond to the Cry of the Poor

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Because we are called by Christ to respond to the cry of the poor, we invite you to take action with us by joining in an important new churchwide initiative, which we pray will make a difference in the lives of those who are suffering in the wake of the global food crisis.

Starting this October, Presbyterians will be encouraged on a monthly basis to adopt the ancient spiritual practice of fasting, beginning on Friday evening, and ending with Communion on a Sunday morning, where the Sacrament is regularly observed.   The year-long cycle of prayer and fasting – or the partaking of simple meals – will end October 16, 2009, on World Food Day. Interpretive materials for each month will be available.

Won’t you join us as we stand in solidarity with the poor and the hungry, discerning – with God’s help – faithful responses and meaningful coordinated actions to lift up our worldwide community through this global crisis?

Faithfully yours,
The Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow                      
Moderator of the 218th General Assembly   

Elder Linda Bryant Valentine                              
Executive Director, General Assembly Council   

The Rev. Gradye Parsons 
Stated Clerk of the General Assembly

Text for Peace - The Graphic Version

 

Texting for Peace

Send a text for peace.

The United Nations Department of Public Information invites folks in the United States to send a text for peace to help raise visibility to the International Day of Peace - September 21.

Cell phone users are urged to compose a 160-character message on peace beginning with the word “PEACE” and to send the message to number 69866.

The UN Department of Public Information will gather the messages, publish them online, and deliver them to world leaders gathered at the UN General Assembly on 23 September.

The UN General Assembly established the Day in 1981, for “commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace…”. Twenty years later, the General Assembly declared 21 September as the date to observe annually a “day of global ceasefire and non-violence.”

Observe the International Day of Peace

Sunday, September 21 is the International Day of Peace.

The United Nations General Assembly has set September 21 of each year as the International Day of Peace — a day of global ceasefire and non-violence when all nations and people are encouraged to honor a cessation of hostilities. In 2008, the World Council of Churches invites congregations worldwide to pray for peace on September 21.

Other ideas for observing the International Day of Peace include:

• Use the bulletin insert (PDF) from the Presbyterian United Nations Office
• Use prayers from the Pacific region assembled by the Decade to Overcome Violence initiative
• Use the brochure (PDF) created by the Decade to Overcome Violence initiative
• Ring a bell during the worship service
• Light a candle for peace during the worship service
• Include songs of peace in the worship service
• Organize a 24-hour prayer vigil
• Hold an ecumenical or interfaith service
• Invite intergenerational groups to create pictures, banners or other artwork portraying a vision of or prayer for peace and to share the art during worship
• Write a letter to the editor of your paper inviting others to observe this day

Sunday, September 21 is the International Day of Peace.

The United Nations General Assembly has set September 21 of each year as the International Day of Peace — a day of global ceasefire and non-violence when all nations and people are encouraged to honor a cessation of hostilities. In 2008, the World Council of Churches invites congregations worldwide to pray for peace on September 21.

Other ideas for observing the International Day of Peace include:

• Use the bulletin insert (PDF) from the Presbyterian United Nations Office
• Use prayers from the Pacific region assembled by the Decade to Overcome Violence initiative
• Use the brochure (PDF) created by the Decade to Overcome Violence initiative
• Ring a bell during the worship service
• Light a candle for peace during the worship service
• Include songs of peace in the worship service
• Organize a 24-hour prayer vigil
• Hold an ecumenical or interfaith service
• Invite intergenerational groups to create pictures, banners or other artwork portraying a vision of or prayer for peace and to share the art during worship
• Write a letter to the editor of your paper inviting others to observe this day

Quiz on the United Nations

I just took a quiz on the United Nations. I'm not saying how I did, but I definitely know more than I did before! It's from the Friends Committee on National Legislation. Check it out.

Sand and Sorrow

I watched the video Sand and Sorrow yesterday. This powerful, touching, and disturbing video looks at the situation in Sudan and Darfur. It explores the rise of the current government and that government’s relations with (neglect of) Darfur. Those relations have contributed to the current situation.

Nicholas Kristof, Samantha Power, author of A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, and Elie Wiesel play key roles in the video. Sudanese and Darfuri voices are also heard. Senator Barak Obama is among the others interviewed. George Clooney serves as the narrator.

The video was released late in 2007. Now, some eight months later, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations such as the Sudan Advocacy Action Forum remind us that the situation in Darfur remains grim and the peace in southern Sudan is tenuous. Speakers note that knowing about the genocide in Sudan brings with it the responsibility to act to address the situation.

A number of responses are highlighted in the video.

We too know. And we can pray and learn and act in other ways.

Tents of Hope

The Tents of Hope project seeks to respond to the situation in Darfur and Sudan. The mission of the Tents of Hope project is to support a one-year process in which people respond as communities to the crisis in Darfur, Sudan by creating tents that are both unique works of art and ongoing focal points within communities for learning about, assisting and establishing relationships with the people of Sudan. The tents are not answers in themselves. Rather, they are points of entry for more concrete forms of Darfur advocacy.

Tents of Hope has created the Tent2Tent program as a variation on the sister city model. Tents of Hope is working in partnership with the i-ACT project of Stop Genocide Now to bring together U.S. communities and communities in Darfuri refugee camps in Chad. Through video and other forms of communication, participants will see the people of the camps, hear their voices and learn about their hopes and dreams. And Darfuris will be able to meet U.S. citizen and communities.

Tents of Hope provides information on obtaining and creating a tent. Suggestions for action ideas are also available.