The Shalom Center - Seasons of American Sacred Time

MLK Day Litany of Ashes, Stones, & Flowers: Militarism, Racism, & Materialism

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:22:01 -0500

ASHES, STONES, & FLOWERS:
A LITANY ON MILITARISM, RACISM, & MATERIALISM
IN HONOR OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING

By Rev. Patricia Pearce, Tabernacle United Church, Philadelphia

Militarism

For each vibrant life and hopeful dream that is annihilated by war and written off as necessary collateral damage,
We lift up the ashes of our pain, O God.

For the millions who go hungry or suffer sickness because bombs are more lucrative than bread and missiles are deemed more important than medicine,
We lift up the ashes of our remorse, O God.

For each mind that is forever haunted and each body that is left broken by war,

Order of Service & Teach-in, MLK Day, Jan 19, 2008

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:19:50 -0500

LITURGICAL SCENARIO FOR MLK BIRTHDAY OBSERVANCE,
EVE OF INAUGURATION DAY, 2009

(From Rabia Harris, Muslim Peace Fellowship, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow, The Shalom Center)

: Remember we awant people to stay interested, be moved, get motivated, have fun, and draw closer together. We are assuming that programs, including the text of the pledge, will be distributed at the door.)

Introduction Coming Together Summoning of the People According to the Traditions Blowing of the Shofar Ringing of Church Bells Muslim Call to Prayer Buddhist bells, etc.

Conjoining MLK & Inauguration Day: Relearning Heschel, Rebirthing King, Re-Inaugurating America, Jan. 14, 19, 20, 2009

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:43:00 -0500

(Rabbi Arthur Waskow for The Tent of Abraham, Hagar, & Sarah)

Relearning Heschel, Rebirthing King, Re-Inaugurating America:
Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Day
As a new government takes office,
January 19-20, 2009>

As Barack Obama becomes President and a new Congress takes office in January 2009, there is a remarkable opportunity to bring together large sections of American society to reflect on our history and our future. The opportunity is strengthened by the fact that the day before Inauguration day (Tuesday, January 20) is Martin Luther King's Birthday. And January 14 is the yohrzeit (death-anniversary) of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Dr. King's close friend and ally.

Declaring Interdependence:Renewing the 4th of July

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:15:34 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, 7/28/2004

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for the peoples of the earth —
to declare our interdependence with each other and with all the life-forms of the planet,
and our independence from efforts by the most powerful and most reckless among the national governments to create a new and global Empire;

Then a decent respect to the opinions of Humanity requires that we declare the causes that impel us to rise beyond the present Powers of the earth and to embody our planetary community in new social, political, and economic forms.

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

TO DISCOVER THE TRUE AMERICA: Fasting on Oct. 8 to challenge the culture of Violence

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 06:06:12 -0400

WE CALL FOR A NATION-WIDE FAST ON OCTOBER 8
TO DISCOVER THE TRUE AMERICA;

TO MOVE FROM CONQUEST TO COMMUNITY,
FROM VIOLENCE TO REVERENCE

A Call from the Tent of Abraham, Hagar, & Sarah

America stands in great danger of becoming addicted to violence, at home and overseas.

Pervasive violence in American culture, society, and policy is expressed in mass murders like those at Columbine and Virginia Tech; in daily murders on the streets of our cities; in physical and sexual abuse in families and communities; in the obsession of our media with grotesque violence; in our government's decision to wage an unnecessary, morally abhorrent, and disastrous war; in its effort to make torture a legitimate instrument of policy; indeed, most lethal of all, in the ecocidal violence we are imposing on the earth itself.

INTERFAITH FAST TO MAKE PEACE IN IRAQ: October 8. FROM CONQUEST TO COMMUNITY, FROM VIOLENCE TO REVERENCE

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:54:05 -0400

Dear friends of all faiths and communities,

If you want to sign on to the Call for the Interfaith Fast, please write to Office@shalomctr.org and explain what religious congregation, organization, or community you are working with. PLEASE ALSO SIGN UP AND DESCRIBE THE EVENT YOU ARE PLANNING, BY CLICKING TO --

Http://www.INTERFAITHFAST.ORG

Shalom, salaam, peace –
Rabbi Arthur Waskow

FROM CONQUEST TO COMMUNITY,
FROM VIOLENCE TO REVERENCE:
AN INTERFAITH FAST on OCTOBER 8
TO END THE WAR IN IRAQ

We call on all Americans to join in fasting from dawn to dusk on Monday, October 8, to call for an end to the Iraq War. On this day, people of faith in local communities across our nation will act as catalysts to move America from conquest to community and from violence to reverence.

MEMORIAL DAY: SO THAT THESE DEAD SHALL NOT HAVE DIED IN VAIN

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:37:17 -0400

MEMORIAL DAY: GRIEVING, KILLING, OR PRAYERFUL ORGANIZING?

Dear Friends,

Memorial Day was created to mourn the dead of American wars: "That these dead shall not have died in vain; that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

The people of the United States have spoken clearly. This war is indeed "of" us – it is our young who are dying, losing eyes and legs and genitals and minds and souls. It is our schools, our firefighters, our levees, our health care, that are robbed and starved to pay its monstrous costs.

But this war is not by us, and not for us. Our soldiers are dying bravely to veil the cowardice of those who govern us. Our peoples – American and Iraqi – are suffering so those who govern us can celebrate their arrogance, their stupidity, their greed. Their idols.

Is Palm Sunday for Christians Only? And April 4? ----

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 01:00:00 -0500

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, 2/9/2005

Multireligious Palm Sunday, March 20 & April 4 @ Riverside Church
Dear friends,

There has been a wonderful simmering of ideas and groups seeking to develop a prophetic witness about the war, as well as broader iss

The Politics of the Christmas Story

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 15:04:52 -0500

James Carroll in the Boston Globe, 12/22/2004

(December 21, 2004)

THE SINGLE most important fact about the birth of Jesus, as recounted in the Gospels, is one that receives almost no emphasis in the American festival of Christmas. The child who was born in Bethlehem represented a drastic political challenge to the imperial power of Rome. The nativity story is told to make the point that Rome i the enemy of God, and in Jesus, Rome's day is over.

Thanksgiving, Arlo Guthrie, "Alice," & my first Yarmulke

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 08:56:45 -0500

Arlo, "Alice," Thanksgiving and a Yarmulke

Dear Friends,

A few years ago, stirred by a local Thanksgiving ritual I shared with some friends, I wrote this essay on Arlo Guthrie, his Thanksgiving song about "Alice's Restaurant," my role in the trial of the "Chicago Eight" antiwar activists in 1970, and a yarmulke.

I think sharing this story each year, particularly in the midst of another war, new pressures on free speech, and new corruptions of the Department of Justice and the courts, may be a useful Thanksgiving ritual of its own.

With blessings of thankfulness and the vision to make a world even more deserving of our thanks than the one we see around us,

Counter-Inaugural Philadelphia Interfaith events

Sat, 08 Sep 2001 21:46:40 -0400

1/21/2005

In Sorrow, In Hope: Let America Be America Again
January 20, 2005

Included here is a welcoming speech delivered on behalf of PAIPN in LOVE Park in Philadelphia, followed by the text of the Hughes poem, followed by some "press clipp

MLKing & Eid Al-Adha: Ten Anti-War Days in January

Sat, 08 Sep 2001 21:46:40 -0400

Philadelphia Area Interfaith Peace Network, 11/24/2004

Dear Friends,

This coming January, Martin Luther King Birthday weekend, the Re-Inauguration of our War President, and the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, marking Abrahams near-sacrifice of his

The Biblical 4th of July: Perek HaMelekh (Passage on the King)

Sat, 08 Sep 2001 21:46:40 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Perek HaMelekh (Passage on the King) and the 4th July

On occasions when I have been in a position to shape celebration of the Fourth of July in a Jewish context (such as the ALEPH Kallah some summers, or Elat Chayyim retr

Martin Luther King: "Beyond Vietnam," April 4, 1967

Thu, 08 May 2008 13:46:05 -0400

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

BEYOND VIETNAM: A TIME TO BREAK SILENCE

Martin Luther King

[Dr. King gave this speech at Riverside Church, New York City, 4 April 1967, exactly one year before he was killed. Emphases have been added by the editor -- AW]

I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent statement of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: "A time comes when silence is betrayal." That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.