Brethren Witness invites participation in events marking first anniversary of the Iraq war.

On Mar. 20, the one-year anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, the Brethren Witness/Washington Office encourages Brethren to join a global day of protest. Brethren also are invited to a two-day memorial procession from Delaware to Washington, D.C., Mar. 14-15.

"As the one-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq draws near, we as people of faith are asked to make our voices heard in our opposition to this deadly occupation," a release from the office said.

A Mar. 20 protest in New York falls on the first day of the Church of the Brethren's Christian Citizenship Seminar in New York and Washington DC. Brethren may meet at the Vanderbilt YMCA in New York at 10:45 a.m. For more information, visit www.unitedforpeace.org or call the Brethren Witness/Washington Office, 800-785-3246.

Brethren Witness also is publicizing a "Dover to D.C. Memorial Procession" Mar. 14-15, to honor those killed and wounded in the war and to call for an end to the violence. The procession will be followed by nonviolent direct action at the White House. A worship service at Camden Friends Meetinghouse in Dover, Del., opens the procession to Dover Air Force Base, where the US war dead arrive in the country. A "funeral caravan" will proceed to Baltimore for the night and then to Washington for observances at Walter Reed Army Hospital, current residence for many US military personnel wounded in Iraq. The procession will end at the White House, where the names of those who have died will be read.

The National Council of Churches (NCC) also is urging congregations nationwide to hold peace vigils sometime on the weekend of Mar. 19-21.

Source: Newsline 3/05/2004
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