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Communities and individuals of all faith traditions and spiritualities who are committed to ending the war in Iraq are planning an interfaith witness in Washington D.C. on March 7, 2008 to demonstrate our unwavering commitment to the sacredness of human life. The world cries out for a common voice for peace from across religious traditions and paths. Learn more at OliveBranchInterfaith.org. 

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I haven’t eaten in about 15 hours now. The pangs of hunger alternate with waves of peace. Are you fasting with us? Please share your story.

Susan Harman of St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Highlands Ranch, Colorado wrote in today to say that she is hosting people in her home to break the fast tonight. She sent us this poem…
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By the way, we are now up to 53 events listed in our system, and we’re sure there are more that we don’t even know of! If you’re one of the organizers that posted an event, click here to log in and see RSVPs or change information.

I also want to thank the many people that have been spreading the word about Monday’s fast, and linking to our site. Google now counts hundreds of links to us, and dozens of people have even blogged about the Fast including: Faith In Public Life, Warped Galaxies, Darvish, National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation, The Lead, On Not Being a Sausage, Reclaiming The F Word, and especially the Black Jewish Experience who had this to say:

In Jewish, Muslim and indeed many faiths a fast is used to show importance and sincere mourning for our actions and sorrow. Nothing could be more important than raising awareness and spiritual importance for peace in Iraq.

October 8th take a day to set your intentions and soul on stopping the violence that is destroying our soldiers’ lives, taking too many Iraqis’ lives, and threatening our country’s future.

I do believe prayer/intentions/meditation, whatever way you get in touch with the everlasting spirit makes a difference in this earth.

Fasting will make those thoughts even more poignant. So please self-sacrifice for the day on behalf of all too many making the ultimate sacrifice. And tell as many people about it as possible.

We would like to encourage you to take pictures of individuals and groups observing the fast on Sunday and Monday and breaking the fast together Monday night. Please send your photos to interfaithfast+pictures@forpeace.net, or upload them to flickr.com and tag them “interfaithfast.”

The following press release was just issued by the National Council of Churches.

Washington, DC - Interfaith leaders call for day of fasting to end the Iraq war.

Several religious leaders representing tens of millions of faithful Americans stood today in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol calling religious communities of various traditions to a day of fasting and prayer to end the Iraq war.

“We must return to the ancient disciplines so that we will turn away from violence toward reverence,” said Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director of the Shalom Center, Philadelphia, to reporters gathered in front of the United Methodist Church office building on Maryland Avenue.

Represented at the news conference were leaders of Muslim, Jewish, Roman Catholic, Unitarian, and Baptist traditions. The Rev. Dr. Shanta Premawardhana, associate general secretary for interfaith relations at the National Council of Churches USA (NCC), and himself a Baptist, organized the news event.

Ancient practices were used at the news conference in the call to the nation. The ram’s horn, or Jewish shofar, was sounded to “wake up” a nation. Ashes were placed on the leaders’ foreheads as signs of repentance. A bell was tolled to call America’s people of faith to join together on October 8 to fast from dawn to sunset, breaking the fast with their Muslim sisters and brothers.

“When you are fasting for Ramadan, you are enhancing your sense of compassion,” said Dr. Sayeed Syeed from the Islamic Society of North America. “We will be asking mosques to open their doors to people of other faiths around the world on October 8 for prayer and dialogue.”

Dr. Syeed said the Islamic Center in nearby Sterling, Va., will open its doors to interfaith neighbors Oct. 8 to break the Ramadan fast together. Local religious groups are registering events at www.interfaithfast.org, a website managed by the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

“From beginning to end the biblical revelation is a revelation of peace,” said the Rev. Stan Hastey from the Alliance of Baptists and an officer of the NCC’s Governing Board.

Hastey said the NCC has opposed the war since the beginning and recommended the “withdrawal of troops in an orderly way.” The Baptist leader also called the war “unjust and seemingly unending.”

“Our nation is engaged in a horrendous war, one destructive of civilizations and divisive of communities. We have a responsibility to end our violence and to make concrete our compassion for the people of Iraq,” said Sister Marge Clark, BVM, a member of Pax Christi USA.

“May our prayer and fasting bring us to live our responsibility for the precarious world which we have shaped,” said Sister Clark, who is also a member of NETWORK, the women religious-led Roman Catholic Social Justice group.

In addition to events in localities members of the internet site Facebook are organizing virtual communities to observe the day of fasting and prayer. One of the organizers is Alex Winnette from the Unitarian Universalist Association.

“Young people are unfairly and negatively stereotyped. We believe the opposite is true. We are connecting to a global effort,” said Winnette of the Facebook plans. “We will take the lessons of our ancestors as inspiration (in this fast).”

Congregations may find material about fasting and other bulletin inserts at www.interfaithfast.org as well as an organizing tool kit to hold an event. A list of sponsoring organizations and individuals endorsing the day of fast is also at that website.

NCC News contact: Dan Webster, 212.870.2252, NCCnews@ncccusa.org

Photos by Leslie Tune

I am thrilled to announce that one of the many events that will commemorate our fasting on Monday October 8th will be in Second Life! Second Life is an online virtual world created by its members or “residents.” Two national nonprofit organizations, the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Peacemaker Institute, will sponsor the event on Commonwealth Island, which is a home for progressive organizations in Second Life. Our celebration will include a meditation for world peace, speakers, and even virtual food!

Several different groups have also been organizing in Facebook, an online social networking community, to spread the word about the fast. One group of Young Universalist Unitarian Peacemakers has already got over 300 people signed up!

Now you are probably wondering: will our fast also be “virtual?” And if so, what meaning does it have? Personally, I will be fasting in real life, but celebrating it with a spiritual community in Second Life. For many of us, this is just as real and moving of an experience as you might have in a church, and has the added benefit of allowing us to connect with people across the country and across the world.
Click here if you’d like to join us the virtual fast-breaking celebration in Second Life.

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.

This fall, in an unusual convergence, many of our faith traditions share a season of sacred self-assessment and self-transformation. This holy season includes the month of Ramadan and the Night of Power (Islam); the High Holy Days and Sukkot (Judaism); the Feast Day of Francis of Assisi and Worldwide Communion Sunday (Christianity), Pavarana / Sangha Day (Buddhism) and Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. Some communities of the First Nations have already begun to observe Columbus Day as Indigenous Nations Day, with practices that transform its meaning.

Since each of our traditions recognizes the power of fasting as a spiritual discipline, we call on all people of faith to join in a fast from dawn to dusk on Monday, October 8.

For more, see the Shalom Center website:
http://www.shalomctr.org/node/1270