Worship and Action for Peace Letter

December 6, 2005

It is a time for prayer. Four faithful peacemakers are under the threat of execution in the next forty-eight hours. Those that know them well are asking for prayers on their behalf. We include one such plea, from Langley Hill Monthly Meeting, the home of Tom Fox, the Quaker in the group. Please consider holding a prayer meeting or vigil as they ask. One such vigil is being held at 15th Street Meeting in New York, and a notice regarding this event is attached.

We are also including a letter written by the Worship and Action Working Group and the general secretary at the request of the yearly meeting fall sessions. We are seeking to have it translated into Arabic before sending it to Aljazeera, with the hope that the Christian Peacemaker Team's captors might hear it.

There is still reason to hope for a good outcome here. There have been demonstrations in Palestine in favor of those abducted, and little support from the Arab world expressed for the actions of their captors. Please join many around the world in prayer.

In the Fellowship of Peace,
Linda Chidsey, Vicki Cooley, Fred Dettmer, Lu Harper
Worship and Action for Peace working group
Christopher Sammond, general secretary

Langley Hill Monthly Meeting (Baltimore YM) sent the following:

We ask that you give the following urgent message your deepest consideration, and direct it on to others who share our concerns regarding the violent and unjust interruptions in the lives of people in Iraq on a daily basis. We have a special concern for the 4 Christian Peacemaker Team members abducted November 26, 2005.

Who We Are: We are Langley Hill Monthly Meeting, of the Religious Society of Friends, the Meeting of Tom Fox, the member of the Christian Peacemaker Team from America that is being held hostage.

What We Are Doing: We are holding a 24 hour vigil beginning at 4:00 pm EST on Wednesday, Dec 7 for Tom and all the members of the CPT as well as those who have taken him hostage and the many individuals and families that have been negatively impacted by this war. We will also have a public candlelight vigil at the Clarendon Metro Park, Arlington, Virginia, on Wednesday, Dec 7 from 7:00-9:00 pm, EST. We will read the text of Tom's work as found on his weblog: www.waitinginthelight.blogspot.com; http://www.waitinginthelight.blogspot.com. Bring candles and dress warmly.

What We Are Asking: For each and everyone to join us in either:

1. holding a simultaneous candlelight vigil in your community
2. If you cannot attend a vigil, then hold your own personal vigil, put a candle in your window or in your front lawn
3. Read Tom's postings found on his website www.waitinginthelight.blogspot.com
4. Read the statement from Langley Hill Monthly Meeting. (included below)
5. Hold Tom and his fellow peacemaker team members in the Light, seeking their safe and immediate release, and hold all those in the Light who suffer similar situations in Iraq and those who have taken such offenses against these individuals and their families.

________________________

We know that many people throughout the world have made efforts to secure the release of these hostages and we are grateful for their support.

An Appeal to the People Holding Tom Fox and the Other Members of the Christian Peacemaker Team

Tom Fox, now being held captive in Iraq, is a beloved and longstanding member of our Quaker worship community. One of our strongly held beliefs is that if we listen, God can guide our lives. Before Tom went to Iraq, we considered with him his sense that he was being inspired by God to do what he could to relieve the suffering of individual Iraqis and to serve peace and justice. We were aware of the danger he faced. He went with our support and continues to have our support and love. We know Tom very well and can affirm that he is neither a spy nor an evangelist.

The tenets of our Quaker faith ask us to work for peace in the world and to respect that of God in everyone. That is what led Tom to go to Iraq. We believe strongly in justice, mercy, and peace. We opposed this war as we oppose all wars. We believe in a God that is compassionate and merciful, as do the people of Iraq.

We ask you as an act of justice, mercy, and devotion to release Tom and the other Christian Peacemaker Team members so that they can continue their work on behalf of those who suffer.

Releasing the captives, so that they can continue to serve the Iraqi people, would be an act of dignity and courage.

Signed,

Langley Hill Monthly Meeting
Religious Society of Friends
Doug Smith, Clerk

The Ministry and Worship Committee of the Fifteenth Street Meeting invites the public to join us in a candlelight vigil on Wednesday December 7, 2005, from 6 to 7 P.M. in support of four members of the Christian Peacemaker Team who have been abducted in Iraq. The vigil will focus on holding in the Light these four men and their captors, and on supporting the Christian Peacemakers work to end the occupation of Iraq, and stop torture of prisoners. It will be held in the courtyard in front of the meetinghouse at 15 Rutherford Place (the corner of East 15th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues.)

To the Members of the Sword of Truth,

We, members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), greet you in the name of the one God who made us all and in whose care we all remain.

We want you to know that Tom Fox is our brother and our friend, known to many of us. He has worked with our children as a religious leader. He is a beloved member of our extended Quaker community, and we suffer great anguish while his life and the lives of his teammates from Christian Peacemaker Teams are in peril.

Quakers believe that God empowers all of us to correct injustices, heal injuries and resolve grievances among peoples without resort to violence and the machinery of war. For over 350 years, our faith has led us to refuse to participate in war making, instead seeking the spark of God within each person that burns for justice, love and mercy. Christian Peacemaker Teams is an organization of Quakers and other faiths devoted to peace. CPT was born of this spirit of God that reaches out to work for peace, to help those in need, and to stand with those who are oppressed. CPT members have been in Iraq openly and solely for these reasons since before the United States began this war, and Tom Fox and his teammates, Harmeet Sooden, Jim Loney and Norman Kember, are continuing this gentle and peaceful work. Their commitment and their behavior refuse harmful or wrongful actions toward any person.

We know that acts of violence sometimes result from a sense of great despair due to horrid iniquities, harm and loss. Our faith and experience also teach that vengeance produces escalating cycles of destructive violence and wreaks great harm to the souls (as well as the bodies) of both the avenger and the victim. The actions of our government in your nation are causing hideous harm to the people of Iraq, just as they also are causing harm to the souls of Americans. This conflict is unleashing a rage that threatens the humanity in all of us.

So we ask that your love of the one God who cares deeply for each of his children will open your hearts and minds to the truth that Tom Fox and his teammates seek only to work for reconciliation and peace in the midst of war. We pray that the revelation of their innocence leads you to set them free.

Please tell them from us that thousands of Quakers are praying for them and for you in the hopes for their release and for the well being of you all. Please tell them that we remain hopeful for their release, and trust that they are finding strength in God's ever-present embrace.

May God have mercy on all souls and open us to better understand how to pursue justice, love and harmony in all our relations.

In the Fellowship of Peace,

Linda B. Chidsey, Presiding Clerk
Christopher H. Sammond, General Secretary
New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)