Peace Prayer Vigil--March 18, 1998

Litany of Lamentation

NOTE: You can Update this litany to fit current events.

Voice 1:	"There is no peace because there are no peacemakers. There are no makers of peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war -at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its wake." -- Father Daniel Berrigan
Voice 2:	"True peace is not merely the absence of tension, but the presence of justice and brotherhood." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Voice 3:	"Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up, but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed with all the tension its exposure creates to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Voice 1:	My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest. (Psalm 22: 1-2)
Voice 2:	Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you." (Psalm 16: 1-2)
Silence (2 minutes)
Voice 3:	Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry; give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit. (Psalm 17: 1)
Voice 2:	The news reports from Kosova since the end of February have had a familiar ring to them. Special units of armed Serbs attack a village, firing indiscriminately at civilians of any age. The uniformed men loot and torch the homes after killing and driving out the occupants. Refugees flee for their lives, often spending days in hillside forests without food or shelter before feeling that it is safe to move on.
Voice 4:	"Although on 7 March a Serbian police colonel reported that 26 'terrorists' had been killed during the police actions, ethnic Albanian sources reported that more than twice that number of bodies were returned to them by Serbian forces for burial. Serbian authorities also continue to insist that the police operations were directed against the "terrorists." Albanian sources, however, reported that among the remains handed over were those of women and children, some of which had been burned beyond recognition."
Voice 1:	Many Iraqis have been reduced to destitution and cannot buy what little food is available. The weekly ration distributed by the UN comprises 5 pounds of flour, 1.3 pound of rice, 0.6 pound of lentils, 0.6 pound of cooking oil, and 25 grams of tea, all of which are painstakingly measured out to each person. Not only is this nutritionally deficient diet dehumanizing and totally inadequate for a healthy adult, it is often lethal for children, the elderly, and the infirm.
Voice 3:	When our government threatens a bombing campaign, many of us acknowledge the contradiction of praying for peace while paying taxes for war. Deep within, we find ourselves reaching for a way to say "yes" to peace with our tax dollars.
Silence (3 minutes)
Voice 3:	Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house…Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly. (Isaiah 58: 6-8)
Voice 2:	Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. (Psalm 34: 14)
Voice 4:	The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34: 18)
Voice 1:	Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help me…I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. (Psalm 22: 11, 14-15)
Short Silence (1 minute)
Voice 4:	Cry aloud to the Lord! …let tears stream down like a torrent, day and night! Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite! Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street. (Lamentations 2: 18-19)
Voice 1:	On the way to worship in the morning, a jeep full of Israeli border police pulled up alongside a man with a push cart piled with sesame bread and began shrieking at him for no discernible reason. As the soldiers drove on, hooting with laughter, CPTer Margaret Purchase said, "Haram," (roughly translatable as "shame on them") to the pushcart vendor. The man quietly responded, "Allah kabeer"--(God is great.)
Voice 2:	"Nonviolence recognizes that sin is an everyday occurrence which is in the very nature of actions constant establishment of new relationships within a web of relations, and it needs constant forgiving, dismissing, in order to make it possible for life to go on by constantly releasing men from what they have done unknowingly. Only through this constant mutual release from what they do can men remain free agents, only by their constant willingness to change their minds and start again can they be trusted with so great a power as that to begin something new."
Silence (3-4 minutes)
Voice 1:	For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying "Peace, peace," when there is no peace. (Jeremiah 6: 13-14)
Voice 3:	The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34: 18)
Short Silence (1 minute)
Voice 4:	Help, O Lord, for there is no longer anyone who is godly; the faithful have disappeared from humankind. (Psalm 12: 1)
Silence (2 minutes)
Soloist quietly sings verse 2 of # 369
Voice 4:	But you, O Lord, do not be far away! O my help, come quickly to my aid! Deliver my soul from the sword! ….I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters. In the midst of the congregation, I will praise you. …For God did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted. God did not hide from me, but heard when I cried. From you comes my praise in the great congregation….The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord. (Psalm 22: 19-28)
Voice 1:	Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, listen to my speech….Tremble, you women who are at ease. Shudder, you complacent ones; strip, and make yourselves bare, and put sackcloth on your loins. Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields; for the fruitful vine, for the soil of my people, growing up in thorns and briers. (Isaiah 32: 9-13)
Voice 2:	(as if cutting in): …until a spirit from on high is poured out on us, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. (Isaiah 32: 15-16)
Voice 4:	My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. (Isaiah 32: 18)
Voice 3:	God shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaiah 2: 4)
Short Silence (1 minutes)
Voice 1:	Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I: send me!" (Isaiah 6: 8)
Silence (2 minutes)