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September 11 remembrance
Friends,Just a year ago, our lives were turned upside down with horrendous attacks on U. S. soil. This event has changed us: our sense of security, our understanding of God, our commitment to peacemaking, our relationships in our congregations and communities. Many lives were senselessly lost and we feel the continuing grief of family members and friends. For these reasons, taking time to grieve and remember is appropriate.
As we mourn this senseless loss of life, let's not forget that people are killed daily due to various forms of terrorism and war. Let us use these days of remembrance to also rededicate ourselves to peace and to provide tools to invite others to do so.
Two statements from Mennonite peacemakers can offer you guidance during your times of review of the past year. Especially look over the action lists as you prepare yourself and your congregation for further peacemaking.
We are people of God’s peace: A call for action (63k PDF)
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From the (former) Mennonite Church Peace and Justice Committee to our
congregations
Strongly biblical, these words remind us who we are and list actions you and your congregation can take to help build peace and seek God’s justice.
- The folks who gathered in Harrisonburg, VA and Dallas, TX were moved to confession, to a reaffirmation of their faith and identity as followers of Christ, and to action.
Currently one of the most important ways you can work for peace is to let your voice be heard against a U.S. invasion of Iraq. Mennonite peace staff have chosen to spend our time over the last months preparing resources for this campaign. Please take a few minutes to look over these materials.
The Fruit of Peace is Security,
Terror the Harvest of War:
A call for peace with Iraq
As you prepare materials for September 11, please share them.
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Also check back on this page or sign up the MennoLink peace.news list
to learn when additional materials are posted.
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New materials |
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"To become as a watered garden..." (Jeremiah 31:12) - A worship service for Sunday, September 8, 2002 by Marlene Kropf
Listen to Jeremiah's words of warning as well as his reminders of God's loving promise to liberate and renew our world, to transform it into "a watered garden."
Litany for many voices (95k PDF)
- Statement of faith following September 11, 2001
Litany, in bulletin insert format, and worship ideas for September 11 remembrance based on We are people of God’s peace: A call for action (63k PDF)
MDS Ribbons of Hope packet will be available about August 16,and will include:
- press release on Sept. 15 service to commemorate one-year anniversary of Sept. 11,
- flyer to invite churchwide participation in a second round of the Ribbons of Hope Program,
- flyer about Restoring Hope Project anniversary video "A Day of Remembrance: This is Our Story, This is Our Song,"
- three photos of project activities,
- Restoring Hope Project Anniversary Report,
- selected scriptures and devotional prepared by Ruth Wenger for reflecting on the past year, and
- 3-5 personal essays of NYC residents/church members.
"Reflections on 9/11" by Bob Williamson of Lombard Mennonite Peace Center.
Litany of Resistance by Jim Loney (CPT Reservist)
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Reminders of recently produced resources |
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Where was God on September 11?: Seeds of Faith and Hope-
by Donald B. Kraybill and Linda Gehman Peachey paperback, 216 pages, $12.99
These collected essays, articles, sermons, interviews, and letters reflect the heartthrob of Christian leaders and thinkers as they struggle with profound questions of faith and seek to be people of peace in a world of terror. As seeds of faith and hope sprouting from the rubble, their reflections guide individuals and groups searching for meaning and hope in the midst of terror. "Questions for Reflection and Discussion" and resource lists make this useful for Christian education classes.
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Making Peace With Enemies - Ten Truths Christians Need to Know
- An attractive pamphlet putting Mennonite Church teachings on peace into understandable, everyday language, answering questions that people frequently ask about fighting and war.
The Bible teaches peace: Understanding our faith: bulletin inserts to read and share
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Writer: Ted Grimsrud, Assistant Professor of Theology and Peace Studies, Eastern Mennonite University
These nine articles can be read online. A formatted version can be printed and mailed to college students and members of the military who are asking questions, used for Sunday school discussions, or as background for sermons.
"And No One Shall Make Them Afraid" A Mennonite Statement and Study on Violence"
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Study Guide by Lois Barrett
This study, designed for participants and leaders alike, will help you: reflect on your own experience with violence; consider what the Bible says; plan possible learning outcomes; and take action. Session 4 of the study guide, on global violence, is especially relevant. Copyright 1998.
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Links and ideas from other groups |
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September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
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"Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows"-Martin Luther King, Jr.
Our Mission: Peaceful Tomorrows is an advocacy organization founded by family members of September Eleventh victims. Its mission is to seek effective nonviolent responses to terrorism, and identify a commonality with all people similarly affected by violence throughout the world. By conscientiously exploring peaceful options in our search for justice, we choose to spare additional innocent families the suffering that we have already experienced-as well as to break the endless cycle of violence and retaliation engendered by war.
Our families came together out of a shared feeling that our grief was not a cry for war. We need your help to make sure that the anniversary of September 11 is not used to promote more war and violence. Instead, we envision September 11, 2002 as a time for communities around the world to unite in the shared honoring of those who lost their lives and in the exploration of what it will take to create peaceful tomorrows. September 11 remembrance suggestions: We suggest that the day of September 11 itself is reserved for reflection and honoring of the dead, with candlelight vigils, interfaith ceremonies, or other healing events.We also encourage events around the date (perhaps the weekend of Sept 7-8) as a time for community gatherings that explore the alternatives necessary to create "peaceful tomorrows." These could include music, arts, teach-ins, film screenings or fairs that bring together diverse voices to say "another world is possible."
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Envisioning and working for peace and justice
Don't let the first year commemoration of the 9/11 tragedy be used to call for more war and violence. Please help us honor the death of our loved ones by creating peaceful and healing Sept. 11, 2002 events that move us towards a future of peaceful tomorrows.-Kelly Campbell, September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
Wherever you live, we need your help! Let's show the world that in hundreds of cities and towns, people are claiming the anniversary of Sept. 11 as a time to say YES, a peaceful, just world is possible, and we are building it.-Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange
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A Litany of Remembrance, Penitence and Hope
"We light a candle in remembrance for all those who suffered and died on September 11, 2001, in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. We light a candle to remember those who still live and who suffer because of the events of that day."
A World at Odds: Conscience In A Time Of Terror
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http://www.sojo.net
Sojourners announces a new study guide that offers a moral response to terrorism and helps us see light in the darkness. Free of charge and available for online distribution, "A World at Odds" outlines Sojourners' alternative perspective on Iraq, fundamentalism, globalization, and the Middle East. This special online guide includes stimulating questions for study groups as well as worship materials to observe the anniversary of Sept. 11.