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| Peace marchers gather at a barricade in Lafayette Park across from the White House, singing and waving their candles and flashlights. They called for the end of the war in Iraq, observing the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the war. |
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| People stood in raw wind and sleet to get into the Washington National Cathedral for worship Friday night, March 16. The official attendance was 2,825 persons. |
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| Susan Andrews, former PC(USA) moderator, waits to read a Scripture during the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq worship service at the National Cathedral. |
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| Rick Ufford-Chase, former PC(USA) moderator and now executive director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, spoke before the collection of an offering at the cathedral worship service. Later that evening, Ufford-Chase and more than 200 others were arrested at the White House for failure to obey a lawful order as acts of civil disobedience |
WASHINGTON, D.C. — More than 220 Christians, including Rick Ufford-Chase, executive director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, were arrested Friday night as they knelt and prayed at the gate of the White House.
Their action was part of the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq demonstration planned to protest the war on its fourth anniversary. Several thousand Christians also worshipped in the National Cathedral, and marched to the White House.
Ufford-Chase said Saturday morning that a final number was not yet available, but dozens of Presbyterians were among those arrested and charged with failure to obey a lawful order. Marchers were told they could not stop while passing by the White House and participants wanted to pause and pray.
Christian Peace Witness for Iraq is an umbrella group of more than 30 Christian organizations. One of its original conveners and leaders is Ufford-Chase, moderator of the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Weather conditions became a major subtext for the activities, as rain, sleet, and snow delayed road travel for some and prevented others from flying in for the protest. More than 3,500 were expected at the cathedral worship service with an official tally of 2,825. However, they were joined by others from the local area for the walk to the White House.
Shuttles buses took the less hardy participants to New York Avenue Presbyterian Church near the White House. The congregation hosted one of the approximately 200 local gatherings around the country watching the National Cathedral service. It also gave a place of rest and refreshment to those waiting to rejoin across from the White House those who marched the four miles from the cathedral to Lafayette Park opposite the White House.
Presbyterians participating in the service included Ufford-Chase, who spoke briefly before a collection was taken, and Susan Andrews, who read a Scripture passage. Andrews was PC(USA) moderator for the 215th General Assembly and now is executive presbyter of The Presbytery of Hudson River.
Also attending were two other former PC(USA) moderators, Harriet Nelson of Napa, Calif., and Herb Valentine of Perryville, Md. Mrs. Nelson said she was there because, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace. The path we are presently on is not taking us in the direction of peace.” She and her husband, John, came “rather than stand on the sidelines and complain.” She was moderator for the196th GA.
Herb Valentine, moderator for the 203rd GA said he had participated in like protests over the Vietnam War and civil rights. “I keep hoping for a better America. We are approaching the time when we will have to decide, do we want to be a Democracy or an imperial nation. I vote for a Democracy.”
Jose Luis Casal of Midland, Texas, executive presbyter of Tres Rios Presbytery, came for a simple reason, he said. “It is my responsibility as a Christian.” He sees Christian brothers and sisters choosing an option “that is not solving the problem of the war.” We Americans have lived in a “kind of blindness,” he says, being told that Iraq was the enemy. Now people realize the reasons we went to war have proved untrue. “What is the reason we are in this war?” he asked. Cecilia Casal accompanied her husband to the march. She is national moderator of the Hispanic Presbyterian Women. “One of the goals of Presbyterian Women is to work for peace and justice,” she said.
It was a night of contrasts–warmth and passion in the cold, small lights shining in a dark, still-winter night. Marchers walking from New York Avenue Church to the White House carried their warmth and light right past a line of several homeless persons bundled up against a building wall.
Speakers at the worship service put on the line the nature of the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq focus–voicing a Christian stand for peace and hope. Jim Wallis, executive director of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, charged the marchers to drive out the fear on which the war is based, and the failure of national leaders of both political parties who cannot summon the will to end it. “This war, from a Christian point of view, is morally wrong–and was from the very start. It cannot be justified with either the teaching of Jesus Christ or the criteria of St. Augustine’s just war.”
The war is beyond political and national, he told them. It is personal, a matter of faith. “Millions of people around the world sadly believe this is a Christian war. So, as people of faith, let us say tonight to our brothers and sisters around the world … America is not the hope of the earth and the light of the world –Jesus Christ is!”
Raphael G. Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga., said America and its political leaders are asking the wrong question about Iraq. They are asking, “How can we keep from losing the war in Iraq?” He said they should be asking, “How can we keep from losing our soul?” Or, “Why is there always enough for bombing Baghdad, and not enough to rebuild New Orleans?”
“Now more than ever, America needs our moral witness,” he told the congregation.
