Pastor Samir Yacco was filling in for the regular leader of the congregation.

Who would have thought that attending a Presbyterian service would be a highlight of visiting Syria? But St. Paul's Church in Damascus has become a home away from home for some of the thousands of Iraqi Christian refugees created by the collapse of security under U.S. occupation. And so, our delegation of peace activists joined members of this community for worship -- and later to talk...

The prize, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco

Last month I wrote optimistically that the eruption of immigrant protest against the terrible HR4437, the migrant criminalization bill, might signal a "new civil rights movement." Last night's session at which the seven candidates seeking election as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California met with about 350 of their potential sheep left me all the more convinced that something powerful has been sparked by the specter of an unjust "immigration reform."

Cross posted at Happening-Here along with many more photos of this imaginative little demo.

Yesterday morning, Act Against Torture demonstrated outside Senator Diane Feinstein's office in downtown San Francisco to protest her continuing support for the Iraq war and to demand an end to torture as U.S. policy. While over one hundred supporters cheered, protesters set up a theatrical Guantanamo in the middle of Market Street, snarling traffic for half an hour. The SFPD quickly acted their part, arresting seventeen who would not leave the street when ordered.

I found the morning's event challenging.

Torture violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions hold dear. It degrades everyone involved --policy-makers, perpetrators and victims. ...

The President's signing statement, which he issued when he signed the McCain Amendment into law, implies that the President does not believe he is bound by the amendment in his role as commander in chief. ...

Furthermore, in a troubling development, for the first time in our nation's history, legislation has now been signed into law that effectively permits evidence obtained by torture to be used in a court of law. The military tribunals that are trying some terrorist suspects are now expressly permitted to consider information obtained under coercive interrogation techniques, including degrading and inhumane techniques and torture. ...

Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation. What does it signify if torture is condemned in word but allowed in deed?

The experience moved me to write the meditation below the fold:

Think of this diary as promotion of admired friends' work; I'm spreading good news here. Ethan Vesely-Flad's article "For the Soul of the Church" in ColorLines has been nominated in the category Outstanding Magazine Article for the GLAAD media awards.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) promotes fair, accurate and inclusive depictions of gay issues and individuals in media. ColorLines reminds all that race matters: "in 1903, W.E.B. DuBois wrote, 'The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.' In the 21st century, the color lines are still drawn.... We read in between the lines. We question the lines. We cross the lines."

My church, the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A, is a party to a controversy that places it squarely in the intersection of those race and gay issues, with the added reality that today, all striving for truth is global, not just local.

Cross posted at Happening-Here

For those who are Christians, Advent is the season of waiting in joyful hope for the Christ child. For those who are moved by the nonviolent witness of the members of the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) in Iraq, this December is a time of waiting in anxious hope for news to the four members kidnapped in Baghdad on November 26.

The four men, Tom Fox, Jim Loney, Hameet Sooden, and Norman Kemper, were taken as they were leaving a mosque where they had discussed what could be done to free Iraqis detained by U.S. and/or Iraqi government. There has been no known contact with their kidnappers, who call themselves the Swords of Righteousness Brigade, since December 8. Thousands of people, from all over the world, Christians, Muslims and others, have signed a petition, held vigils, and, as a step toward reducing violence in Iraq, called for an end to the occupation.

In this time of waiting, those so much closer to the situation have much to share.

This post is an update on two sets of people who have stretched the boundaries of activism for peace -- people whose bravery has to be a challenge to all of us arm chair critics.

In Cuba, outside the U.S. base at Guantanamo: Twenty two mostly Christian activists continue a water-only fast at a Cuban military checkpoint outside the base today. The Witness Against Torture website explains:

They have completed their 5 day, 50 mile march and are now waiting for permission to enter the US base. They hope to be allowed to visit the prisoners, something that should be a simple act and one that is rooted in their religious tradition. In the Gospel of Matthew, 25:36, Christians are charged to perform the Works of Mercy. Among these works is the visitation of prisoners.

Twenty-five Christians in the nonviolent tradition of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement have been marching for four days from Santiago, Cuba to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, a distance of 50 miles. Today they arrived at Guantanamo City, the Cuban town outside the detention camp. Tomorrow they will attempt to visit the prisoners. If denied entry to the base, they have said they will fast and pray for the abolition of torture by all nations.

Catholic Worker Matthew Daloisio explained: "We want our fellow Americans to see the shameful acts of torture and abuse taking place in this and other illegal prisons hidden across the globe. We pray that others will join us in urging our government to allow us to perform this act of Christian faith."

So there it is -- the city on the hill has morphed, before our eyes into its guise of evil empire spewing poisons on the earth. My optimistic ancestors weep from their graves; what do I do?

In the teachings of historic Christianity, hope is not a feeling, but a virtue, an orientation to the human experience to be cultivated as an expression of faithfulness to the knowledge of the goodness of God. Hope at this time of shame and horror is also a necessary civic virtue, an orientation faithful to the vision of a society where justice, not capricious human greed, prevails. Lots of work to do.

Cross posted at Happening-Here

So Veseley-Flad has founded ICARE, an Interfaith Coalition of Advocates for Reentry and Employment "to eliminate barriers to reentry by leading a Restoration of Rights campaign in the Restorative Justice tradition."

What's the problem?