And how is it that we hear . . .? --Acts 2

It is Pentecost. The Team gathers for prayer and leaves the apartment to conduct a training in non-violence and reconciliation with people from the Kurdish and surrounding governorates. They have come from Tikrit and Mosul and Kirkuk. They have lived in Baghdad and the villages of Kurdistan. A few speak English, most Arabic, and some Kurdish, and one of us, Cantonese.

Three hundred Christians worship and witness together, twenty arrested in an act of nonviolent direct action in front of the White House, as President Obama held his “100 Days” press conference inside.

As more than three hundred Christians worshipped together at National City Christian Church in Washington on Wednesday night, April 29, they heard a rousing call from Tony Campolo to put an end to the war in Iraq. Campolo shared the story of the fourth century Monk Telemachus who was martyred when he entered the Coliseum in Rome during the fights of the gladiators and demanded “In the name of Jesus, Stop.” After he was killed, a hush fell over the crowd and the Coliseum slowly emptied. The tradition of Gladiators fighting for sport had come to an end. Campolo suggested that, similarly, Christians who take the Bible seriously must be prepared to take the greatest personal risks as they demand, “In the name of Jesus, stop the war.”

The Christian Peace Witness for Iraq is happening in Washington, D.C. April 29th!

On the 100th day of the new administration, join us in the nation’s capital for witness and worship and nonviolent action to call on the new president and Congress to end the war and occupation in Iraq, support a comprehensive peace process, end the policy and practice of torture and meet human needs at home.

There are ways to be involved whether or not you can be with us in Washington. Please visit christianpeacewitness.org and join your voice to the witness!

by Phin Washer

This past winter the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship concluded a pilot Peace Party Project, small group gatherings which sought to inform participants of the content of the legislation (H.R. 808) to establish a Department of Peace on a cabinet level in the United States government. Instruction was then offered by a pair of presenters on how to constructively communicate in print with members of Congress. Those attending were then invited to write their US Representative requesting his/her support of this significant government entity that, if established, could engineer for peacemaking a support similar to that which the military academies do for military preparedness.

The following story comes from the Latin America Working Group. Please consider taking action through the advocacy suggestions within:

Another wave of threats has once again swept across Colombia, this time warning of an imminent “social cleansing” of “undesirable” individuals from Colombian society. Colombian churches and others are reporting that the violence unleashed by these alleged paramilitary threats has already left three young people and seven fishermen dead in Chocó.

Plans are in the final stages for the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq worship and action to end the War in Iraq, to be held in Washington DC on April 29th and 30th!!!

THE LAND AND PEOPLE  -  Gaza is small, 25 miles long and 5 miles wide on average - 139 square miles.  (That is less than one-tenth the size of Rhode Island and only twice the area of the District of Columbia.)  With just 6 percent of the area of the combined Palestinian territories, Gaza is separated from the nearest point in the West Bank by some 25 miles of southern Israel.  But with almost 1.5 million people, Gaza has over 37 percent of the local Palestinian population.  More than a million Gazans are registered refugees who trace their heritage to families displaced in 1948 from their ancestral homes in what is now the State of Israel.