Peace Vigil Recap and Upcoming Death Penalty Workshop

I hope everyone had a joyful and a blessed Easter!

First of all I would like to thank all of you for making our first Peace Vigil a lovely, thoughtful and prayerful event.

Peace Vigil Re-Cap
Just to give you the re-cap.

* We had about 30 people in attendance
* We raised over $120 for the Dominican Nuns of Summit
* Most everyone who attended said that they would come again
* Several people expressed interest in joining our local chapter of Pax Christi
* We received press coverage from both the Independent Press and The Star Ledger

I am in the process of sending thank you notes to Sr. Mary Martin and to Bishop Marconi for his kind words of support for our group. I am also sending polite notes including a copy of the vigil program and the Star Ledger article to Congressman Ferguson and Senator Menedez (our legislators who are both Roman Catholic and were invited, but did not attend.)

Peace Vigil at Wyoming Presbyterian Church in Millburn
Last week I received an email from Thomas Peri who is the Youth Advisor for Wyoming Presbyterian Church in Millburn. He saw the article in the Star Ledger and he happens to be planning a vigil with his group of teens for May 4th (National Prayer Day). He asked if we would like to partcipate. I will not be able to attend myself, but I will post the details later this week if anyone else would like to attend.

Death Penalty Workshop
Our next event is coming up soon.

On May 23rd we will be co-sponsoring an event with the New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty www.njadp.org .
7:30-9:30 at the Knights of Columbus at the end of Shunpike Road.
We will be asking for a $10 suggested donation to cover the cost of renting the hall and to support future workshops

I am thinking of calling it "The Death Penalty and a Consistent Ethic of a Respect for Life". This will help tie in our other themes from Pax Christi of the war in Iraq, a fair immigration policy, assistance for the victims of hurricane Katrina, etc.

As you all know Catholics refer to a consistent life ethic as the "Culture of Life" which Pope John Paul explained in Evangelium Vitae. Cardinal Joseph Bernadin actually predated John Paul with a concept he referred to as the "Seamless Garment". The metaphor refers to Jesus' cloak which the Roman soldiers cast lots for in John's gospel. Some believe that John Paul based his encyclical at least in part on the writings of Cardinal Bernadin. Here is a link to a relatively short explanation of the concept if you are in the mood http://www.wau.org/about/authors/scullion1.html.

I think we can use this workshop to begin an outreach to pro-life groups. My theory is if we join together and begin to talk in terms of a consistent ethic of life we will lend power to all of our causes.

New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty will be bringing two speakers who have been personally effected by the death penalty. One who was exonerated of a capital crime and the other who is the family member of the victim of a capital crime. They will speak first followed by a representative of a mainline protestant church and a representative from the Catholic Church. Each speaker will have 20-30 minutes to speak followed by Q&A.

Any advice with regard to the format or to the choice of speakers would be greatly appreciated.

Please forward this posting to start building interest. Send it to your friends who are active in pro-life ministries, who are Catholic, who are protestant or who are spiritual at all. Let's not just look at this as generating interest in the event itself or for Pax Christi Summit, but let's look at this for a way for us to network and create a consciousness of peace and justice which supports all life "FROM BIRTH TO NATURAL DEATH".

Thank you for your help with this. I know that with your assistance this event will be even more successful than our last.

Peace & God bless