I was quoted in an article on marriage equality in the edition of Newsweek dated today.
Gay Marriage: Our Mutual Joy Newsweek Culture Opponents of gay marriage often cite Scripture. But what the Bible teaches about love argues for the other side.
I am quoted toward the end of the article

I was asked to do a reflection on my involvement with GLBT issues for the Presbyterian Promise Newsletter.

Here is what I wrote

Back last August Dick Hasbany asked me to consider writing some sort of reflection piece on my involvement with LGBT issues in the 11 years that I have been a member of this Presbytery. Since my tenure with First Presbyterian Church is soon coming to an end (February 1, 2009 is my last day) and I will be leaving Connecticut within another few months, I guess I cannot delay meeting this request much longer. (I do not plan to terminate my membership in the Presbytery until I have voted YES for the “change B” overture at the May 09 Presbytery meeting.)

When I went to Florida in 1990 I was already firmly committed to full equality for GLBT people in the Church and in society. I knew this was not a widely shared commitment in a Presbyterian church in a small town in north Florida and decided that support for this issue would not be a part of my ministry. I felt I had been called to grow this Church located in area with booming population growth and that is what I did. Before the end of my tenure at this Church my views had been revealed in a number of ways including the fact that I spoke and voted against the adoption of the original B overture. The last year of my ministry in that place was a very unpleasant experience. As I was seeking a new call I discovered this Church in Hartford that said on its Church Information Form that they had welcomed people who differ by age, race, ethnic background, sexual orientation, family status, economic situation and theological viewpoint. This sounded more like the kind of place I belonged and I determined that I would not ever again try to disguise my views on this issue, or any other issue of importance.

Being in this Church and having made this commitment to transparency has made it possible for the Church and I to be partners in the cause of justice for LGBT people, as well as other justice issues. During my tenure here we have brought the Shower of Stoles to our sanctuary twice. We have brought or supported several overtures to the Presbytery to change our ordination standards and to recognize marriage equality. I attended the 2006 General Assembly as an overture advocate to support deleting B. This was an opportunity to meet with leaders in the equality movement from across the country. We were among the first Churches to join Presbyterian Promise and the second Church in the Presbytery (by one month) to become affiliated with More Light Presbyterians, to which I had belonged for years. Jane Spahr, Michael Adee and Heather Reichgott have all preached in our pulpit at the invitation of session.

I have been part of the steering committee of Connecticut Clergy for Marriage Equality, and have presided at one Civil Union service. Among my closest friends in ministry are the local Metropolitan Community Church pastors.

In many ways my support for these causes has been an extension of the same commitment to equality that led me to Washington in 1963 as a college senior to demonstrate with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and onto the streets of Louisville with his Brother A. D. Williams King to march for open housing in 1966. All of us regardless of race, ethnicity, income, religion, gender orientation or age are children of one loving creator. When one of our brothers and sisters is diminished because of discrimination we are all diminished and I feel we are all called to work for the equality of all people.

A Week in Memphis

Kathleen and I spent the past week in Memphis, TN. Actually we spent Monday and much of Saturday at O'Hare Field, the Chicago Airport.

The Racial Ethnic Multicultural Network of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education was meeting there for an Annual Meeting, and Kathleen’s associate was meeting a committee to receive full certification as a CPE Supervisor. She did receive this certification, which was cause to celebrate on Beale Street where we ate Barbecue and listened to Blues. Memphis is famous for both.

The conference was centered around remembering Dr. Martin Luther King who was gunned down in Memphis on the balcony of the Loraine Motel on April 4, 1968, forty years ago. We heard a panel of REM founders all talk about how Dr. King’s life and ministry effected them, attended seminars, worshipped and participated in City Wide Events remembering Dr. King.

He had gone to Memphis in 1968 to support the garbage workers who wanted union recognition (AFSCME), decent wages, and to be treated with dignity as men. They claimed that the city of Memphis was treating them like dogs and their signs read, I AM A MAN.

A few more pictures from the March.
On Friday we joined hundreds of others in walking the route the marchers took on April 4, 1968 with Dr. King at the lead. It was 6:01 PM that evening that shots rang out and Dr. King fell dead on the balcony of the Loraine Motel. The march ended at the Motel where everyone spoke. Both Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton passed us by in the crowd and we saw John McCain on the Motel Balcony. He now wants to apologize for voting against making Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday. A little late, don’t you think?

We toured the National Civil Rights Museum with included the Loraine Motel, STAX Records Museum, and attended a huge gala celebration where Harry Belafonte was Honored (and spoke 20 or 30 minutes). He was supposed to make a brief response, but took the time allocated for Dr. Joseph Lowry, who gave him a very hard time, but them spoke briefly and to the point.

If there were any Clinton supporters on the platform that night they were certainly undercover, most of the speakers were clearly supporting Barak Obama.

The food, by the way was awful, overdone tough steak. A terrible choice to try to serve a big crowd. The tickets were $100 full price, although REM had a much cheaper price by buying multiple tables.

Yesterday was the fifth anniversary
of the war in Iraq.

I was among 200 plus protesters on Main Street in Hartford on a cold and rainy day. After over five minutes of conversation with a Hartford Courant reporter I got one sentence quoted. "As nasty as [this weather] is, I could not, not be here. Other people are making much worse sacrifices than walking out on a cold day," said Terry Davis, pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Hartford. Link to full article. (Pictures from Courant Web Site)

The protest started on the steps of Center Church (UCC) and ended at the Federal Building. At the Federal Building five of the protesters blocked the employee entrance to the building (leaving the public entrance open for those needing to conduct business with the immigration or other offices and courts in the building). They were eventually arrested by city police, although from conversations I overheard at the edge of the crowd the city police at first insisted that they should not make arrests on Federal Property. They wanted the private security officers guarding the building to call the federal Marshals to make the arrests.

Among those arrested were two people over 80 years old. The Rev Kathy McTigue, senior minister at the Unitarian Society in New Haven, said moments before she and the others were taken into custody. "It is a way of putting our bodies in the way of business as usual and business as usual is killing people.”

The cost of the war have been tremendous, nearly 4,000 dead American Soldiers, and no counting how many have been injured physically, mentally and spiritually. It has cost over $3 trillion to pursue the war according to Bob Beckel, a liberal Democratic strategist who also estimated that over 150,000 Iraqis have died. This war has now lasted longer than World War I, World War II, or the Civil War.

Barack Obama asked in a recent fund raising letter: “And where are we for all of this sacrifice?

We are less safe and less able to shape events abroad. We are divided at home, and our alliances around the world have been strained. The threats of a new century have roiled the waters of peace and stability, and yet America remains anchored in Iraq.

Enough!”

Was Lethal Force Necessary?

The Hartford Courant reported this morning that a man was shot by state police within a five minute walk from my office (and even closer to the State Capitol). Did he have a gun? Was he holding a hostage captive? Had he committed a capital felony? Did the confrontation take place in the dark of night? Did two trained and highly experienced state troopers have a reasonable fear for their lives? No, no, no, no, no. He had left the stolen auto at the corner of Russ and Broad Streets and was running from the police. In the parking lot of the Firebox Restaurant he pulled a knife and refused to drop it; both of the troopers, members of the state police SWAT team, fired their weapons and the suspect was taken to Hartford Hospital where he was pronounced dead. All this took place shortly before noon yesterday. It is a wonder that no one else was injured by the gunfire, the last time I was at the Firebox there were lots of people around at noon.

There is no doubt, the man who was shot was one of the bad guys; in a short period of time he had committed sexual assault, auto theft, & bank robbery. He was on probation after committing first-degree robbery and he did lead police on a chase during which he had been involved in a traffic accident. He needed to be stopped and arrested, but is it not reasonable to expect that two trained and experienced members of a SWAT team could disarm and arrest a single man with a single knife. Where was the Tazer? Where are the other non-lethal means of subduing a person?

I am not buying that this was a necessary use of force.

THE VALUE OF ONE

Our session sent two overtures to the Presbytery meeting held February 9 in Fall River, MA. Both were requests that the Presbytery send an overture to the General Assembly to change the constitution of our denomination to make it more welcoming to GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender) people. Both were defeated, one on a tie vote. If only ONE more supportive person had made the long trip to Fall River, or ONE more supportive person who did attend had stayed until the overtures were voted on instead of leaving at the lunch break the motion would have passed. Why didn’t it happen?

I think in our mass society people have come to think of themselves as unimportant. What difference would my ONE more vote make? It is the same reason people do not go to the polls for elections. Only a few more Democratic voters voting in Florida (without hanging chads) would have changed the course of the 2000 election, perhaps would prevented U.S. intervention in Iraq, and prevented all of the injuries and deaths suffered by our armed forces and the people of Iraq. How can we believe that our ONE vote is unimportant?

We think my ONE can of beans, my ONE can of baby formula, my ONE pound of rice doesn’t matter when the food pantry hands out tons of food each year, but ONE can or ONE pound is very important to the ONE person who receives that food to feed her family.

An important message of the Gospel is that every ONE was important to Jesus. He did preach and teach crowds, but he also took time to meet and teach individuals, to touch and heal individuals. There is no indication that Jesus ever did mass healings, he always dealt with people ONE by ONE, in most cases laying his hands on individuals in need. Nicodemus was ONE person, the woman at the well was ONE person, and the man born blind was a single individual. When he dealt with the family in Bethany he met with Martha individually, then he talked personally to Mary, then he went to the grave yard and called Lazarus by name. If he had only called: “come out!” every grave in the cemetery might have erupted; he cried “Lazarus, come out!” When he was raised he first met with ONE woman, Mary, in the grave yard. ONE disciple, Thomas, was missing when Jesus appeared to them in the upper room. He came back to the upper room the next first day to meet with the ONE doubter.

Jesus is the good shepherd who goes out in the night to seek the ONE sheep that is lost, and seeks until he finds the ONE missing sheep. John 3:16 says that God so loved the world, and then goes on to speak of whosoever, what ever ONE individual, believes in his shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

Every ONE of our church members is important, not just the largest givers, not just the officers, not just the most involved members, but every ONE is important. Every ONE’S opinion is important, not just the opinions of those in the majority.

God loves every ONE of us with an everlasting love. God loves you with an everlasting love. If you were the only person in the world in need of salvation Jesus would have lived and died and risen again for you. Every ONE matters, every vote counts, the family of God is not complete when ONE is missing or unwelcomed or unincluded.

Yours in Love
Pastor Terry

A very slippery slope

One of my seminary professors shared this story with us about why his family left Germany. One day as his neighbor was preparing dinner she grabbed one of her chickens and stretched out its neck on a tree stump in the yard and as she cut off its head she said "I wish this was Hitler." The next day she was arrested and never seen again.


Is this not the frightening bottom of the slippery slope down which we are falling when a federal Judge rules that a school can discipline a girl for using a common vulgar insult in reference to school officials in a blog entry posted from her home computer. Read the story What happened to the Constitution and freedom of speech?

FIRE THE PRESIDENT? WHY NOT? NO CORPORATE BOARD WOULD TOLERATE A CHIEF EXECUTIVE WHO IS AS INCOMPETANT AS BUSH. Read an opinion piece from the Christian Schence Monitor.

Theology for Liberal Presbyterians and Other Endangered Species, by Douglas Ottati, professor of theology at Union/PSCE in Richmond, VA.

The title sounded very promising when Lois sent me a note on the book, but it was really a dull read. Not that I disagreed with the author, I was in agreement with him practically every step of the way. He talks about the centrality of grace in reformed theology and how a grace centered theology leads to acceptance for all people because God has accepted all of us sinners in his marvelous grace.

Here is a paragraph that I am totally in agreement with: “We belong to the God of grace. Once we are clear about this, a number of things follow. First we live in assurance, refuse to set limits on the extent of God’s faithfulness, and refuse to exclude anyone from the scope of Grace and redemption. We then work for an inclusive church, support a ministry of reconciliation, and invite everyone everywhere to lay hold of the assurance and confidence that come with the knowledge of a gracious God. Second we acknowledge the human fault and, without losing hope, maintain a realistic attitude toward the present age and its daunting challenges. Finally, we affirm that all people have worth, and we commit ourselves to public practices, policies, and leadership that respect persons, pursue equitable opportunities for the poor, and care for those in need.” (Page 20)

My problem is that it is dense writing, it lacks stories, real life examples, personal passion. Finding something I agree with is not the same as being interested in what is written.

Others may have a totally different reaction to his writing style.

It is solid theologically, although I am sure that the right wing of the Church would like to label him as a heritic. That would be a hard charge to sustain since he bases his theological conclusions on the very mainstream documents of the Presbyterian Church, the such as the Heidelberg Catechism, the Confession of 1967, the Book of Common Worship.

An A for theology, hardly above a D for entertainment value. I suppose some people might have the same comment about my sermons.

Going back to the quotation above, it does highlight a problem I have been having, maintaining hope, hope for an end to the sensless war in Iraq, hope for making significant changes in our state (see my blog for yesterday), hope for changing the Presbyterian Church into a truly accepting community for all people.

Here are a few paragraphs I wrote to a friend earlier today in regard to my frustration with the past legislative session.

I hear you when you say we built relationships, we got people thinking about our ideas, we laid the groundwork for success in the future. It is what I have been telling myself for the past 50 years of political advocacy. Some day our efforts will bear fruit. Next year in Jerusalem.

My problem is that as my career comes to an end I have a greater and greater difficulty in believing what I keep telling myself. There are times when I think perhaps my Communist friends from years ago were right that we need a revolution, not simply more effective advocacy.

The whole direction of our country is wrong, our civil liberties are being eroded, the power of the few is growing greater and greater and the power of the people is shrinking. Is it really possible for this or any citizens group interested in justice to really impact the legislature in the face of established power and special interests?

While we could not win for the working poor a few hundred dollars a year in earned income tax credits this is what is happening at the other end of the income scale. http://www.courant.com/business/hc-worldwealth0628.artjun28,0,483148.story

Is the ballot box the way to change our state, our country, our world? The country effectively voted to end the war in Iraq, we expressed our national lack of confidence in the president and the Republican Majority, but the war rages on with 30,000 more troops in harms way and the body count rising every month.

Throw the tea in the harbor, over turn king George, storm the Bastille, remember Stonewall, end apartheid now!

Maybe I will be less frustrated next week and more optimistic about the success or legislative advocacy; or maybe not.

The 2007 session of the Connecticut legislature has come close to being an utter and complete disappointment. Considering the fact that the democratic party (supposedly the left or liberal party, in a reportedly liberal state) had a veto proof majority in both the house and the senate virtually no part of the liberal agenda moved very far forward. Click on the headings below for my take on the major issues. [All of these issues except the same gender marriage issue were identified by ICEJ as high priority issues.]

Tax Reform
Immigration Issues
Healthcare Reform
Education Issues
Same Gender Marriage
A Cynical View

The gold coast legislators sided with the republicans on the issues of tax reform; we have to do everything we can to help the rich get richer and pay less taxes while the middle and lower class rate payers get stuck with the bill. The complaint is made that progressive income taxes and the inheritance tax confiscate the wealth of the most affluent members of society. Well yes they do. Isn’t that what we should be doing; narrowing the gaps between the haves and the have nots? It is certainly the Biblical ethic beginning with the Jewish law of the Jubilee. Under the law of Moses in the year of Jubilee (See Leviticus 25 and 26), each 49th or 50th year, all land was to return to the families that originally owned it, all debts were cancelled. It is the divine plan for redistributing wealth; the divine plan for land reform. (This law was of course proclaimed in a time when wealth consisted primarily of property, not stocks and bonds and precious metals). Conservative religious people who are so eager to uphold the ten commandments and the holiness code might ask themselves why they are not supporting laws to confiscate excessive wealth and redistribute it to the poor.

Score the legislature as a total failure on significant tax reform; the progressive income tax was defeated. It looked as though progressive legislators might preserve the state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) if they were willing to roll back or abolish the estate tax on estates over $2 Million Dollars. That was a draconian compromise, but in the end it was lost also.

Score one for the legislature for passing a bill that granted a few hundred undocumented immigrant children the right to pay the same tuition that other state residents pay at state universities. These are children whose parents are undocumented, but who have been living long term in the state, in many cases not even knowing that their status was not copasetic. (Anti immigrant agitators like to talk about these people as illegal immigrants. In the first place it is not a crime but a civil offense to be here with out documentation. Second the illegal term implies that all these people snuck in to this country by violating the law; many of them came here legally as tourists or other visitors, students, etc. but stayed after their visas expired. Others were here legally as spouses of US citizens or permanent legal residents and may not have even been aware that their status changed when they were divorced.) Unfortunately although the legislature passed this progressive measure the margin was slim and our wonderful and popular governor vetoed the bill. Put a black mark next to her name.

Healthcare reform seemed off to a hopeful start with State Senate President Pro Tempore Donald E. Williams, Jr. being a primary champion for universal healthcare in Connecticut. In the end all that was accomplished was to increase the compensation rate for healthcare providers under the Husky Plan. (Of course that is significant since the rates were so low that many impoverished children had limited access to doctors for non-emergency care, and no access to dental healthcare.) But the hopes of Don Williams, Healthcare for All, the ICEJ and so many other groups for significant progress were sadly disappointed.

What was accomplished? There is significant new money for education in the budget, but whether this will mean more money for the public schools in most districts remains to be seen. The governor’s education package was touted as giving a tax break to the cities; the state will give cities more money for education so the cities do not need to impose such high property taxes to pay for education. Every one wants property tax relief, but is the almost flat rate state income tax that much more desirable as a revenue source? What is positive about the shift in who pays for education is that the same tax base will be supporting the schools in every town. Without the new state money impoverished (i.e. low total property value) districts like Hartford simply lack the revenue to provide support for the high cost of educating underperforming students. Score the legislature a partial success in the educational field. (On the other hand are we doing all we can, and need to do to move toward universal access to preschool.)

The bill creating same gender marriages in Connecticut seemed to be off to a good start when the joint Judiciary Committee passed it by a much larger majority than even the most optimistic supporters expected. Unfortunately the Governor, bless her small minded heart, promised to veto it. The Leadership of the Judiciary Committee counted the votes and were uncertain about having a majority in both houses, and were certain that the votes were not there to override the veto so withdrew the bill before it ever came to the floor in either house. While this is considered a better strategy than bringing up the bill and seeing it either defeated or vetoed I am not sure it is a moral strategy.

One of the most dismaying facts about the Connecticut Legislature is that it is still dominated by an entrenched leadership and a incompetent and unprogressive governor. During the session everything is so democratic and open with public hearings and debate on every issue of importance, with everything exposed to the light, everything open the public scrutiny. Then the session ends with no budget, no tax plan and no spending plan, and the key leaders get together totally in secret and decide what is going to happen with state spending, then the legislature convenes and rubber stamps what the leadership has decided, without even knowing what is in the budget in most cases. Why have the 6 month long session? Just let the governor and a few other folks make the decisions and then call a session to rubber stamp everything. No matter how successfully I lobby my representative and senator, it doesn’t make a dimes worth of difference.

Walk Against Hunger

Sunday, May 6 was a beautiful day for the annual Walk Against Hunger. A couple of dozen members and friends from First Presbyterian Church joined thousands of others in the great event. We shared lunch before traveling to the Hartford for walk check in. Two personal friends, Paul and Mary Berlejung from Vermont arrived in time for both morning service and lunch before participating in the walk. Several people who joined us for the mission trip, Joy and Beth from Manchester and Sue and Debbie from Provincetown also joined in lunch and walk.

First Presbyterian raised over $11,000 for the walk. Because our team designated contributions for Center City Churches, Center City will receive 80% of this amount for the MANNA Food Programs while the rest is retained by Foodshare to support over 350 Hartford Area programs. Overall Center City Churches hopes that the 45 teams designating their contributions to the event will bring in $62, 500 (Gross $50,000). The MANNA basic needs programs annually provide more that 65,000 meals to homeless and low-income individuals, 76,000 pounds (that is 38 tons) of food to struggling families as well as weekend meals for hundred’s of frail seniors as well as supplemental food for children through the weekend backpack program.

View Pictures

The picture says it, Marriage Equality. Yesterday First Presbyterian hosted a prayer breakfast for Connecticut Clergy for Marriage Equality. After breakfast and a keynote speaker, Bishop John Selders we walked over to the press conference at the Capitol. Here is my set of pictures from the event. Another set by Chion Wolf

Tragedy in Virginia

As I write on April 17 it is hard to think without thinking about the violence at Virginia Tech yesterday. We live in a violent society, a violent world. Despite admonitions in all of the worlds great religions against killing we know that murder has been welling up in the human heart from the very beginning. We find this expressed in the stories of our first parents how jealousy and hatred built up between their children and Cain rose up and killed Abel. We quickly learn two things from God’s dealing with this situation, first that God condemns murder, and second that God’s solution is not to murder (or execute) the murderer. The mark of Cain was given not to condemn him, but to protect him from others who might take his life.

While the problem of violence is not new, I believe that violence and particularly murder has become a greater problem in modern times than ever before. Despite the spread of education and “civilization” in our modern world the more civilized societies of modern times seem more violent than those of the more “primitive” past. The scale of the genocide in the Nazi holocaust was unprecedented in the previous history of the world; what is going on in Darfur is equally tragic. In a matter of days in August 1945 just two bombs killed thousands of Japanese in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an act of violence unparalleled in the history of the world. Yesterday we saw a single individual kill at least 33 people in a matter of hours. There may have been some motive for two of the killings that have been described as arising out of a love relationship, but the rest of the killings seem totally random.

What is the cause of such widespread violence; what can we do to change the direction of history?

I immediately think of three modern trends that contribute to the problem.

• One is the widespread availability of guns and explosives. It is much easier for a single individual or small group to perpetrate deadly violence with a gun or bomb than it ever was with clubs, knives, or the bow and arrow. While better control over the availability of firearms is not the sole answer (even today the mayor of Nagasaki, Japan was critically shot and Japan has very strict gun control) it is part of the answer. In a Presbyterian News Service article about religious reactions to the Virginia Tech tragedy the following comments speak to this concern: In Geneva, the general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, the Rev. Setri Nyomi said: “We pray to God that the families, friends and colleagues of the victims will some day find healing, ... We pray also for the United States of America and all nations as they struggle to overcome the temptation to rely on arms and as they work to find true security for all their peoples.”
  In New York, National Council of Churches General Secretary Bob Edgar echoed Nyomi’s call for an end to violence. “The escalation of gun violence compels us to call for an end to the manufacture and easy distribution of such instruments of destruction,” he said.
  “A faith that expresses compassion for all God’s children is opposed to violence in all forms,” Edgar continued, noting that numerous U.S. faith leaders “have spoken up continually about the epidemic of gun violence in our country. Despite repeated calls from faith and community leaders to Congress and presidents nothing ever seems to get done to stem the tide.”
• A second cause of violence in our society is a whole culture that both glamorizes violence and promotes it as a viable solution to personal and political problems. From mainstream television and movies to video games and rap music the media glamorizes violence, makes it seem normative, and worst of all perpetuates the myth that it is an acceptable, even necessary way to solve problems. The wildly popular television series 24 (which I love as a drama and hate to miss, but at the same time I hate with a passion as a propaganda piece) is as guilty as is the president of our nation of perpetuating the myth that we can solve the world’s problems by resort to violence and warfare. If violence is the answer to terrorism, oppressive governments, and civil war then how can we tell individuals that it is not a legitimate way to deal with their personal problems?
• Third, all the stress of living in a fast paced, urbanized, highly competitive and anonymous world increase the likelihood that individuals will loose hold of their sanity, their good sense, and their moral inhibitions.
  
  Is it not the Church’s business to promote a counter culture of peace and reconciliation, love and understanding? This underlines the importance of the simple act of lighting a candle for peace to stand as a beacon of hope calling us and all the world from darkness to light, from violence to peace. It is our business to build community instead of anonymity, to teach people to live deeper than the stresses of the present moment, to get in touch with the basic values of life and with the one who brings meaning and value to all of our lives.
  

PRAYING FOR JUSTICE ON THE STREET CORNERS
On Good Friday March 6, 2007 we hope to have hundreds of people take a walk on Hartford's Main St. to pray on the street corners, following Jesus' Cross, praying for justice, for peace for reconciliation and for healing for our city. Check out and feel free to circulate our flier. If you want to see the liturgy before participating check it out here.

I have emailed this information rather widely and one response I received was from a person who is part of the Connecticut Network of Spiritual Progressives. I followed her link to their website and was tremendously impressed. I certainly felt a spiritual link to the values and ideas expressed. You might be interested also.

Follow this link for news coverage from the News conference I mentioned on Wednesday.

Yesterday we had a very interesting planning meeting for a Good Friday procession. This is the beginning of our planning. The procession will begin at noon on Good Friday, April 6, 2007 at South Congregational Church at Buckingham and Main Streets in Hartford. This is also the home for the Center City Churches MANNA food pantry; there we will read I THIRST. Our thoughts and prayers will focus on those who lack the basic necessities of life. A second stop will take us to Main and Park, an empty lot in view of two homeless shelters. There as we hear Jesus cry MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME we will focus on those who feel abandoned by God and by society. We will continue with stops at the Charter Oak Cultural Center and Betances Elementary, The Federal Building, City Hall, Central Baptist Church, and return to South Church.

All are welcome, signs and banners, vestments and costumes are all welcome.

Planners include Center City Churches Clergy, along with members of Plowshares Institute, and Episcopal Peace Fellowship.