Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership

Studying Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who was a crucial companion and often teacher to King, and who was co-chair of Clergy & Laity Concerned About vietnam when MLK spoke and when he was killed, and who himself was bitterly attacked for getting involved in Vietnam peace work just as King was, and whose support buoyed King (and vice versa) in that path, and who wrote brilliantly about Shabbat as a profound challenge to materialism, is valuable to opponents of racism, militarism, and materialism.

Relearning Heschel, Rebirthing King, Re-Inaugurating America:
Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Day
As a new government takes office,
January 19-20, 2009

As Barack Obama becomes President and a new Congress takes office in January 2009, there is a remarkable opportunity to bring together large sections of American society to reflect on our history and our future. The opportunity is strengthened by the fact that the day before Inauguration day (Tuesday, January 20) is Martin Luther King's Birthday. And January 14 is the yohrzeit (death-anniversary) of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Dr. King's close friend and ally.

We propose to focus this period on renewing Dr. King's mature vision, as put forward in his Riverside Church speech of 4/4/67, exactly one year before his death. We invite religious and ethical communities to study that speech, leading up to nationwide observance of the confluence of MLK's Birthday and Inauguration Day, January 19-20, 2009, and we invite our citizenry to commit themselves to work toward bringing Dr. King’s vision to reality.

If you want to take part in this process, please write us at TentofAbraham@aol.com

The MLK/ Inauguration process will begin in the fall of 2008, preparing study/ action guides based on Dr. King’s Riverside Church speech of April 4, 1967.  See the study giude at http://olivebranchinterfaith.org/rebirthing-king-study-guide

One such action is already under way. At All Souls Unitarian Church (16th St & Columbia Rd.) in Washington DC from 4:30 to 8:30 on January 19, the Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership will hold a celebratory service and teaching at which Vincent Harding of Iliff School of Theology, one of Dr. King's closest advisers who drafted the Riverside Church speech; Rev. Michael Kinnamon, general secretary of the National Council of Churches; Dr. Sayyid Syeed, general secretary of the Islamic Society of North America; Sammie Moshenberg of the National Council of Jewish Women; Rabbi Michael Lerner of the Network of Spiritual Progressives; Celeste Zappala of Gold Star Families Speak Out; Mubarak Awad of Nonviolence International; Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, of the Chautauqua Institution; and Rev. William G. Sinkford of the Unitarian Universalist Association are already scheduled to speak.

Beyond this event in Washington, we are involving major denominations and other communities of faith and ethics in a nationwide observance of this time of transformation. Specifics of how to do this will be decided by each community; we especially hope that these efforts will include:

1. Leading up to this moment in January, focusing congregational study on Dr. King's speech at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his death, in which he called for the transformation of America's role in the world and an end to the three dangers haunting American society: militarism, racism, and materialism. See Dr. King's speech at http://olivebranchinterfaith.org/rebirthing-king-study-guide/kings-speec...

2. Publicly affirming a pledge, in which citizens as part of their religious congregations and bodies make themselves personally responsible to work for Rebirthing America toward the vision of MLK. (See a draft of the Pledge below, taken almost entirely from the text of Dr. King's Riverside speech .)

3. Carrying out a candle-light Night Watch the night of January 19. – Candles might be lit in houses of worship and then carried into public space, perhaps with different churches/ synagogues/ mosques/ temples meeting and walking together to public parks.