Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PEACE ACTIVISTS WORSHIP, PRAY, GET ARRESTED

Forty-Two Arrested for Civil Disobedience in Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, DC, March 7, 2008 -- More than forty religious leaders and faith-based peace activists were arrested in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill late Friday afternoon for their non-violent witness to end the war in Iraq. Hundreds of people assembled earlier in the afternoon for a public demonstration against the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq, and thousands of worshippers gathered at noon Friday for services calling for peace and an end to the war in Iraq.

The arrests came at the end of a day of worship and prayer. Following noon-time services in ten different houses of worship in Washington, worshippers processed in the rain to Upper Senate Park for an interfaith witness near the U.S. Capitol. In the midst of a driving rain, leaders from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Unitarian traditions insisted that people of faith will be relentless in encouraging their political leaders to take bold, unequivocal action for peace.

Multi-faith delegations from the Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership, the organizing coalition of the afternoon’s events, met with high level staffers from both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s offices. The religious leaders expressed grave concern that there must be both a clear exit strategy from Iraq and a regional, multi-lateral effort at development and diplomacy to bring about genuine security.

Participants from across faith boundaries are clearly united in expressing five core convictions:

1. The war in Iraq must end and diplomacy must replace the threat of war with Iran.
2. We must provide far better support to our returning soldiers.
3. We must commit to the long-term work of development in Iraq.
4. There can be no equivocation in our renunciation of all use of torture.
5. We must commit real resources to justice in our own communities in the U.S.

Among the forty-two people who were arrested were:

• Lois Baker, who is 86 years old, a World War II Veteran, great-grandmother, and committed Presbyterian Peacemaker.
• Joan Nicholson, 73 years old and infamous for her role in the legal decision Nicholson v. United States, which established the right to peaceful demonstrations on Capitol Hill.
• Will Covert, a Vietnam Veteran and member of Veterans for Peace.
• Khristine Hopkins, a strong advocate for housing and the environment, and traveled from Cape Cod for her second year in a row to join Christian Peace Witness for Iraq.
• Eighteen members of St. Luke Presbyterian Church traveled together from Minnesota to participate in the faith-based witness. Seven were arrested as they knelt in the atrium of the Hart Building to pray.
• Six students came from Hastings College in Nebraska, and three chose to risk arrest. Nathan Tramp said that he “came to learn a prayerful attitude toward the work of the peace movement, and to better discern how to make peace building a greater part of my life.”

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If you would like more information about these events, or to schedule an interview with leaders or those who have been arrested, please contact Rick Ufford-Chase at 520-780-6928 or email him at Rickuffordchase@gmail.com

www.olivebranchinterfaith.org