News

Habitat for Humanity Workday in Pharr

February 4, 2006

Nine members and attenders of the Rio Grande Valley Friends Worship Group enjoyed a pleasant morning of sunshine and fellowship as they turned a pink house to white. Thanks to Tom Stagg for arranging this

Elizabeth GarciaClara, John, Tom, & Laurel

Local Peace Churches Sponsor Candlelight Prayer Vigil

December 12, 2005

Members the Rio Grande Valley Friends Worship Group (Quaker) and other members of the community joined the Iglesia Menonita Buenas Nuevas ( Good News Mennonite Church ) in San Juan on Wednesday evening, December 7 in a bilingual candlelight prayer vigil to pray for the safe release of four peace workers currently detained in Iraq .

Four members of a Christian Peacemakers Teams delegation to Iraq went missing on Saturday, November 26, 2005 in Baghdad , en route to a meeting with the Islamic Scholars Association. A previously unknown group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness has claimed responsibility. 

Being held are Tom Fox, age 54 of Clearbrook, Virginia, Norman Kember, age 74 of London, England, James Loney, age 41 of Toronto, Canada, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, age 32 of Montreal, Canada. Since that time more than a hundred vigils on three continents have been held to pray for the captives, their captors, and all the parties involved in the hostilities in Iraq . Additionally Muslims – militants, politicians, scholars, and religious leaders – have called for a release of the four because of their humanitarian work and condemnation of the U.S.-led war in Iraq . An online petition asking for their release has tens of thousands of signatures from around the world.

Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) arose from a call in 1984 for Christians to devote the same discipline and self-sacrifice to nonviolent peacemaking that armies devote to war. Enlisting the whole church in an organized, nonviolent alternative to war, today CPT places violence-reduction teams in crisis situations and militarized areas around the world at the invitation of local peace and human rights workers. CPT embraces the vision of unarmed intervention waged by committed peacemakers ready to risk injury and death in bold attempts to transform lethal conflict through the nonviolent power of God’s truth and love.

Initiated by Mennonites, Brethren and Quakers with broad ecumenical participation, CPT’s ministry of Biblically-based and spiritually-centered peacemaking emphasizes creative public witness, nonviolent direct action and protection of human rights.

CPT's work in Iraq has focused on documenting abuses of Iraqi detainees, protesting the holding of prisoners without charges and without notifying families, and documenting violent house raids and illegal confiscation of property. CPT was among the first to report the torture occurring at the Abu Ghraib prison, long before the story broke in the mainstream press. Members of CPT willingly undertook the risks of living among Iraqis, in a common neighborhood outside of the infamous Green Zone. They sought no protection from weapons or armed guards, trusting in, and benefiting from, the goodwill of the Iraqi people. Acts of kindness and hospitality from Iraqis were innumerable and insured the CPT members' safety and well-being.

For hundreds of years Mennonites, Brethren and Quakers, known as the historic peace churches, have refused participation in war or preparation for war as contradictory to the message of Jesus Christ. Addressing participants in the local Wednesday evening prayer vigil, incoming Mennonite minister John Garland said “Though the world is telling us to hate our enemies and just love what is ours, these brothers of ours are bearing witness to the God who tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.”

Brownsville resident Elizabeth Garcia spoke about her perspective on the situation to those present. She was leading a Christian Peacemaker Teams delegation in Hebron when the four went missing. She has participated in peacemaking delegations to Colombia , the U. S.-Mexican border, and the Middle East .

For more information on CPT visit their website www.cpt.org. The Iglesia Menonita Buenas Nuevas ( Good News Mennonite Church ) can be contacted at 782-8057. The Rio Grande Valley Friends Worship Group has a website www.rgvquakers.org.

Clara's Souper Bowl Fundraiser a Big Success

February 7, 2005

The Rio Grande Valley Friends Worship Group raised $38.00 for the Food Bank of Rio Grande Valley at its recent Souper Bowl Fundraiser. Clara, a young member of the local group brought the idea from her Quaker meeting in New Jersey. In addition to creating a display for the collection, she wrote a lovely letter to accompany the check. We thank Clara for her initiative in setting this up!
Holy Spirit Parish Hosts Final Peace and Justice Affirmation Night

January 31, 2005

The Holy Spirit Catholic Church Peace and Justice Commision presented two outstanding speakers on the evening January 29 in what has turned out to be the last in a 20-year ministry to the local Peace and Justice community. Sister Dianna Ortiz, OSU, and Jennifer Harbury addressed an assembly of over three hundred from all over the Valley and as far away as Australia.

Sister Dianna Ortiz is an Ursuline Sister from Kentucky. She went to Guatemala in 1987 as a missionary to teach Mayan children. On Nov.2, 1989, she was abducted from a retreat center and tortured. Her memoir The Blindfold's Eye: My Journey from Torture to Truth, details the shattering effects of torture on her life; her long slow journey toward healing; and her efforts to bring her perpetrators to justice, while the governments of Guatemala and the U.S. sought to protect them.

Sister Dianna speaks not only for herself, but also on behalf of all torture survivors. Along with other survivors, she founded the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (TASSC). She is currently the director of TASSC in Washington, DC., which monitors and educates people about the continuing occurance of torture around the world and provides support for its victims.

Sister Dianna has received the Pax Christi National Peacemeaker Award and was named Woman of the Year by US Catholic Magazine.

Jennifer Harbury is an attorney (working on and off with Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid in Weslaco), author, and activist. Her husband, Mayan resistance leader Efrain Bámaca Velásquez, was captured alive by the Guatemalan military in 1992. He was detained, tortured, and eventually executed without trial. Jennifer's efforts to save his life, including three life-threatening hunger strikes, resulted in startling official disclosures about the CIA's use of torturers as paid informants. She has passed her case through a successful international trial at the Inter-American Court on Human Rights of the OAS. She continues to litigate claims against the CIA in the US federal court system. She is currently the Director of the Uniterian Universalist Service Committee STOP Torture Campaign. She has written a book as well, Searching for Everardo : A Story of Love, War, and the CIA in Guatemala.

Their talks ended with an impassioned plea for each person in attendance to contact their Senators regarding the nomination of Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General. He was responsible for several recent memos from the Justice Department outlining the occasions in which torture could be an acceptable policy of the US government.

For approximately 20 years Holy Spirit's Peace and Justice Commission has hosted an annual Affirmation Night which gives recognition and thanks to those individuals and groups working in the areas of peace, justice, and charity and who are bettering the conditions under which oppressed and low-income persons of the Rio Grande Valley live and work. At these gatherings they have featured nationally known speakers such as Rev. John Dear, S.J. and Sr. Helen Prejean.

The Commission's mission is to raise awareness of current issues, educate about bibilical and church teaching about these issues, and organize opportunities to work for peace and justice in our community. In doing so it has become a model and leader in the community. Its witness and ministry will be sorely missed.

Thank you Sr. Moira and Commission for all you have done!

Local Quaker Meeting Launches Website

January 24, 2005

The Rio Grande Valley Friends Worship Group has announced the launching of its new website www.rgvquakers.org. Visitors will be able to learn about the local Quaker group and about the denomination officially known as the Religious Society of Friends. Website features include links to various Quaker sites and an events calendar which is open to postings by local peace organizations.

The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) began in England in the mid-1600s. Meetings for Worship are unprogrammed and under the direction of the Holy Spirit rather than a pastor. Religious symbols and rituals are eschewed in favor of authentic experience. Quakerism emphasizes the primacy of an immediate knowledge of God's will over creeds, dogma, and written texts. Acting on their religious beliefs Quakers have become leaders in the fields of abolition of slavery, education, prison reform, human rights, religious tolerance, and international peace and reconciliation.

While Quaker groups are more numerous in the East (Pennsylvania was founded as a Quaker colony), the Rio Grande Valley group is growing. They welcome visitors to their website (www.rgvquakers.org) and to their Meetings for Worship. Call (956) 686-4855 for more information.