Simplicity Day

“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.”
-- Henry David Thoreau

Simplicity Day on July 12th celebrates the birthday of Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) who encouraged us to simplify our lives.

Check out the following videos and resources about this remarkable movement:


AFFLUENZA - Soundtrack to VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY The Poetic Alternative to Consumer Culture.

This video clip is a collage of scenes from the documentary posted next below



Watch the entire documentary:

VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY: The Poetic Alternative to Consumer Culture documentary explores the philosophy behind Voluntary Simplicity, what potential or significance it has as a quietly emerging social movement and what its limitations might be.

Global Pandemy in its entirety - a 15-year-old documentary about what began as a trend in the US but now has spread all over the world. We are not considered to be citizens any more, we've been turned into simple consumers, with no other rights than the ones that corporations let us have, if so. There's no space for humanitarian behavior or for critical thinking. The greeding controlling minorities have deceived most of us to believe that we're free to choose a better life, and that the so called better life is measured in terms of properties, of things that we own. No matter if we don't have enough money, that's what Credit's been made for. If other people are suffering, we've been trained to ignore it because «That's not our business». Everything is business, and so, that way, we want to reach happiness. But the fact is that there's no happiness in material belongings. That's why we always are looking for more. And it's never enough. When we have reached to that point, then we are doomed, for we have been infected and controlled by this selfish way of surviving. We are not living anymore, we're just surviving, because we're sick. We suffer AFFLUENZA. And man... we DO SUFFER...

Adventures in Simplicity - A video montage created specifically to accompany an audio Plunderphonics track, created in 2008 on the topic of voluntary simplicity.



(Part II: forthcoming)





Simplicity - When we are connected with the Universe, we realize that the small feelings in life are the ones that have the ability to make us happy.



Further Resources from LPF:

LPF Blog Post on The Story of Consumerism

Hunger Awareness Meal - This experiential meal illuminates hunger and poverty in the world.

Treasures in Heaven, Treasures on Earth

Reclaim the Season! - Peace & justice living and giving especially appropriate at Christmas; useful throughout the year.

Other Resources:

Simple Living - defined

Simplicity Day of Event Coordination on Facebook

Alternatives for Simple Living

Simple Living America

The Simplicity Resource Guide

Choosing Voluntary Simplicity

About Simplicity Day

Simplicity Quotes 1, 2

Quick Action Needed on War Supplemental

War Supplemental Expected in the House This Week
Supplemental spending for the war in Afghanistan will be voted on later this week, perhaps as early as Wednesday. The Majority Whip sent out a whip question Friday asking Democrats whether they would vote in favor of a) the Afghanistan war money, and b) all the other supplemental funding, a sign that a vote is imminent.

Please contact your Representative, and ask him or her to 1) vote "NO" on the war money 2) co-sponsor the McGovern bill and vote for a corresponding amendment, requiring the President to establish a timetable for military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Call:
The Capitol Switchboard is 202-225-3121. Ask to be connected to your Representative's office. Try to get the Foreign Policy Legislative Assistant on the phone; tell whomever you get to speak with that you urge the Representative to vote no on war funding and to co-sponsor McGovern's bill and vote for McGovern's amendment; try to get them to say how the Representative will vote.
Please report back to us any result of your query at the following two places: for LPF, please email ggersmehl@hotmail.com and if you can, also send your email to: www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/feingold-mcgovern

for more information see: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=wh0LUZik0%2BkRJ7ICYIHKwyN%2BUO6c5syB
Lutheran Peace Fellowship, www.lutheranpeace.org, Afghan Resources

World Refugee Day

Now when they had departed, behold,( an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. (Matthew 2:13-15)

World Refugee Day, observed June 20 each year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the situation of refugees throughout the world.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

World Refugee Day - UN

World Refugee Day - Wikipedia

---

JUN 1, 2010

Torture Awareness Month

National and Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture.

The suggested June action is as follows:

(1) Please try to have a table for action set up for every Sunday in June, publicizing it with something like "Torture Is A Moral Issue"

(2) On the table, have an adequate supply of postcards (provided by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture--how many do you need ?)
The message on the card is a request for the International Committee of the Red Cross to be given permission to have access to all prisoners held by USA forces in any country.

(3) Also on the table have a petition to be signed, urging Attorney General Eric Holder to move ahead in appointing a Commission of Inquiry about who ordered/authorized USA forces to use torture and include the option of a prosecutor if crimes have been committed.

(4) Try to arrange the showing of a 20 minute DVD "Ending US-Sponsored Torture Forever." (The DVD is free from NRCAT)

National Religious Campaign Against Torture - http://www.nrcat.org/

Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice

Amnesty International

Torture Awareness

National Religious Campaign Against Torture - Wikipedia

The Origins of Mother's Day

It has been over 140 years since Mother's Day first came into being, yet few people know that it was originally conceived as a day for mothers to protest injustice and war. Over the years the activist observance of this holiday became squelched by its commercialization by flower and card companies who turned it into billion-dollar industry. There has been a recent movement to return Mother's Day to its original meaning.
read more:
The Original Anti-War Mother's Day
Soap to Ploughshares: How to return Mother's Day to its original meaning.
CODEPINK Observes Mother's Day With Protest
Mothers' Day Proclamation: Julia Ward Howe, Boston, 1870
Mother’s Day for Peace: A Dramatic Reading of Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation
Mother's Day Proclamation
Original Mother's Day a war protest
Mothers Acting Up

---

Conscientious Objectors' Day - May 15th

A conscientious objector (CO) is an “individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion.

Many conscientious objectors can find themselves in a very difficult situation, especially in times of war. One of the initial motivations for the formation of a Lutheran peace movement in the US was the need to support those resisting the draft through conscientious objection to military solutions to conflict. Lutheran Peace Fellowship has a long history of supporting conscientious objectors and traces its roots to this movement dating back to 1940.
for more information:
Conscientious objector - From Wikipedia
Youth and the Military
Soldiers of Consciencefilm on moral challenges of military service.Watch clips on Youtube
International Conscientious Objector Day May 15
History of Conscientious Objectors' Day
St. Martin of Tours Feast Day

Prayers for Peace/Peace Vigils

Ideas for Prayers for Peace/Peace Vigils from Lutheran Peace Fellowship

Individuals and congregations are encouraged to show their support for peace this advent/spring. That support for peace can take form in many ways, from a simple prayer during church services to events requiring more planning.

Here are some ideas:

• Asking the pastor if he/she would be interested in building on the peace theme of the service on the Sunday after Easter (which has an exceptional peace text in the lectionary) and offering some of the ideas below or on the LPF web site.

• A group of members holding candles in silence in the narthex after a Lenten service, with an announcement in or before the service inviting folks to join. Preparation can be as simple as talking to your pastor to get the OK, and calling a few peace people to invite them to be participants.

• A public vigil on the street after the service. This would take the above, plus making a sign saying what it is, calling a few more people, perhaps people in or announcements in neighboring congregations.

Both could benefit from picking a simple prayer to end, having a simple handout for participants and folks who show interest (e.g. with a few sentences on the purpose, ending with a few links to religious resources such as prayers, and perhaps a few sources of more info on Iraq/Afghanistan  - see LPF website).

• Finally, there could be hosting a separate service such as the prayer service planned at Atonement Lutheran Church, Newport Oregon “Prayers for Peace: An Interfaith Candlelight Vigil”
  Wednesday, March 24, 7:30 p.m.
  .

Here is a prayer from Charlotte Gaddis, Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church, Seattle, WA:

• We witness daily the chaos and violence that our brothers and sisters are experiencing for over seven years in Iraq and Afghanistan. Families are being torn apart and children see death and suffering all around them. We come together to pray for peace in what ever form [and faith] that might take.

Thanks to our friends at ChristianPeaceWitness.org for the idea.

---

Anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador. Romero was assassinated while saying mass on March 24, 1980 in a small chapel in a cancer hospital where he lived. I had the honor of visiting this site on an LPF Study Trip to Central America back in 1998. In my account of the trip, I wrote "The assassinations of Archbishop Romero and the Jesuit priests were powerful historical facts to me before this trip, but the experience of visiting the sites of these atrocities was overwhelming. The photographs of the carnage and the victims' blood-stained clothes on display impressed upon me the great sacrifices made here in the struggle for justice and peace." - Alan Forsberg

In the videos and links below, learn more about this remarkable man and how he became the voice of the Salvadoran people when all other channels of expression had been crushed by the repression.

Oscar Romero of El Salvador: informal adult education in a context of violence

Celebrating Monsignor Romero

Oscar Romero - Resources

Archbishop Oscar Romero : Quotes

Remembering the Assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero

Archbishop Oscar Romero - The Last Sermon (1980)

Prophets Of A Future Not Our Own - Prayer

Romero - 1989 film about Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero (youtube part 1 of 11)

More short Youtube videos:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer´s Birthday - February 4

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) is known for his leadership role in the Confessing Church, efforts on behalf of peace and justice, opposition to antisemitism, and writings on theology and ethics that have been influential far beyond his German Lutheran context. He was was hanged by the Nazis on April 6, 1945 in the Flossenburg concentration camp.
In addition to the videos below, you can check out our set of quotes by this Lutheran Hero at:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
24 Quotes

Season of Nonviolence

January 30 - April 4, is a national 64-day educational, media, and grassroots campaign dedicated to demonstrating that nonviolence is a powerful way to heal, transform, and empower our lives and our communities. Originally inspired by the memorial anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this campaign honors their vision for an empowered, nonviolent world.

In our culture the word "nonviolence" is loaded down with stereotypes, myths, and misconceptions. It may be among the most misunderstood words in our language. For many, nonviolence is a way of life that is grounded in a deeply held religious or moral conviction. For others it is a strategy, a method of confronting conflict or oppression in a way that seeks to honor life. Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, and Mahatma Gandhi were all pioneers in the philosophy and strategy of non-violence to achieve great things. Check out LPF´s extensive list of resources to learn more about Nonviolence.

---

Atonement Lutheran Church

Reconciling in Christ team presents:

HOPE, HOMOSEXUALITY, and HOSPITALITY

A Bible study by Bishop Dave Brauer-Rieke, Oregon Synod - ELCA

Wednesday, January 27th 6:00 PM – Potluck and fellowship; 7:00 PM – Bible study, followed by questions and answers. Everyone is welcome! (541) 265-2554 (download the flier)

If you are interested in more information about the Reconciling in Christ process and how to hold such an event in your own congregation, check out the following online websites and resources:

Lutherans Concerned/North America

Caring Conversations - Trinity's Affirmation of Welcome

goodsoil.org – Lutheran Alliance for Full Participation

Wingspan

Soulforce

---