This makeshift crucifix just outside a fence was the backdrop today for a Good Friday commemoration called "Rolling away the stone of empire: a service of worship and witness" at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab in California.
About 200 people took part in prayers and then processed to the gates of the lab where some 30 or so volunteers crossed a line and were arrested.
Ched Myers of Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries in Los Angeles preached to the crowd. A long-time social change activist, he is a board member and past contributing editor of Sojourners magazine and a leader of the American Friends Service Committee.
Familiar friends
Those who were choosing to risk arrest at the gates of the lab were given stoles. Others were asked to sign those stoles to signal our community, even when the arrests would break our fellowship.
The gathered people actively recalled Fr. Bill O'Donnell whose life long witness for peace, justice and good cheer ended unexpectedly last December. Fr. Bill ¡Presente!
I was saddened to not be able to participate, but happily surprised to be connected to the gathering through these great pics. Thanks, Jan, for taking and sharing them. And what a great blog you have! peace, Ethan
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