Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership

Just read it. (Or listen.)

Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence, Martin Luther King, Jr.

delivered 4 April 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned About Vietnam
at Riverside Church in New York City

You can also click here to listen to Dr. King delivering the speech and download an MP3 file to replay any time. A great way to share the speech with a group of people.

As we hope you know by now, many of us at FOR have been working on hard on a major event that will take place tomorrow in Washington, D.C.  Rebirthing King, Rebirthing America will bring together a wide range of notable leaders from many faiths to shine a light on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King on the eve of the inauguration of the first Black President of the United States of America.

A major part of the program is "Ashes, Stones, & Flowers: A Litany on Militarism, Racism, & Materialism in Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."  The verses of this litany are both eloquent and powerful.  I was quite moved by reading it, and I'm usually not one for traditionally "religious" rituals, if you know what I mean.

The entire text is posted on the Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership web site, but here is a taste...

Media Advisory

Contacts:

• Ethan Vesely-Flad, editor@forusa.org, 510-701-5267
• Samina Faheem Sundas, samina_faheem@yahoo.com, 650-387-1994

National Interfaith Gathering to Honor Dr. King Birthday & Obama Inaugural

This week, a Facebook page was created for the big "Rebirthing King, Rebirthing America" event that will take place in the nation's Capitol this coming January. Please join us on Facebook! Also, here is the text of the ad that will appear in next month's issue of Fellowship magazine about the effort (curricula materials to be posted soon):

I spent last weekend in Chicago, attending the annual American Academy of Religion conference, and (unfortunately) left the city on Monday evening, just before Election Day. It would have been amazing to have been there just 24 hours later for the huge celebration at Grant Park, which I walked by each day during the AAR event.

March 17th is celebrated as a holiday in many U.S. communities, and as the descendant of Irish immigrants -- and having been named after an ancestor who was a renowned Irish-American patriot during the Revolutionary War, Ethan Allen -- normally I'd like to feel a measure of pride in our nation.