A Funeral For Those Who Have Died in War

“We need a national funeral. We need our leaders to assemble at some grave place and collectively grieve and mourn for the deaths America has suffered and caused to suffer. We need a national ritual that acknowledges the catastrophic violence we’ve mounted in the Middle East and especially in Iraq. Without this healing ritual we can never go forward with integrity and hope, but only with divisive rage and our own weapons of mass destruction in tow.”
----- Steven Backus
Gathering Song: Steve Kremer “Amazing Grace” Verse 1, 3, 4
Welcome and Sharing the Sign of Peace: Mark Scannell
Call to Prayer: Mark Scannell
Readings: Julie Madden
  • First reading, from Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms:

    “He said: What has been done this summer cannot have been done in vain.
    I did not say anything.
    I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious and sacrifice and the expression in vain. We had heard them not for a long time, sometimes standing in the rain almost out of earshot, so that only the shouted words came through, and we had read them, on posters that were slapped over other posters. There were many words that you could not stand to hear. Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage or hallow were obscene. I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it.”

  • Scripture reading:

    "Beloved, I am writing a new commandment to you, which holds true in him and among you, for the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light, yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness. Whoever loses his brother remains in the light, and there is nothing in him to cause a fall. Whoever hates his brother is in darkness; he walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God. If God so loved us, we also must love one another."


Mark Scannell and retired Bishop Lowell Erdahl
Meditation Song: Steve Kremer
Eulogy: Bishop Lowell Erdahl
Collection to benefit the work of Every Church A Peace Church, a network committed to living and teaching the non-violent gospel of Jesus Christ
Litany:
  • Gracious and loving God, tonight we come together to mourn the losses America has suffered and the losses we have inflicted and to lift our prayers to you.
          Response: “God forgive us and open our hearts.”
  • We pray for our nation and its devotion to violence and domination. As citizens of this nation, we grieve what is done in our name. As citizens of this world, we commit ourselves to an ever-widening circle of compassion.
          Response: “God forgive us and open our hearts.”
  • We pray for the lives and the terrible deaths of soldiers and civilians, families and children lost to war, and we pray that they are now embraced in the fullness of your love.
          Response: “God forgive us and open our hearts.”
  • We pray for the future of our country as we mark this Memorial Day, that the dead may not be forgotten and that peace may be embraced.
          Response: “God forgive us and open our hearts.”
  • We pray for ourselves as we seek to commit ourselves more fully to the work of peace in your world. That we might not lose heart, that our lives may be full with the breath of your spirit, that we might be changed and transformed so that we might change and transform the world, we pray:
          Response: “God forgive us and open our hearts.”

Closing Prayer: Bishop Lowell Erdahl
Closing Song: Steve Kremer “Let There Be Peace on Earth”
Bell-ringing ceremony by Veterans for Peace
Marlys Weber, a member of St. Joans for 37 years, has a passion for Justice and Peace actions. She is a member of WAMM and Veterans for Peace and has been arrested numerous times for non-violent civil disobedience. In 2003, she helped organize four anti-war buses from St. Joans to Washington DC. Marlys has been on delegations to El Salvador, Guatemala, South Africa and Haiti. She rides with Team Oz, is a dedicated member of the Justice Fund Committee, the Bible Study group and is Chair of the tenacious Memorial Garden Committee for creation remains.  Doing photo/journalism is her secret desire.
Thanks to Polly Mann, Bob Burns and Barbara Cracraft for their work in coordinating and publicizing the service.

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