Unity and Solidarity Vigil held in Sunnyvale

Unity and Solidarity Vigil
in light of attacks in Sunnyvale and Poway Synagogue
WE ARE ONE!
Was held on Thursday, May 2, 2019
El Camino Real and Sunnyvale-Saratoga Road in Sunnyvale

Marking the terrifying attack on pedestrians on April 23 in which the police say the driver may have targeted the victims based on their race and his belief they were Muslim, and the horrific shooting at Congregation Chabad Synagogue in Poway, CA on April 27, we gathered in Unity and Solidarity at the site of the April 23 incident. The vigil was a quiet, loving presence to acknowledge the pain and suffering of all people targeted by violence and hate, and to declare unequivocally that all lives are precious and we are all part of the same human family.

Thursday, May 2, was the National Day of Prayer*, and at this time our nation surely needs prayers for healing, respect in our diversity, and peace. Thursday was also Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, a time to remember victims of the Nazi Holocaust, and to honor all victims of violence and pledge, "Never Again."

In pain and solidarity at yet more violence, Multifaith Voices for Peace & Justice offers both words and action. Our words are below, and our actions continue with the Thursday vigil.

Statement of Soldarity with Muslims Everywhere

A Personal Story and Statement from a MVPJ Steering Committee Member

Amidst the rubble of what was once a beautiful mosque in Afghanistan in 2002, a boy was rocking back and forth reciting a portion of the Qur'an. I sat next to him, reminded of how he resembled children in a Jewish synagogue from my childhood, rocking back and forth as they recited Hebrew prayers. The Imam walked over and lightly touched the boy on the shoulder. He stopped praying and looked up. The Imam told the boy that I was Jewish and asked him, "What do we call Jewish people?" The boy smiled at me and responded "People of the Book." "Very good," the Imam replied as he touched his heart. With a nod from the Imam, the boy resumed reciting prayers. Muslims refer to Jews and Christians as people of the book because we share common sacred texts, the Torah, the Bible, and for Muslims, the Qur'an. 

How do you respond when...

...your dinner guest makes an Islamophobic comment?

...you witness public instances of racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, anti-Trans or any other form of oppressive interpersonal violence or harassment?

American Friends Service Committee (Quakers) has six thoughtful and helpful tips to counteract anti-Muslim rhetoric in your conversations.

They also have bystander intervention do's and don'ts for how to intervene in public situations while considering the safety of everyone involved.

Both articles provide guidelines that may be contrary to your first instinct, however noble those may be. These are important reads!

The Rev. Dr. William Barber II at Stanford Memorial Church

The Rev. Dr. William Barber II riveted those gathered at Stanford Memorial Church on January 17, 2019, with a call to not shrink back from the tasks at hand, and to liberate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. so fervently needed in our world today.

Did you miss it? Or hunger to hear it again? Click here for six minutes of excerpts from his speech.

Rev. Barber is the founder of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Renewal and Repairers of the Breach.

blessed are you... blessed are we

At our October 2018 Peaceful Presence the Rev. Matthew Dutton-Gillett of Trinity Church in Menlo Park led us in this litany. The author, the Rev. Anna Blaedel, Theologian-in-Residence at enfleshed, generously gave us permission to publish it here. May it give us solace, strength and courage for the new year and beyond.

blessed are you who are raging.
blessed are you who are mourning.
blessed are you who feel numb.
blessed are you who feel sick. and tired. and sick and tired.

blessed are you who refuse to turn away.
blessed are you who need to turn away.
blessed are you who keep breathing deep.
blessed are you who are tending to your own needs.
blessed are you who are tending to the needs of another.

blessed are you who have been calling.
blessed are you who have been organizing.
blessed are you who have been testifying.
blessed are you who have been hearing.
blessed are you who have been resisting.

Statement of Solidarity and Prayers

We grieve the lives lost and dreams broken in Pittsburgh, and extend our prayers to the families and friends of those wounded and killed, to Jews around the world, and especially to our own local Jewish communities.

We will stand together, cry together, pray together, and work together to build a world beyond fear and division, a world of compassion, inclusion, justice and peace.

California AJR 33 PASSED! Embrace the UN Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

California Assembly Joint Resolution 33 (AJR 33) calls on our federal government and our nation to make nuclear disarmament the centerpiece of our national security policy by embracing the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Update: AJR 33 PASSED ON AUGUST 28! Thank you for your work in supporting this step toward nuclear disarmament! Click here to read the press release with more information from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

This resolution is short and easy to read (click here for full text), and it gives us a rare opportunity to act. It is also easily summarized. It calls on our federal leaders to:

• Embrace the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
• Make nuclear disarmament the centerpiece of our national security policy
• Renounce first use
• Take our nuclear weapons off of hair-trigger alert
• Cancel the plan to replace the entire arsenal with enhanced weapons
• Actively pursue a verifiable agreement among nuclear-armed states to eliminate their nuclear arsenals

Prayers for the Suffering of Rohingya People

Please join in the prayers and pleas for compassion as shared by the Elijah Interfaith Institute:

"Saddened by the suffering of Rohingiya people, which has been added to the suffering of so many other human being during the last few weeks,  we, Buddhist and Muslim Leaders, associated with the Elijah Interfaith Institute, as well as leaders of other faith traditions, invoke the timeless aspiration of humankind for compassion and love, and yearning for guidance, succor, and help from supra-human realms so powerfully captured in the two prayers below—one from Buddhist sources and the second from the opening chapter of the Quran. We wish to recall this common teaching and high moral and spiritual yearning of the human soul at this point in time, especially in view of the suffering of the Rohingiya Muslims who are being persecuted and are suffering due to policies of a Buddhist majority state."