Good Friday @ the Lab, 2005
_________________________Rolling Away the Stone of Empire Good Friday Worship & Witness
March 25, 6:45 a.m.
Vasco & Patterson Pass Rd., Livermore.
PDF Flyer
For more than twenty years, people of faith and others concerned about nuclear weapons have gathered on Good Friday for prayer and witness outside the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratory. We will assemble at Vasco Road and Patterson Pass Road, on the southeast corner. There will be singing, spoken messages, and prayer, and then we will walk about 1/2 mile to a major gate of the lab. At the gate there will be nonviolent acts of witness. Following the action, there will be a community gathering in Livermore, to get together, share our concerns and activities, and get a chance to talk with Ched Myers.
This year the principal speaker will be Ched Myers, whose work -- both written and lived -- has struggled with the concrete practice of discipleship. A member of the Pacific Life Community and Bartimaeus Community, Ched Myers was active in the San Francisco Bay Area in the anti-nuclear and anti-war movement. He is also a widely-read biblical scholar, bringing to greater awareness Jesus' prophetic call for justice. Ched currently works with Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries in Los Angeles (www.bcm-net.org).
The story of Good Friday is one of the torture and murder of the leader of a nonviolent movement challenging empire and working for a just social order. It is the story of the death of Jesus of Nazareth at the hands of the Roman proconsul and the collaborating social powers of ancient Israel. This story is re-lived in many other struggles around the world and through the centuries. The roll of the dead in the service of love and justice includes Archbishop Oscar Romero, Dr. Martin Luther King, Violet Luizzo, Victor Jara, Mohandas Gandhi, the four American religious killed in El Salvador, Rachel Corrie, and many more.
You are invited to join the Good Friday Witness in Livermore where the laboratory which brought the world the hydrogen bomb continues to expand
the U.S. nuclear arsenal to strengthen further an explicitly offensive U.S. military policy. Since their inception, nuclear weapons have been the trump card in the U.S. military deck and their threatened use has played a part in numerous conflicts. The development of new, modified and exotic nuclear weapons continues at Livermore Lab at an accelerating pace. It can reasonably be said that Livermore is engaged in developing the new crosses for the expanding U.S. empire.
*** HOW TO GET THERE ***
Maps from MapQuest:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q198147F7
Driving: Take I-580 to Livermore. Take the Vasco Road exit and go south a bit over 1 mile to Patterson Pass Road. At Patterson Pass Road, you an either turn right to enter a residential neighborhood to park; or you can turn left onto Patterson Pass Road, and parking will probably be OK. This location is where we were for Good Friday in 2003 and 2004. In earlier years we were at a different location about a mile away.
*** HOW TO SUPPORT US ***
oPlease come. Please bring your friends. Please spread the word.oWe will need volunteers for lots of things, both beforehand and on the day of the event.
oYour financial help is needed to cover the day's expenses: renting a generator for the sound system, a portapotty, printing, postage, etc. Please send a check made out to Ecumenical Peace Institute and mail it to Ecumenical Peace Institute, PO Box 9334, Berkeley, CA 94709. In the memo, please write "Good Friday." Any leftover funds will be used by EPI and Livermore Conversion Project for our ongoing work for peace and justice. Thank you for your support.
*** HOW TO CONTACT US ***
Phone EPI at (510) 548-4141. Leave a message and someone will phone you back.
