Read the December Peace Abbey newsletter (pdf).
Nov 142011
The Peace Abbey is a spiritual oasis that’s tucked away in the wooded hamlet of Sherborn. The multi-faith retreat center is home to the Pacifist Living History Museum and Emily the Sacred Cow, and over the years has hosted well-known visitors like Mother Teresa, Howard Zinn, Muhammad Ali, Maya Angelou, and, most recently, Joan Baez.
But the future of the Peace Abbey is up in the air. Faced with mounting bills, the cash-strapped nonprofit is appealing to the public and hoping that an angel investor can save the place.
Peace Abbey supporters are doing whatever they can to help. On Nov. 6, they held a fundraiser at Roots and Wings in Natick. About 250 people attended the benefit, which raised $3,000:
The folks at the Peace Abbey want to continue to offer peace and social justice programming in Sherborn, and they’re on the lookout for a like-minded organization to purchase the property. If you know anyone who might be interested, check out their latest newsletter (PDF) or contact the Peace Abbey office at 508-655-2143.
Meanwhile, the Peace Abbey continues to operate as usual. The campus is located at 2 North Main St. in Sherborn. Yoga classes are offered Tuesday mornings at 10:30 a.m. and meditation sessions are held on Sunday mornings.
Visitors are welcome to check out the museum, animal rights memorial, and the rest of the grounds 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends.
If you haven’t been before, it might be worth checking out…before it’s too late.
– Emily Sweeney
Peace Abbey volunteer Madeline Champagne had been recording the total number of U.S. war deaths in Iraq on a sign outside the Peace Abbey, but during the winter of 2007 she decided these men and women deserved more recognition than just a number. In the Peace Abbey Coffeehouse room in the lower level of the Conference Center Madeline began building a memorial consisting of a wrist band with the name of each of the U.S. service member killed in action in Iraq. The wristbands are linked in a series of hanging chains that extend for many feet along the walls. The effect is moving and memorable.
Now, as the troops will be coming home from Iraq by the end of this year, it seems a fitting time for The Peace Abbey to dismantle the memorial and have a final tribute for these men and women.
We encourage everyone who is able to participate in this process. Please come by The Peace Abbey to spend a few moments to be a part of this extended prayer. Even taking down a few wristbands will make you part of the prayer–spend whatever time you can.
Each participant will cut one or more wristbands from the chains, remove the plastic covering, and honor each individual by reading aloud the name, age, and other information. (Scissors and staple removers will be on a table downstairs, along with a container to hold the wristbands.)
Once all the wristbands are all taken down, we will have a ceremony to burn the wristbands and scatter the ashes on C.O. Hill.
A listing will be printed and kept in a book in the Peace Abbey Multi-Faith Chapel.
By Staff reports
Sherborn —Faced with foreclosure again, the Peace Abbey in Sherborn is hosting a yoga and bodywork event at Roots and Wings in Natick on Sunday, Nov. 6. The event lasts from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. and will feature various sessions, including yoga, an information session about the Abbey and an art sale.
Long-time Abbey volunteer Dan Dick, and others like him, would hate to see it go away.
“This is a place that brings all aspects of nonviolence together,” he said.
The Abbey serves as a haven for vegetarians, pacifists, conscientious objectors and any one who seeks peace, both in the world and within themselves.
For Dick, the Abbey served as a home when it opened its doors to him and his family after a house fire left them homeless in 2008. To this day, the Peace Abbey is “my spiritual home,” he said.
Ellen Fine, who called herself an occasional decoration at the Abbey, said that it’s a place that has meant a lot to a lot of people.
The Abbey, which has encountered financial trouble in the past, is facing roughly $300,000 in debt.
Fine said, “Peace is a costly thing to achieve.”
And, while the event on Sunday will not bring them close to that goal, “every little bit helps,” Dick said. “It would be a great loss for the area and for the spiritual.”
The property consists of old buildings, animals and a memorial park that all require attention, which only increases the need for financial support.
Its most famous resident was Emily, a cow who escaped from a slaughterhouse and was bought by the Peace Abbey after she was captured. Some people considered Emily to be a wise incarnated soul. People came from across the world to see the cow known for being very friendly to everyone.
In the past, celebrities such as Yoko Ono have come forward with support the Peace Abbey.
Dick said, “We keep hoping there’s someone that can make a substantial contribution.”
He added that the Peace Abbey has vacillated between being able to be self-sustaining and looking for outside investment or even selling the Abbey.
Despite its struggles, the Abbey continues to welcome guests daily, and continues to hosts its traditional Sunday morning meditation and multidenominational peace prayer sessions.
“The energy that comes from this place is just amazing,” Dick said. “It’s almost unthinkable that this place wouldn’t exist.”
Roots & Wings Yoga and Healing Arts in Natick, is generously offering a Yoga and Bodywork benefit for the Peace Abbey on November 6th, Sunday, from 9 am-3 pm.
All proceeds of the classes that day will go to the Peace Abbey!
Yoga, art, massage, information sharing and some good old down home mingling! The fun starts at 9 am.
9:00 – 10:30 am Breathwork with Mare Tomaski, suggested donation $25-35
10:45 -11:45 am Feel Your Bliss with Svaroopa Yoga with Melissa Fountain and Annette Bongiorno, suggested donation $15-20
11:00 – 3:00 pm Artisan Sale, all artisans will donate an item in which the full proceeds go to the Peace Abbey.
12:00 – 12:20 pm Spirit Groove with Lisa Lewton
12:30 – 1:00 pm Get to know the Peace Abbey with Director Lewis Randa
1:15 – 1:40 pm Family Yoga (all ages) with Elizabeth Goranson, suggested donation per family $15-30
1:50 – 2:20 pm Nia with Donna McGurk, suggested donation $5-10
2:30-3:00 pm Yoga for the Peace Abbey followed by Closing Ceremony
All proceeds from yoga classes (and one item from each vendor) will be donated to
The Peace Abbey our efforts to avoid closing.
For more info call Mare at (508) 788-0906.
Plan to join us for some bodywork!
Roots and Wings
317 North Main Street
Natick, MA 01760-1115
(508) 315-8088
Oct 222011
Day Five 10/2 St. George’s Cathedral
St. George’s Cathedral was the parish of Archbishop Desmond Tutu until his recent retirement. We attended the liturgy in this beautiful cathedral where Tutu would celebrate his 80th birthday two days later.
Rev. Michael Weeder, a priest from Ghana, gave the homily speaking about his negative feelings towards the United States after 9/11. He found that this was his own personal struggle and needed to ask for forgiveness for his first reaction. Andrea and I spoke to him after the service and found him to be quite an interesting person and from here we walked the labyrinth.
City Tour
Wanting to find out more about this city we took a bus that allows you to get on and off at different locations. The driver pointed out various places of interest. District Six was the heart of the city where 60, 000 people lived until the 1968 apartheid mandate bulldozers came and destroyed all the homes. Now it remains with 85% covered with grass and weeds. Nothing has been built up until recently and slowly houses are being built. A nearby museum tells the story. Cape Town is home to people who speak 12 different languages and worship many different religions. Woodstock is the neighborhood market place with the famous castle nearby that has a history as a place of torture. The middle balcony of City Hall was the site of Mandela’s first speech after he was freed February 11, 1990. 20,000 people turned out to walk in a parade and hear his famous words promising peace, freedom and democracy for all. Moving on to Table Mountain you could see the other peaks; Lion’s Head and Signal Hill that sounds the cannon every day at noon that’s is part of a long tradition as a time signal for ships in the bay. Table Mountains has been nominated as one of the seven wonders of nature in the world. We traveled along the waterfront with plush apartments and clubs in the Camps Bay area. Also pointed out the hospital where the first heart transplant was successfully performed by Dr. Christian Barnard.
Global Summit Days Five – Eight, 10/2 – 10/6
Opening ceremony for GA Summit
The opening message was give by Sonja Kruse who walked around South Africa with R100 note in her pocket and a digital camera. Her journey was to prove to herself that the spirit of ubuntu indeed existed even in the poorest communities. She depended on people offering food and a place to spend the night. She found pleasure in sharing each day with the people she met and ended her journey just short of a year. An amazing young woman just like Peace Pilgrim.
Andrea LeBlanc, Ela Gandhi, and Dot
The following statement was written by Sarah Ancus who wrote this blog on the Peace and Collaborative Development Network and I thought gave a good idea of the mission of the conference:
The 5th Annual Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace Summit under the theme ‘Ubuntu in Action’, took place at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa.
Ubuntu, an idea popularized by Archbishop Desmond Tutu through the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, is based on a local Southern African conception of humanity, that we are only people through other people. This conceptualization makes it clear that a person does not exist in isolation, but rather forms part of an inter-connected community, which reciprocally impacts upon other communities for both good and bad. The philosophy encourages openness, generosity, compassion and mutual respect.
The summit proceedings certainly embodied this spirit, embracing a willingness to hold open and frank discussions in which all could take part, to learn lessons and grow in a spirit of sharing and sincerity. The Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments for Peace is an activist movement that originally aimed at lobbying for the establishment of Ministries or Departments of Peace within each country’s national government. Today, the Alliance still carries that aim, but has matured and realized the importance of local level infrastructures and participation in community peace-building, now taking a more holistic and multi-dimensional approach which fuses both aspects into their mission and work. It provides resources, information, encouragement, and support for existing and new national campaigns for Ministries and Departments of Peace as well as efforts to establish peace academies and other peace infrastructure elements in government and civil society.
The Summit was addressed on the morning of the 5th of October by Jean-Pierre Mfuni Mwanza. A native of DRC and student of peace at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, he pledged to return to the conflict-ridden Eastern DRC to carry out real peace-building work. Although he initially tried to lobby the national government for a national approach that incorporated a peace process from the centre, upon seeing the government’s reticence and disinterest, he went to work on the ground to establish local peace committees and peace trainings in conflict transformation in local villages affected by the conflict. Jean-Pierre told a moving story of one man who changed his mind about wanting to kill his wife who had been raped and was causing him shame. He said the man had come to see the futility of the violence he desired to inflict and Jean-Pierre said he felt all of his work was made worth-while by seeing the life which he helped save.
Another grassroots-level peacemaker from Virginia in the United States, Gerry Eitner, started her own grass-roots peace organization after becoming involved in the US-based movement for an American Department of Peace. Working along with supporters such as Congressman Kucinich, they made headway in the creation of a Peace Poll for the Pentagon Chapel, which was established in September 2002. Gerry came up with the idea of a Children’s Peace Quilt, through her organization Communities of Peace, which tied together pieces of cloth and materials from children from around the world, all envisioning a peaceful society in which they can grow and flourish. The quilt contains patches from the US, Gambia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe, among other countries. It was displayed, standing at over 1/3 mile long, at the US Capital, where over 100,000 people were in attendance. She continues to grow the quilt and work on other local projects to establish local Peace Forums and Inner Peace Programs in ten US communities as well as through international outreach in countries like Afghanistan, Costa Rica, Ethiopia and Kenya.
The conference spent time working on an understanding of the need for infrastructure and then working on getting to consensus with all conference participants. Before the closing event the group elected a Board and gave them the assignment of setting up an NGO from Switzerland. This is a very brief review of a most wonderful and informative conference. I was especially impressed with the number of young people who are connected to organizations working for peace in different places in the world. I will mention Oliver (Switzerland) and Luisa (a neurologist from Brazil) who met at Patch Adams’ Gezundheit. and now are committed to their work in peace education and the creation of a different kind of health care system.
Last Day
At the last day of the conference during the lunch break Andrea and I set up the statue and several pictures from the Peace Abbey for conference members to view. I checked with the people with the computers to make sure they had the power point ready and then went to meet Shaun Johnson and Tammy Lee. This was the closing ceremony for the conference.
(Read Dot’s remarks at the presentation ceremony here.)
Day One Leaving 9/28
Left Boston for Atlanta with the Courage of Conscience Award statue being cared for by airline stewards. At the Atlanta terminal I asked for Mandela’s new book “Conversations with Myself” At first the clerk said”no” and then ran after me to say if had just come in. Woman beside me from Ireland lived half year in S.Africa and loves it! From Atlanta to Johnnesburg the statue was watched over once again by airline staff. Conversations with the stewardess about capital punishment and the Troy Davis execution were interesting. She had visited Cape Town with her mother and found it the most beautiful place in the world. She borrowed the book to read the foreward by Obama and we talked a bit about our president and wondered what happened to him and the promises he made. We arrived in Johannesburg and were waiting for the plane to Cape Town when a young man we were talking with told us to call Mandela “ta ta Madiba.” This is what we call him. Then he touched the statue and gave it a blessing
Day Two 9/29 Arrival in Cape Town
Day Three 9/30 Meeting at the office of Healing of Memories in Claremont
Father Lapsley founder of the organization was out of the country so we met with Alphonse, a staff member. The organization was created after apartheid ended and the country moved towards healing and reconciliation. The funding comes from overseas although in 2010 the government funded 10% of the budget. Aids is still increasing and poses a huge problem. Also an influx of refugees from war torn countries ex. Congo, Rwanda, Somalia. There are no refugee camps so people live with friends and family and go to the townships. Another problem is crime, with 50 million adults and youth incarcerated. Father Lapsley created the model for the three-day workshop. Usually 20 people with five facilitators focusing on each person’s story with emphasis on feelings and the power of forgiveness. Participants are offered follow-up workshops and an ongoing support network.
Afterwards we visited the Mandela Rhodes Foundation to speak with Julia Brown who I had communicated with from the States. Quite an impressive building although Julia and the director Shaun Johnson were not in. It looks like Mandela will not be in Cape Town as he has not been feeling well and has even decided not to attend Tutu’s 80th birthday celebration. Whatever happens this will be an amazing opportunity to be in this country and to learn. The big news is that the Dalai Lama was refused a visa to enter the country for Tutu’s party.
Table Mountain
The late afternoon was spent at Table Mountain, the huge mountain range that hovers over Cape Town. It was designated as a National Park by Nelson Mandela in 1996 and is kept in perfect condition. We walked along observing the different views from the pathways and stayed until the sun went down catching the last cable car to the bottom. We were told that when the clouds come in and cover the mountain it looks like a table cloth.
Day Four 10/1 Robben Island
The ferry left from the waterfront with the sun shining and our spirits high. Although it was suggested that we bring the statue with us I decided a picture and the new Mandela book would be enough to carry. We went from the ferry to a bus with a guide who gave us the history of the prison.
The Dutch came here in 1650 and brought the first political prisoners from the colonies. After the Dutch left the British in 1840 turned the island into a leper colony and built a church and a hospital A cemetery still remains from this period. It closed in 1932 and during WWII the island became an army base.
Then in 1960 with apartheid the first political prisoners were brought here. They came barefoot, many without underwear and other clothing. They had to build the prison from the blue slate excavated from the quarries and the living conditions were brutal–prisoners suffered physical, mental and emotional torture. Not a single prisoner escaped alive as the land was too far away to swim to. The Dutch found a large population of indigenous seals on the island and named Robben Island after the seals.
After being tried for sabotage and given a life sentence Nelson Mandela was brought here In 1983 and spent 18 years of his sentence in isolation. Prisoners were allowed two visits per year behind a glass window and two letters that were read by officials before giving them out. The prisoners had to dig holes for toilets and spent days in the lime quarries leaving them with lung disease and damaged eyes. There was a small yard where the men would play tennis, soccer and chess. The remainder of Mandela’s incarceration was spent in other prisons until his release in 1990 and In 1994 he was elected the first democratic president of South Africa.
We were taken to Mandela’s cell and after the other visitors moved on I asked the guide if he would open the cell so that I could take a picture with the book and photo of the statue.
by Dan Schneider
Anyone walking through the main entryway of our occupation has to cross Dewey Square’s wide concrete tiles, skate around a few small discussion groups, pass the Logistics tent and walk right in front of a landmark of sorts. Standing against one of the poles used to support the main ‘Occupy Boston’ banner is a brown, 9 foot tall plastic replica of Mohandas Gandhi.
Gandhi believed in the fundamental right of people to determine their own destiny and advocated non-violent protest on a mass scale. His ideological relationship to our movement is clear. What isn’t clear is how the statue came to reside in our encampment.
The statue’s journey began at a peace center known as the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, MA. Though staffed by Quakers and adhering to many aspects of Quaker philosophy, those who run the center respect all faiths (or lack thereof) and are dedicated to nonviolence and social justice. Given its location and underlying philosophy, you wouldn’t expect either the Abbey to be a hotbed of political activity or the decisive steps its members took on October 28th, 2010.
It was a surprise to the employees of Goldman Sachs’ Boston office when a group of smiling Abbey members, several special needs children from the Life Experience School and a 9 foot likeness of an Indian civil rights leader appeared that day. The delegation had come to offer the statue as a gift, to be placed in the lobby as a reminder of greed’s corrosive impact on our world. When the statue was quickly rejected, the offering was turned into a symbol of protest as the group pushed it into the revolving doors and chained off the front of the main doors to the building.
By the day’s end, the demonstrators had returned to Sherborn and the replica statue Gandhi statue was stored for its next journey. It remained there until early October of this year, when Lewis Randa – the Abbey’s founder and director – heard that the mass occupation of Wall St. had spread to the Hub. With the involvement of Brandeis University intern, Esther Brandon, who drafted the email, he reached out to our then-loosely assembled group of protestors to have the statue brought to Dewey Square. After sending several emails with no reply, a member of the early Communications team’s interest was piqued by the subject line ‘The Abbey Wants to Protest With Gandhi’. A few days later, Lewis and two of his special needs students from the Life Experience School personally delivered the statue to Dewey Square, facing a group of occupiers with eyes wide like children on Christmas morning.
Since then, the statue has become an important landmark at Occupy Boston and serves as the meeting place for the SPP (Strategies, Proposals and Principles) working group. Everyone who walks into our camp, whether enraged protestor or curious tourist, has to stop and look up at the smiling, bespectacled face. And, perhaps, they also look down at the small sign displaying the simple phrase: “The world holds enough for everyone’s NEED, but not enough for everyone’s GREED”.
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