In just a little less than three weeks the Pacific Life Community 2013 Faith & Resistance Retreat is coming to Puget Sound.
The retreat begins on Friday, March 1st and runs to Monday, March 4th. The retreat will be at the All Saints Camp on Raft Island, adjacent to Gig Harbor. It is a peaceful setting by the waters of Puget Sound. Our planning team is making all the arrangements for meals, audio visual needs, and more, so we can settle in for a full weekend of reflection, fellowship and planning for the hard work ahead.
You can register right up till the day of the retreat, although Joe Power-Drutis (who is coordinating registration and making sure there are enough beds and food for everyone) will certainly appreciate getting your registrations as soon as you can send them in. Click here to download the registration form.
PLC 2009 at the Bangor Trident submarine base |
In addition to the weekend retreat we have put together a free public event at the University of Puget Sound starting 7:00PM, Saturday evening, March 2nd. "A Nonviolent Future Without Nuclear Weapons?" promises to be a rich evening for anyone interested in this subject. Click here for all the details on this evening event - including bios of presenters, maps, and the flyer. Felice Cohen-Joppa, or The Nuclear Resister, will be the Master of Ceremonies for the event.
Click here to watch a short video that introduces you to four of the presenters for the Saturday evening event - Fr. Bill "Bix" Bichsel, Tacoma Catholic Worker; Capt. Tom Rogers, former nuclear submarine commander; Elizabeth Murray, former CIA analyst; and Michael Honey, UW Tacoma professor.
Early Monday morning, March 4th we will gather at one of the entrance gates to Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor for a vigil and nonviolent direct action. Bangor is home port to eight of the Navy's Trident ballistic missile submarines and also home to the Strategic Weapons Facility, Pacific. Together they represent the largest concentration of operational nuclear weapons in the U.S., and possibly anywhere in the world. Now is the time to question the need for not only a large nuclear arsenal, but also archaic Cold War nuclear weapons systems like Trident.
2012 PLC action at Vandenberg Air Force Base |
We welcome everyone who wishes to see the U.S. begin to make sincere efforts to move toward a nuclear weapons free world to join us Monday morning to stand vigil for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Bring your nonviolent spirit and we will provide signs and banners. Following the vigil and action we will gather at the nearby Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action (just a few minutes from the base) for breakfast and reflection.
We will continue to post (and update) information on all of these events at the Pacific Life Community Blog at http://pacificlifecommunity. wordpress.com/. This includes maps to each venue that you can plug in your starting address to get directions.
In closing this invitation, I extend another invitation - to watch a brief video of Fr. William "Bix" Bichsel reflecting on the deeper meaning of community and its relationship to our work building a nonviolent world. Click this link to watch: http://youtu.be/JNFJazCwZiw.
If you still have any questions about any part of the weekend, please get in touch with either Leonard Eiger or George Rodkey. If you have a question about your registration for the retreat, please email Joe Power-Drutis.
Please join us for one, two or all three of these events as we continue (together) on the journey of resistance to nuclear weapons and war making and towards a nonviolent world at peace with justice.
In Peace,
Leonard