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Very soon now the light shall die.
The Great World will be rent—
ashes, sobbing seraphim, calves
born with crabbed feet. Rain
then the absence of rain.
Wild thunder pounds in my head.
A new report shows that the current economic boom is not finding its way to the collection plate.
I didn’t follow the holy man around
I never sat down to a meal with him
Loving him began this way: water
poured into emptiness
the bowl filling
The U.S. prison population passed the two million mark in February, provoking vigils and protests in more than 40 U.S. cities.
If Tennessee Ernie Ford were to sing his blue-collar anthem "Sixteen Tons and What Do You Get?" to the residents of the coal fields of Kentucky and West Virginia, they would answer: property damage, dried up wells, respiratory illness, and explosions 100 times more powerful than the Oklahoma City bombing.
The latest technique in strip mining—mountaintop removal—involves detonating explosives to blow apart the top 1,000 acres of a mountain and using a dragline (a mammoth bulldozer) to dig away the soil and reveal seams of coal. The excess dirt is then deposited in valley fills, mountain streams that support the regional ecosystems as well as providing area residents with a source of water.
This is the latest of the ongoing battles for economic survival in the mountain communities of central Appalachia. In the last 40 years, the number of coal-industry jobs in coal-rich states such as West Virginia has dropped from 138,000 to 16,000, while the amount of coal mined annually is the highest ever. With the steady decline in jobs and the increase in the threat to the visual legacy of the mountains, citizens are fighting to take back their mountains—and their futures.
In Harlan County, Kentucky, citizens organized a local chapter of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC) to stop mountaintop removal. Robert Gipe, an organizer with KFTC, said the group asked themselves what the pivotal issue was. "We found a strategy that gives citizens something to do," Gipe said. They drafted a "Lands Unsuitable for Mining" petition to declare Black Mountain a public land trust. By focusing their efforts around protecting the state’s highest peak, the group was able to draw greater public attention to the extent of mountaintop removal in eastern Kentucky.
To his disciples, Jesus simply said, "follow me." That was an invitation, not a requirement, because an invitation respects the freedom of the invitee to accept or decline. An invitation was extended to the country to come to "Poor No More," the fourth annual National Summit on the Churches and Poverty.
In response to the invitation, more than 550 pastors, lay people, service-providing ministries, community development organizations, and representatives of human services departments gathered at National City Christian Church and the historic Luther Place Memorial Church in Washington, D.C., for three days of worship, prayer, reflection, learning, and sharing.
Conference participants heard powerful messages of hope and determination, from the first evening's opening service led by Harvard University's William Julius Wilson and Rev. James Forbes, Senior Pastor at Riverside Church in New York, to the closing sermons on the conference's last day by Rev. Wallace Charles Smith of Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., Noel Castellanos of the La Villita Community Church in Chicago, and Mary Nelson of Chicago's Bethel New Life. Rev. Skip Long, national director of Jobs Partnership, blessed our souls with a creative spin on the Good Samaritan story titled "The Measure of Your Mercy."
Conference goers were also blessed with the joyful noise of song. The opening ceremony had music by Washington, D.C.'s Shiloh Baptist Church Youth Choir and by Darren Ferguson, of Exodus Transitional Community in the Bronx, who was observing the first anniversary of his ordination. Ferguson lifted us up throughout the summit with traditional music, some of which he composed. The trio Divine Blessings (which consists of Rev. Donna Sandiford, Roberta Blair, and Sojourners own Rachel Spaght) blessed us for yet another year with their harmony and interpretation of God's word through their music. Throughout the three days, Ken Medema-utilizing styles from classical to rock and ballads to blues-thoroughly engaged and inspired his audiences. The conference closed with two very strong and stirring renditions from the Call to Renewal "Poor No More" conference choir, which was directed by Sandiford in its first-and only appearance.
While the U.S.-backed sanctions against Iraq continue to devastate that country, a growing clamor of voices is rising up in opposition
Defying the assumption that Serbs and ethnic Albanians are incapable of peaceful coexistence, leaders of the religious communities of Kosovo issued a common statement for reconciliation.
Two Guatemalan military officers have been arrested and charged with the April 1998 murder of Catholic bishop and human rights advocate Juan Jose Gerardi.