The Queen's Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education
Committee for Prophetic Ministry
Lamentation for the Iraq War
A report on a prophetic ministry action undertaken by staff and students in the Queen’s Foundation
Introduction
Early in 2008 Pax Christi, supported by the Network of Christian Peace Organisations invited churches to recognise the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war by holding public ceremonies on the previous day.
The supporting organisations were:
Network of Christian Peace Organisations -
Anglican Pacifist Fellowship, Baptist Peace Fellowship, Clergy Against Nuclear Arms, Christian CND, CAAT Christian Network, Christian Peacemaker Teams, Church & Peace, Congregational Peace Fellowship, London Mennonite Centre, Methodist Peace Fellowship, Quaker Peace & Social Witness, United Reformed Church Peace Fellowship.
A call for remembrance, prayer and action on 19th March 2008: We lament and mourn with the people of Iraq.
Thus says the Lord: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping bitterly: it is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.’ Jer 31:15. ‘We were hoping for peace – no good came of it! For the moment of cure – nothing but terror!’ Jer 14:19.
Planning and preparation
This call was considered by the Committee for Prophetic Ministry which had been established in the Foundation early in the spring term. The references to Jeremiah suggested that our participation might take the form of a public lamentation. Behind this lay the thought that our society seems to have lost the capacity to lament its losses and tragedies. Even on the day of remembrance in November the general attitude is one of memorial for the sacrifice of those who died rather than lamentation. Perhaps the nearest we have come in recent years was the public grief over the death of Princess Diana in 1997. We began to feel that the sharpness of the horror of the daily deaths announced from Iraq together with the biblical tradition of lamentationwould provide a rationale for an appropriate public ceremony.
The police were informed of our intention, and we were directed to the City Centre Management Team and early in March completed an application for use of Chamberlain Square on 19March. Although our application did not give the management team the normal period of notice, the officers were supportive. Chamberlain Square lies in the heart of Birmingham city. It is a pedestrianised area lying between the Town Hall, the City Council and Art Gallery, and the Municipal Library. Its centre piece is a fountain and we decided to mount our event beside the fountain.
The committee decided to call out the names of members of the British Armed forces killed in the war and to parallel these with the names of some Iraqi dead. The names would be read in groups of three, three British then three Iraqi, and a large drum would be struck once. Passages from the biblical book The Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiahwould be read after each cycle of names. Thus there would be four people on the dais at any one time; the reader, the drummer, and one to call out British names with another to call out Iraqi names. Red liturgical cassocks were lent from The Old Church Edgbaston and these were worn by those who moved on and off the dais during the ceremony. We would make use of the ancient ceremony of ashing now normally only used in churches on Ash Wednesday at the start of Lent. Ash from Palm tree crosses would be prepared in a number of small bowls to mark our foreheads and passers-by would be invited to do the same.
We decided to have no prayers or music and to make no political comment directly on the rights and wrongs of the war itself. We did not feel it was appropriate for us to say whether these lives had been wasted or not; we had no doubt that whatever the circumstances or the causes, we should lament them. We had explained to the city that our action was religious not political.
The Foundation agreed to purchase three A-boards which we decided to stand around our group so they could be read by passers-by. These would read “Marking the Anniversary of the Iraq War, Mourning the dead: Reading the names of soldiers and Iraqis killed in conflicts in Iraq, Reading the Bible from the Book of
Lamentations, Staff and students training for ministry in Anglican, Methodist, and United Reformed Church”. We borrowed the stage blocks from the Catholic Chaplaincy, Newman House. One of our number carefully edited the verses from the Lamentations.
An invitation was extended to all students who were on campus on Wednesday 19th to take part in the action, provided they had no afternoon lectures. A rehearsal took place the day before the event on our own campus beside the Queen’s Cross, when we considered the pace of the various elements of the liturgy. We decided not to use any form of amplification but to rely upon the natural voice because we were not advertising anything; this was not a promotion of Christian faith; we were not there to evangelise.
The Event
Wednesday 19th March was a cold crisp but sunny early spring day in Birmingham. The advance party collected the stage blocks the drum and other equipment and by midday everything was in position. About 12:30 students and staff began arriving and the ceremony began at 1 o’clock. The drum was struck six times as a prelude and then without any comment or explanation we went straight into the rite which lasted for about an hour and a quarter. At 2:15 the ceremony concluded with the reader on the dais saying, “May they rest in peace and may light perpetual shine upon them.”
Reactions
About thirty staff and students took part in this event. One lecturer had brought her entire class with her. The atmosphere quickly impressed itself upon activity in the square and passers-by, often pausing for several minutes quickly realised what was taking place. Conversation was often hushed and many stopped to make comments or ask questions. A few received the ashing including a young woman from Dublin who had missed the Ash Wednesday ceremony and asked to be ashed instead. A young Iraqi man was moved to observe that the Iraqi dead were lamented along with the British. A mother with a toddler answered her child’s question by saying, “They are showing how sorry they are for all the people killed in Iraq.” The child replied, “I’m sorry too.” A man from the crowd asked the surprising question, “Was Mary a prostitute then?” He was referring to a T.V. program on the last days of Jesus which had recently been broadcast. The local press were present and interviews were given twice: first to a reporter then to a cameraman who was preparing a short item for the Birmingham Mail website. A Muslim teenager stopped for an hour to talk to members of the Foundation discussing wide ranging issues including the invasion of Iraq and conspiracy theories surrounding the planes that crashed into the Twin Towers. Several of our group were asked for copies of the bible or the gospels and one student remarked that we could have distributed any number of these had we thought of it.
Reflections
There was a general feeling we had taken scripture and liturgy from the place they normally occupy, the sanctuary, and put them in a very public place. We felt that the municipal authorities sympathised with our ceremony and understood it as a respect paid to the Iraq dead. It had been a challenging and generally constructive experience for staff and students and it opened up a potential space for further actions of protest and witness. We are planning to extend the lamentation ritual by basing it on the words of Jesus when he wept over Jerusalem, and to create a more extended ceremony at the Atomic Weapons Establishment near Aldermaston on 17th October.
Press Release
The following press release had been circulated to various Christian and other news outlets:
Lamentation for Iraq
Chamberlain Square, Birmingham City Centre, Wednesday 19th March 2008, 1pm
Marking the 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, students from Queen’s Theological College, Edgbaston will stage a lamentation for the dead on Wednesday 19th March 2008. Dressed in red, participants will mourn the dead by name, both Iraqi and British, civilian and soldier. Members of city churches, people of other faiths and all of ‘good faith’ are invited to attend and participate.
The mourners will assemble in Chamberlain Square at 1pm to read passages from the biblical book of Lamentations to the beat of a large drum, alternating with names of service personnel and Iraqi people killed in the war. Members of the public will be invited to join in by putting ash on their foreheads in the tradition of Ash Wednesday mourning.
Bishop Dr Joe Aldred, Chair of the Council of Black-led Churches said, “The loss of life caused by conflicts between nations and peoples is a tragedy in so many ways. I fully support this lamentation, and mourn with families British, Iraqi and those from other nations who have lost their loved ones.”
The event takes place during Holy Week, when Christians remember Jesus’ suffering and execution. It is a response to a call by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which represents various church denominations in the UK and USA, to mark the suffering of the people of Iraq.
News Items Appeared in The Birmingham Postand the Methodist Recorder:
Extracts from Birmingham Evening Mail 20th March 2008 “Red to mark ‘lamentation’”
‘The only sound of a solitary drum was heard above the bustle of shoppers in the heart of Birmingham as people staged a “lamentation” to remember the thousands of civilians and soldiers who have died since the Iraqi conflict began five years ago. The sombre event was organised by students at Queen’s Theological College’.
‘John Hull, Professor of Practical Theology at the Edgbaston college, … said … “The Book of Lamentations contains a series of lamentationsabout the destruction of Jerusalem. In this context we substitute the city of Baghdad.” ’
‘Rev. Richard Tetlow, Vicar of St John’s Church, Ladywood, said: “This is an essential reminder of the pain and suffering we can inflict on our fellow human beings.”’
Note: This report from the Committee for Prophetic Ministry was presented to the Core Foundation Staff Group of the Foundation on 13 May 2008.
John M. Hull, Chair.
Photos by Phil Jackson
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