Baltimore Clergy Arrested During Peaceful Anti-War Rally in Washington, D.C.
9/27/06
J. Kominski for
the Presbytery of Baltimore
On Tuesday, September 26th, Rev. Andrew Foster Connors and Rev. Roger Powers, along with other clergy and lay people from the Presbytery of Baltimore and Rick Ufford-Chase, former moderator of the PC(USA) and Director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, attended a rally in Washington, D.C. in protest of the Iraq War. The interfaith rally was a part of the Declaration of Peace Week of Action, organized by the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance to the War in Iraq (NCNR). The explanatory document for the week's events, the Declaration of Peace, calls "for an end to the U.S. war of military occupation and for the setting of an early date for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq". Foster Connors, Powers, and Ufford-Chase were arrested along with 68 people from a variety of faiths and denominations for civil disobedience. Foster Connors, Powers, Ufford-Chase and others took this action out of a heartfelt conviction that as Christians we must do everything we can to work for peace in this world. All three Presbyterians were released by 7:00pm with court dates set for after Thanksgiving. Their arrests will be subject to $50 fines. Rev. Andrew Foster Connors is the pastor of Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church in Bolton Hill and Rev. Roger Powers is the pastor of Light Street Presbyterian Church in Federal Hill and Associate Pastor of First and Franklin Street Presbyterian Church in Baltimore.
Read more about the day's events in articles from:
the Baltimore Sun
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.clergy27sep27,0,2593888.story
the Presbyterian News Service
http://www.presbyterianchurch.org/pcnews/2006/06489.htm
CNN.com
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/09/26/dc.protests/index.html
and from the Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092601359_pf.html
See photos from the day at: