Tenth Anniversary of 9-11

The tenth anniversary of the tragic events of September 11, 2001 will be a time of reflection, prayer, action and conversation throughout our nation. Pax Christi USA has created and collected resources for you to observe this anniversary through the lens of gospel nonviolence which is at the heart of who we are as an organization.

STATEMENTS

• Official Pax Christi USA Statement on the Tenth Anniversary of 9-11: The Things That Make for Peace
• Statement regarding the U.S.-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Declaration from the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers
• For our previous statements related to 9-11, click here

PAX CHRISTI USA’S MOMENTUM 2011 EVENT

On September 8, 2011, “Peace and Reconciliation: Spiritual Reflections a Decade after 9-11,” in Washington, D.C. With best-selling author and founder of Sojourners, Jim Wallis, and Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace 2011 Colleen Kelly. Click here for more information.

RESOURCES FROM THE PAX CHRISTI STORE

• Be Not Afraid: An Alternative to the War on Terror, by Tom Cordaro, Updated and reissued in 2010–with a new preface addressing the Obama Administration. In this challenging book, PCUSA Ambassador of Peace Tom Cordaro helps us first to understand terrorism in a historical context and to examine the story we are told we must believe after 9-11. This book invites us to overcome the narrative of fear in our country. It invites us instead to embrace a narrative of hope and to play an active role, as individuals and as members of a community, in reclaiming our U.S. story from those who would seek to delete it.
• Prayer Cards: Our selection includes “Jesus, Our Tortured Brother Today,” by Sr. Dianna Ortiz, OSU; and the “Muslim, Jewish, Christian Prayer for Peace.”

SPEAKING TOUR OPPORTUNITY

Tom Cordaro  is the author of Be Not Afraid: An Alternative to the War on Terror, which was named “Best Book by a Small Publisher” by the Catholic Press Association and the “Peacemaker of the Year” award from the Independent Publishers. He is a Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace, former National Council Chairperson and member of the PCUSA National Staff, and a long-time peace activist.

During this tenth anniversary year of 9-11, Cordaro will be speaking at events around the nation offering an assessment of the ten years of the war on terror which followed 9-11 and how we might chart an alternative way forward. Programs include the following 40-50 minute presentations:

• “Be Not Afraid: An Alternative to the War on Terror.” In this presentation Tom talks about how our response to the 9-11 terrorist attacks was shaped; how the shaping of our response drove us further into fear and into counterproductive actions; and how we might create an alternative response to the terrorist threat that can be both effective and truer to the values and principles on which our nation was founded. Tom also explores two very different understandings of peace that exist within our national story–Peace as Enforced Order and Peace as an Enterprise of Justice–and makes the case that we cannot hope to overcome the threat of terrorism until we make a concerted effort to embrace one over the other.
• “Living Unafraid: A Spiritual Path to Freedom.” This presentation focuses on how we as individuals working in community can begin to live unafraid and participate in creating an alternative American narrative that can move us from Peace as Enforced Order to Peace as an Enterprise of Justice. This presentation focuses on a spiritual discipline that calls us to move from a life centered on acquisition to one grounded in mindfulness. It describes a spiritual path marked by compassion, solidarity, humility and freedom.
• “The Obama Administration: Cause for Hope or More of the Same?” This presentation evaluates the Obama Administration in terms of the alternative to the “War on Terror” described in Tom’s book. It also looks at the rise of the politics of fear represented in the far right.
• “Redemptive Violence or Redemptive Suffering: Which is the True Path to Peace?” This talk makes use of Walter Wink’s work on Jesus’ Third Way and also examines how the narrative of the dominant culture predisposes us to respond to threats through the use of violence. The presentation concludes by examining the Gospel narrative as an alternative model for responding to threats.
• “Community: Resisting the Dominant Narrative While Embodying an Alternative,” This talk focuses on the importance of community in overcoming the power of the dominant narrative of rugged individualism and consumerism.  In order to live unafraid in an age of fear, we need to be grounded in a vision of community that supports our efforts to cross boundaries and redefine the meaning of freedom.
  

Anyone wishing to contact the author to do one of these presentations or to speak on other topics can contact him at tomcordaro@juno.com. Tom’s book is offered on our website. Discounts are available for your event sales.  Feel free to contact Lori at lori@paxchristiusa.org to discuss these options further.

RESOURCES FOR OBSERVING THE 9-11 ANNIVERSARY

• Peaceweavings: Ten Years After 9/11, the Last Word is LOVE, by Colleen Kelly
• Peaceweavings: Embracing Our Principles instead of Our Fears, by Ron Cruz
• Peaceweavings: Living Unafraid – A Spiritual Path to Freedom, by Tom Cordaro
• From September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
• Worship and prayer resources from the National Religious Campaign Against Torture
• From the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
• From the Groundswell Movement, a multifaith social justice initiative, currently focused on the tenth anniversary of Sept. 11th
• The 9/11 Unity Walk
• Prayer services from Pax Christi member Kathy Schmitt
• Memorial Prayer Service for 9/11 Anniversary (uncredited: I cannot find who sent this to me! If you’re the one, let me know and I will credit you! Sorry!)
• A Litany of Remembrance, Penitence and Hope from the National Council of Churches

FIND A 9-11 ANNIVERSARY NEAR YOU

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