SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES Thanksgiving 1983

When our children and their earth are threatened with annihilation

When millions starve now to feed death-bearing weapons

When politicians promise disarmament but fund more and more first strike weapons and deploy unverifiable weapons when soldiers and civilians are already dying in interventionist wars when other nations are violated:

· Canada by the testing and flight path of the airborne Cruise missile

· The Mediterranean by the threat of the Coniso-based Cruise missile

· Latin America and the whole world by the sea and air-launched Cruise missile

WE ACT IN OBEDIENCE TO THE PROPHETS

who call us, the people, to "beat swords into plowshares". We hammer these missiles which symbolize the deeper violence of national pride, greed and militarism and express the fear and insecurity deep within all of us.

WE ACT IN OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW OF LOVE:

that we reach out to our enemies with reconciliation, not death threats

that we break down the walls that divide nation from nation, people from people

that we share rather than dominate and control

that we follow the way of Christ in vulnerability and openness to love.

WE ACT IN THANKSGIVING FOR THE HOPE

that, in our vulnerability, we open ourselves to the creative love at the heart of our endangered earth

that we breathe together - conspire - in the life-giving breath of the Spirit who unites us with sisters and brothers - North and South, East and West

that, empowered by this love and truth-force, we surmount the walls that divide us from each other and blind us to the nuclear crematoria building around us

that with our bodies we set limits, say a definitive "NO" to an arms race that has broken all the moral limits - of conscience, international law, divine law

that with our bloo