PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Local Candlelight Vigils for Peace
by Corey Ballantyne Sunday, Mar. 16, 2003 at 4:14 PM
cjbst57@pitt.edu (email address validated) 412 687 3996

From convents to a cocktail-drinking club, Pittsburgh area locales hold candlelight vigils for peace.

Gatherings in the Pittsburgh area will be among those around the world holding candlelight vigils this evening (March 16, 2003) in support of peace. Groups as varied as several area convents and monasteries, First Unitarian Church and the Friends Quaker Meeting House, Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails, which apparently is a drinking club with a chapter that meets in Polish Hill (http://www.lupec.org), and a few gatherings of people with no particular common affiliation are joining in this day of vigils called for by MoveOn.org and the Win Without War coalition.

Local vigil organizers Joann Pratt of the Society of Friends (also known as Quakers) and Rev. David Herndon of First Unitarian have each said that they expect approximately fifty people at their respective vigils. Online registrants (at http://www.moveon.org/vigil/ ) for the Friends vigil have since increased to over 80. Other vigils, such as one at Frick Park, may be as large, but organizers have not been located for comment.

The vigils began in New Zealand and have continued as evening falls in other countries. Pictures from vigils around the world become available at http://www.moveon.org/vigil/ as MoveOn receives them. These events demonstrate the possibilities of the Internet as MoveOn’s communication with its members is largely (if not exclusively) electronic. Pratt and Herndon reported having learned of the call for vigils directly from MoveOn. Herndon said that he had already been thinking about holding a peace vigil and that an email from MoveOn about the global event “prompted” him to hold the vigil this evening.

As a form of peaceful protest, the candlelight vigils attracted some who might be unlikely to participate in more “dramatic” protest activities, to use a word mentioned by Leonora Cayard of the Society of Friends. Two convents, when approached, seemed wary after I began by saying I was “writing an article.” A woman from the Sisters of St. Francis of Millvale who spoke with me this morning emphasized that their vigil would be peaceful, “somber,” and “not a rally.” When asked about organizers, she said that it was some global event but did not name any of the sisters. The telephone operator in the main office of the Sisters of Holy Family of Nazareth stated, and then emphatically repeated, that she could not help me. This occurred after she reported that the sisters responsible for the vigil at their retirement home and care center, Holy Family Manor, would not be available for comment because one of them had been hospitalized due to injury sustained by falling.

As for the nature of these convent vigils, whoever announced the Holy Family Manor event (at http://www.moveon.org/vigil/) wrote, “We cannot hold a vigil as such, but… our retired and sick sisters [will] pray the rosary and light vigils…. Please know we would like to be part of this important event and this is how we can contribute… our limitations and incapacities hinder us from going to places….”

Quakers often hold silent, legal, nonviolent protest vigils, said (married couple) Leonora and Wallace Cayard of the Friends “meeting,” or congregation, which meets at the Friends Meeting House at 4836 Ellsworth Ave. Quakers are known for pacifism, and this meeting has a committee devoted to “Peace and Social Concerns.” Miriam DeRiso and Joann Pratt were two organizers of tonight’s vigil at the Meeting House. Mr. and Mrs. Cayard both oppose “all wars” and first met at a peace-related activity about fifty years ago. To the question of whether the Quakers “shy away from civil disobedience,” Mr. Cayard responded that it is “hard to generalize” and that the older Quakers are more radical than the young nowadays. He said that Quakers consider all people children of God and prefer to “appeal to” the good in them rather than to attack.

Rev. Herndon said that Unitarian-Universalists (so-called after the 1961 merging of the Unitarian and Universalist churches) do not participate only in vigils but also in marches as they are able. Someone from First Unitarian counted 108 people marching from the church to a march through Oakland in January, he said. (Presumably this was the march on January 26 during the “Convergence.”) In 1991, the church held an evening “Prayers for Peace” service after fighting started in Kuwait. To summarize why UU’s are holding vigil against war tonight, Herndon said that UU’s are socially conscious and have always “affirmed the inherent worth and dignity of every human being…” and have “historically” believed in making the world better for everyone and in the “goodness of people.” He said, “We put our faith in peaceful solutions to conflicts whenever possible. At the present time, most of us here believe that diplomacy and inspections need to be given more opportunity….”

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