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Bogota/Hebron/Ottawa/Chiapas/Downer's Grove: CPT and supporters begin Lent with vigils, fasts and celebrations.

Continuing a CPT tradition that has held the season of Lent up as a time to reflect on and challenge injustice and violence, Christian Peacemaker Teams and their supporters all over the world observed the beginning of Lent in a variety of ways.

In Bogota, Colombia, where CPT has been invited by the Colombian Mennonite Church to explore possibilities of setting up a project, members of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) and Witness for Peace (WfP) held a one-hour vigil outside the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, as employees were arriving for work on February 26. The vigil was a recognition of US complicity in the violence and injustice of Colombia. It included an invitation to embassy personnel to stop carrying out the orders that result in violence and injustice.

Participants carried posters, saying, "Eradicate addiction, not campesinos" and "Weapons don't end violence."

As the group of eight were completing the prayer time on their knees, a local security guard asked about the songs sung in Spanish and expressed interest in what was happening. This is the first of a series of vigils that will be held each Monday during Lent from 7:30 to 8:30AM.

In Chiapas, participants in CPT's February 19-March 3 Chiapas delegation organized an Ash Wednesday public action focusing on the economic injustice of falling coffee prices for local growers. CPT delegates traveled to a Nestlé plant in Chiapa de Corzo, about an hour from San Cristobal, and offered a service of prayer, song, challenge and repentance.

Nestlé, a transnational corporation, has been given permission to import coffee at low prices and this threat has caused the price of coffee grown by local Mexican farmers to plummet. The falling prices of locally grown coffee threaten the way of life and culture for many indigenous subsistence farmers in Chiapas.

"Our nonviolent public witness grew out of our visits to the indigenous communities," CPT reservist and delegation member Matthew Bailey-Dick of Waterloo, ON, explained. "We listened to peoples' stories about violence, poverty, and injustice, and we were compelled to respond. Since CPT has already done a lot of work on the role of the military in Chiapas, we decided that it would be appropriate to name economic violence as another root of the ongoing conflict."

In Downer's Grove, IL, hundreds of members of CPTer Scott Kerr's United Methodist Church committed themselves to giving up one meal a day during Lent and sending the money saved to CPT. The congregation hopes to raise 5,000 dollars for CPT by Easter.

From the West Bank City of Hebron, CPTer Dianne Roe writes, "I have decided to fast during this Lenten season, liquid only. I will break my fast only when there are both Israeli Jews and Palestinians from the Hebron District present at the table sharing the meal. At least one other member of the team (Rick Polhemus) is joining in a similar fast. Other team members are either doing a Ramadan type fast, or have said they will support Rick and me during our fast.

"I feel a deep sense of privilege to be here in the land three major religions call Holy during this Lenten season. It is with awe and wonder that I accept gracious invitations from both Palestinians and Israelis to share meals and overnights. I regret, however, that during these last few months of intifada, the breakdown of trust between Israelis and Palestinians has been almost insurmountable, especially in the Hebron area. In addition, road blocks, check points, terrorism, curfews, sieges, army tanks, clashes, and closures have made movement impossible for the Palestinians, and risky for the Israelis.

"Peacemaking, however, is about taking risks and crossing borders. The trust has been built in the past because of courageous acts of Israelis and Palestinians. We are also asking friends at home to join in some part of the fast, and a big part of the feast."

In Ottawa, Ontario, CPT-Canada and friends gathered on Ash Wednesday to pray for an end to Canada's violence against Mi'kmaq lobster fishers. (See February 27 release Ash Wednesday Vigil to highlight abuses of human rights in Esgenoopetitj.") The media did not show up for either the noon vigil (held outside in -20 degree centigrade weather) or the 10:30 a.m. news conference in the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. However the participants found out later that the news conference was broadcast in the offices of Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO.) DFO officers have been responsible for most of the human rights abuses that members of CPT Canada presented in their report. Participants were also able to distribute all 1,000 fliers they had printed, due in a large part to the efforts of CPTer Jim Loney, who came dressed up as "Lennie the Lobster."

In Vieques, Puerto Rico, church, environmental and political activists who have conducted mass nonviolent resistance for years against U.S. Navy bombing there celebrated as the Navy announced it would not resume bombing until data on health risks to residents had been evaluated. CPT has sent several delegations to Vieques to support these activists in the last couple years. Staff at the Chicago office were in the process of getting together an emergency delegation to go to Vieques the first week in March, when the bombing was scheduled to resume. They are also celebrating.