CPTnet
January 13, 2005

IRAQ INVITATION TO PRAYER AND FASTING: January 18, 2005, "Rachel weeping for
her children"

CPT in Iraq invites you to join with us every Tuesday for a day of prayer
and fasting that will continue until Easter week. At 9am Eastern Standard
Time (1400GMT) on Tuesdays the team will gather for an hour of focused
prayer. You are invited to participate as you are led either by joining us
in fasting (the team will do a bread and water fast) and/or participating
with us a time of joint prayer -- Additionally we will provide an action
step(s) connected with the sacred passage that will be the focus for our
time of prayer together. If you are so led, the CPT Iraq team asks that you
participate in the suggested action between Tuesday and Thursday so we can
be working together. We also created a web page where people can post
reflections that occur during their time of prayer. You will find a link to
the website at the end of the release.

Tuesday, January 18, 2004
"Rachel weeping for her children"

"Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was in a
furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children of Bethlehem and
in all that region who were two years old and under, according to the time
which he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was
spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
            " "A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they
are no more."

Matthew 2: 16 - 18 carries the pain of this season. There is the joy and
celebration of the birth of Emmanuel, but the season also encompasses exile
and sorrow. Last week the day of prayer focused on exile. Today the
scripture carries the reader into the sorrow.

This region of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers may hold the birth site of
human history, but today it tells a tale of sorrow. Iraq is a country
ravaged by war. In war, the women carry much of the pain. The fighters
from both sides hold women hostage. The U.S. forces have a women's prison
in Erbil. Some of the U.S. forces are women who carry the trauma of war.
But more broadly, women are the mothers, wives, and children of those who
go off to war. They are the ones left to weep when fighters die in the
conflict.

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Women's Will is an Iraqi human rights organization. The group has tried to
get permission from the U.S. and interim Iraqi authorities to hold a vigil
to express the pain of women on all sides of this conflict. The authorties
have refused to grant their request. They ask you to do this vigil on their
behalf.

Suggested Actions:

Be a stand-in for Women's Will.
1) Gather women in your community for a public vigil to demonstrate the
pain that mothers, wives, and children of Iraqi civilians, Iraqi resistance
fighters, and U.S. soldiers carry because of this ongoing conflict.

2) Preach a sermon or write a letter to the editor of your local paper
sharing the pain of women as a plea for an end to this conflict that damages
and destroys everyone, especially the women, in this world.

Website for posting now available: CPT in Iraq has begun a web log found at
http://prayerandactionforiraq.blogspot.com. We encourage you to post any
insights that may have come to your during your times of prayer and action,
so that we may encourage each other's spiritual growth.

To post a comment on our web log, follow these steps:
1) Scroll down to the bottom of the posting you wish to comment on.
2) Click on the place that shows the number of comments made on the
posting. 3) Scroll to the bottom of that page and click where is says,
"Post a comment."