MARIONS FOR PEACE FORUM TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24 - UN Day
The Reverend Gwin Pratt, co-founder of the Christian Alliance for Progress, a movement to reclaim Christianity and reform American politics, will be principal speaker when Marions for Peace sponsors a public forum on United Nations Day during which participants will explore our responsibilities as people of faith and as both Americans and members of the global community.
A panel discussion , moderated by Ervin Bullock who is with the national Presbyterian Peacemaking Program will follow. Also included will be Marion County’s Eugene Poole and Clare Hanrahan, author/activist now living in Asheville, North Carolina. The event begins at 7 p.m .at Ft. King Presbyterian Church which is located at 13 NE 36th Avenue in Ocala a few blocks south of East Silver Springs Boulevard (Route 40).
Rev. Pratt, who is minister at Lakeshore Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, was among religious leaders recently arrested during peaceful anti-war protests in Washington, D.C. His colleague, Rev. Tim Simpson has written that Gwin Pratt
“thunderously rendered the passage from Isaiah 2 in which the prophet tells of the day when the nations will "beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks," speaking with such passion that the officer in the middle of our circle trying to issue us a warning-- on a bullhorn no less--had to stop and wait for Gwin to finish before he could even be heard.”
Eugene Poole is president of the Florida Voters League, commander of American Legion Post 210, and vice chairman of Vets Helping Vets. He retired from the US Army as Command Sgt Major after 35 years and later became warden at the Lowell Women’s Correctional Facility. He was appointed by both Democratic and Republican governors to the Withlacoochie Regional Planning Council.
Clare Hanrahan is author of “Jailed for Justice, A Woman’s Guide to Federal Prison Camp” and “Conscience and Consequence, A Prison Memoir”, books written after her incarceration for six months for protesting against the US Army School of the Americas, a notorious counter-insurgency training school in Columbus, Georgia. Raised in Memphis, she was very much influenced by that city’s civil rights movement and her brothers’ service in Vietnam. Among this life long peace and justice activist’s many accomplishments is the founding of the ASAP Homeless Shelter in St. Petersburg which soon will celebrate its 20th year.
After the forum, refreshments will be served in the community room and
Ms. Hanrahan will be available to sign her books. For more information please visit www.ChristianAllianceforProgress.com, www.celticwordcraft.com, or contact Delphine Herbert at 873-9970 or MarionsforPeace@aol.com.
Marions for Peace Forum Tuesday, October 24 - UN Day
