Genocide prevention – interfaith ritual

My compadre Brandon has asked that this notice be distributed as widely as possible; I’m happy to help out. I know April is a couple of weeks away, but hopefully with early notice as many people as possible will be able to participate.

THE GENOCIDE PREVENTION RITUAL (April, all month long)

April has the unfortunate privilege of having no less than six dates associated with historical atrocities, so it has been declared Genocide Prevention Month. Events are happening worldwide. So the group Polytheist Charity is organizing a Genocide Prevention Ritual. This is an interfaith event consisting of numerous rituals happening worldwide throughout the month of April. The ritual itself is quite simple, and can be incorporated into various worship styles, such as libations.

It can be done in a group or alone. There are three phases:

1. Time to remember – an opportunity to remember tragedies past and those lost.

2. Time to awaken – an opportunity to bring attention to current areas of concern for atrocities happening right now.

3. Time to act – a symbolic act: an arrangement of flowers–all of one kind–are displayed and then ritually cut down to represent the wholesale slaughter of a people. This is followed by a moment of silence and a commitment to never allow this to happen again.

A crucial 4th step is making intentions concrete. We hope to do this by raising awareness and providing opportunities to donate to worthy charities. We also have a top ten list of things you can do right now to prevent genocide (donating is ony one!). The ritual will be performed at the ADF Trillium festival in Virginia. We’re hoping to get numerous other groups and solitaries participating as well, including Hellenic recons, pantheists, Unitarian Universalists, ADF Druids, and more. So if you’re interested, please check out the web site. It has everything you’ll need to get started.

Brandon in Japan