Reclamation of the Elements:
Hiroshima/Nagasaki Memorial Service
For the final part of this liturgy-the blessing of each other and the land-you will need a large bowl of water and several palm leaves or branches from fir trees.
Desecration of the Elements
Opening Reading
Jeremiah 4:23-29
Litany of the Elements
Earth: Earth I am.
Fire: Fire I am.
Wind: Wind I am.
Water: Water I am.
Earth: I am the earth-ravaged and raped-barren, infertile, dying. Violated by humanity's hatred of humanity, a hatred of those who have a different vision.
Voice 1: Welfare parasite!
Voice 2: They're taking our jobs!
Voice 3: You're just a woman!
Voice 4: Illegal alien!
Earth: Words of violence, words of fear.
All: For this the earth shall mourn!
Earth: And now I lie pockmarked with craters, which run deep into the very core of my being, eternal stigmas bearing witness to your death machines. And millions of people lie dead, their life's breath extinguished. In Hiroshima, in Nagasaki, hundreds of thousands unable to be laid to rest in my bosom. I could not embrace them! My people, I longed to gather you to myself, to shield you, to protect you. But all that remained of your humanity was a black, charred mass.
All: The cities are forsaken. No one dwells in them.
Fire: I am fire, the fire that burned and mutilated those bodies! My flames, my tongues of red, orange and yellow leapt into the darkened sky, singeing whoever crossed my path. I cried out, "Stop the killing' Stop the killing!" I was not made for death. Use me for warmth, for cooking, for comfort and companionship, but let not my flames envelop the children. But my pleas were answered by silence and by a great explosion over the city of Hiroshima, and over the people of Nagasaki. I burned babies, my flames scorched mothers carrying babesseared old and young alike so that their faces were distorted and disfigured. Clouds of smoke drifted over the condemned city...
All: For thus says God, "The whole land shall be a desolation."
Wind: What of me, what of wind? I am no longer the one who brings gusts of cool air on a stifling hot day. I am the wind of destruction, rushing through lands, sweeping through towns, seeking death. I seek to kill. I blast people to their death, catapulting them into buildings of concrete, blowing them into houses of stone. I wreak havoc. I killed with a vengeance that day, those days and many days since. I am a hurricane of fatality! I bring a sentence of death to all who cross my path!
All: I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking and all the hills moved to and fro.
Water: I am water, pure, clear, running. I bring refreshment, revival, new Life, but have been desecrated by war and violence.
All: I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert.
Water: The earth has become a desert. The bomb does not need me. The Bomb does not need my rushing rivers and flowing streams to grow and be nurtured. The Bomb is fed by hatred, by malice. Where am I to go then? To the eyes of those who cry out in anguish and pain.
Voice 1: Save us, we are dying!
Water: Tears gushing from the eyes of the old who are abandoned, streaming from the eyes of people of color, from those who are poor and homeless, cries from those who lived, who live, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I, too, cry out-for new life, for birth. I pray that my streams will once again run in the desert.
All: I looked on the earth. It was waste and void, and to the heavens. They had no light.
Song
"God Save the People" (By Stephen Schwartz, c. 1971 The Herald Square Music Company
New Cadenza Music Corporation, Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation.)
Shared Thoughts and Prayers
Voice 2: Let us pause for a moment of silence and then please name people who have died and places that have been destroyed by the abuse of the elements.
(Moment of silence, naming of people and places.)
All: ("Song of the Cranes" by Children's Peace Opera, in Peace: A Dream Unfolding, ed. Penney Kome and Patrick Crean c. 1986, Somerville House Books Ltd.)
Forever and ever, forever and ever
We sing out, We cry out
All nature is one
Forever and ever, forever and ever
Peace on earth, peace on earth
This is our hope, this is our prayer
Peace on earth, peace on earth
This is our hope, this is our prayer
Reclamation of the Elements
Chant
"Earth I Am" (Can be chanted in any manner)
Earth I am. Fire I am. Wind and Water and Spirit I am.
Reading
Earth
(Excerpt from letter written by Chief Seattle to the president of the United States, 1854.)
Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing, and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap that courses through the trees carries the memories of the red people.
The white people's dead forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is the mother of the red people. We are part of the earth and it is part of us.
Reading
Fire
(Exodus 3:1-8 by Peter Ecliger)
In the 20th century people were tending to their business as usual. And in the middle of the century a raging fire appeared on the earth: first in Hiroshima, then Nagasaki, then the islands of the Pacific and continuing in the desert of Nevada. And some people asked, "Why is this fire raging on the earth? Will it consume us all?"
And the God of Creation appeared saying, "My people! My people!" And the people said, "Here we are"
The God of Creation said, "Take off your shoes. The earth you are on is a holy place. Now therefore, I am sending you to go to your soul and say 'Let my Creation live! Let my Creation live!"'
Reading
Wind
(Excerpt from letter written by Chief Seattle to the president of the United States, 1854)
The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of a pond and the smell of the wind itself, cleansed by a midday rain or scented with the pinon pine.
The air is precious to the red people, for all things share the same breath-the beast, the tree, the woman and the man they all share the same breath...The wind that gave our grandparents their first breath also receives their last sighs. And the wind must also give our children the spirit of life. And if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where even the white people can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadows flowers.
Reading
Water
(Isaiah 35:6-7)
Blessing of Each Other and the Land
Litany of the Spirit
Spirit: I am Spirit. I come to the earth in wind and fire and water. I come to renew the face of a tired and weary land. I come to bring hope to those whose hearts are heavy. I say to the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Voice 3: "Never again!"
Spirit: I say to the homeless people on the streets of our cities, to the immigrants from many countries, to people of all colors,
Voice 4: "Your voice has been heard!"
Spirit: And to the people of Northern Ireland, the Middle East, East Timor, Central America, the Nevada Test Site,
Voice 5: "Take heart, for I bring freedom, truth, and liberation!"
Spirit: I am Spirit, present in the elements, in the land which first belonged to our Native American can sisters and brothers, in the rushing wind and the raging fire, in clear, sparkling water. I breathe my life into all of nature. Let the desert bloom and the waters of life flow. And cry. Cry tears of joy. Cry freedom, cry truth, cry never again-and remember.
Voice 1: As a sign of our belief in the waters that will flow, as a sign of our belief in new life, in justice, peace and liberation, please come forward and bless yourselves, one another and the land by dipping the palm fronds into this font of water.
(All come forward to the font of water to participate in the blessing.)
Closing Poem
Song of the Cranes
All: Forever and ever, forever and ever
Forever and ever, forever and ever
Only tears of joy shall we cry
Forever and ever, forever and ever
The roots of trees grow deep, hold tight
For ever and ever, for ever and ever
We sing out, We cry out
All nature is one
Forever and ever, forever and ever
Peace on earth, peace on earth
This is our hope, this is our prayer
Peace on earth, peace on earth
This is our hope, this is our prayer
For ever and ever, for ever and ever
With faith and love we cannot fail
For ever and ever, for ever and ever
Truth is marching in
Forever and ever, forever and ever
Filled with love that comes from above
Forever and ever, forever and ever
Truth is marching in
(Created by Cindy Pile for August Desert Witness, 1989, a gathering sponsored by the Nevada Desert Experience each August at the Nevada Test Site.)
NOTE: Please feel free to use this prayer service as a resource for personal or community use. If used at an event, during a program, or reprinted in any manner, we ask that you credit Pax Christi USA with the following simple footnote: Reprinted with permission by Pax Christi USA. If photocopied in large quantities, please consider sending a donation to our "9-11 Fund for Peace: Hope in Time of Terrorism." This prayer is taken from Our Prayers Rise Like Incense: Liturgies for Peace, which is available in our online catalog
