LOUISVILLE — Smack in the middle of Advent-waiting, members of Christian Peacemaking Teams (CPT) worldwide are waiting to see whether Islamic kidnappers holding four of their activists captive in Iraq will execute them tomorrow, as they have threatened.
Only hours away, it is a long wait.
Hopeful waiting Advent-style is standard CPT procedure: For human rights to be restored. For peace to come. For violence to be vanquished. For light to illuminate darkness. For the peaceable kingdom to come to earth as foretold by the prophets.
CPT’s critics call that naivete. Its supporters call it faithfulness.
But this is the hardest wait yet.
A reprieve was announced late Wednesday night after a previously unknown group that calls itself the “Swords of Justice” threatened to kill four CPT activists unless the Iraqi government releases all Iraqi prisoners and U.S. and British soldiers go home postponing an execution originally set for two days ago.
The CPT captives apparently taken at gunpoint during a car-jacking are Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Sooden, 32, American Tom Fox, 54, and Briton Norman Kember, 74.
“It is hard to speculate about what is going on, but we’re still hopeful,” said Chris Schweitzer, a member of CPT’s Colombia team who spoke from the organization’s Chicago offices about his missing colleagues. “When you think about waiting, the whole CPT project is about waiting. Waiting is what we do.
“We accompany people in rural Colombian villages and that’s been a 40-year war. We’ve been in Palestine for 10 years, waiting in a very long struggle that moves forward and then is again interrupted by tragedy … but we’re doing what we can and using non-violent methods,” he said. “But the larger process is slow.”
Baghdad team members long ago prepared a statement insisting that no violence be used to free them should a kidnapping occur.
The organization’s post-kidnapping statement was simple: It calls for an end to the occupation of Iraq and the war, and for every single individual to work toward bringing each combatant and every captive home to their families. Attaining peace and justice, it said, is beyond the reach of any single nation.
“We remain concerned about the well-being of our teammates Harmeet, James, Norman and Tom, and we ask for their release. We also remain concerned about the well-being of all Iraqis who are suffering under occupation,” it read.
CPT is asking people to wait vigilantly and prayerfully tomorrow, Dec. 10, which is International Human Rights Day. The organization is asking supporters to mark the day by advocating an end to the war, the U.S. occupation of Iraq and violations of human rights.
CPT’s Baghdad work focused on helping detainees and their families. The team documents human rights abuses against detainees and assists Iraqis who are trying to find imprisoned relatives.
In good Advent fashion, the organization is trying to wait with their theological purpose foremost: They want their colleagues released to resume their work. But they are also waiting for the day when there is no need for the work they do.
“It is hard. I don’t know what else to say … and very painful,” said William Payne, about waiting for news about his friend, Jim Loney, who, with Payne established Toronto’s Catholic Worker community in 1990.
Payne is staying permanently on call at the Toronto CPT office. “I’m staying busy … Jim Loney is a very dear friend that I’ve known for 20 years. So I’m staying busy doing what I can, which sometimes feels like not much,” he said, adding that his friend’s life has been one of prayer combined with peace and justice work.
“The outpouring of support that we as an organization and our four friends who are missing have received has been helpful. That’s helped me stayed focused on the light. And prayers. Everyone in CPT is praying a lot these days. More than usual for some of us,” Payne said. “We’re trying to see God’s grace in a very difficult moment.”
Some Islamic leaders have been particularly ardent in appealing for the captives’ release, as many of them are acquainted with and appreciative of CPT’s work in the occupied West Bank and in Baghdad.
Schweitzer keeps mulling over the lectionary text for Sunday. It is Isaiah 61: 1-4, in which the prophet describes the task of the anointed: To bring good tidings to the afflicted. To bind up the brokenhearted. To proclaim liberty to captives and release to prisoners.
“There are captives all over the world. At Guantanamo. Everyplace we (CPT)are there are folks who are … oppressed, working to break chains,” he said, pausing. “This season is just pregnant with those emotions and thoughts.”
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