Palm Sunday Peace Activists Walk Church to Church (Des Moines)

 By Michael Gillespie, reprinted with permission, first published 4/12/22 (Editor's Note:  Pictures are attributed to IPN, separate from Gillespie. Adding these to this article was with permission of author.)

About 125 Iowa peace and social justice activists remembered Jesus’s commitment to nonviolence and social justice on April 10, walking with banners and palm fronds behind two donkeys.  The annual Palm Sunday Procession for Peace sponsored by the Des Moines Faith Committee for Peace began at the Des Moines Intentional Eucharistic Community (DMIEC) and concluded with a worship service at Grace United Methodist Church.

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The Rt. Rev. Elizabeth Monnot, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa, said the invitation to process and to speak at the worship service likely came about as a result of her previous work regarding a letter that became an op-ed in the Des Moines Register about federal legislation that would guarantee civil rights for LGBTQ+ folks.

“Peace and love is the way of Jesus.  Not violence.  Jesus demonstrated that throughout his life and ministry and especially in the last week of his life, and especially in his death.  He intentionally did not use violence to defend himself.  This path of sacrifice is not necessarily fun, but it is what Jesus calls us to,” said Bishop Monnot as the group was gathering in the DMIEC parking lot.

                                                                        

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Kathleen McQuillen who works with Catholic Peace Ministry said she liked a message she had heard that morning from Pastor Edgar Solis of First United Methodist Church of Des Moines.

“I was really pleased to be in church this morning and hear my pastor say it’s not up to us to choose sides.  It’s up to us to heal.  It’s up to us to be peacemakers.  I think that’s what our role has to be.  It’s hard to do, but that is our role,” said McQuillen.

At a time when there are some 16 active wars going on around the globe, peacemaking and witnessing for peace are especially important, said McQuillen.

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 Amgad Beblawi, Mission Executive representing the Presbyteries of Prospect Hill, Des Moines, and North Central Iowa, said that when he got the invitation to read the scriptures for the service, “I knew that this was where I belonged.  This is fantastic!  We definitely need to pray for peace today, and not just in the Middle East.”

 Beblawi explained that he had only recently returned from a trip to the Holy Land where he and 18 others had visited the Galilee area, Jericho, Hebron, Jerusalem, and stayed in the Bethlehem area for eight days.  We visited the Biblical sites, but we also met with a lot of people and learned a lot about life in occupied Palestine, said Beblawi.

 Nicola Bowler, who grew up in England, is now the Acting Dean at the Episcopal Cathedral Church of St. Paul.  Bowler said Palm Sunday was particularly meaningful for her this year because of the conflict in Ukraine.  Processing for peace is a way of publicly expressing hope that peace can prevail, said Bowler.

 “I am deeply grateful for the Christian gospel where we do have the hope of making a difference,” said Bowler.

 Angela Koch, representing First Unitarian Church, said it was the conflict in Ukraine and the turmoil in the world brought her to the peace procession.

 “The best way to resolve any conflict is to bring people together,” said Koch.

 Al Chase also mentioned the conflict in Ukraine.

 “Anything I can do to try and bring peace in Ukraine, this is what little I can do,” said Chase.

 Russell Melby of Bethesda Lutheran Church in Ames, a former Iowa Regional director for Church World Service/CROP Hunger Walk, recalled that he had been involved in the annual peace procession from its early days at Plymouth Congregational Church in Des Moines.

“It seemed to me then as it does now appropriate and necessary for people who are peacemakers to gather and to witness, albeit symbolically, to what it is we are for, which is to say peace and not war,” said Melby.

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 The annual Palm Sunday procession and worship service were co-sponsored by some 50 central Iowa churches, religious organizations, and other antiwar, peace, and social justice organizations.  The Des Moines Police Department provided escort security for the procession.

Michael Gillespie wrote regularly for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs for some 20 years after completing his journalism studies at Iowa State University's Greenlee School of Journalism and Mass Communication.  He served for several years on the Ames Interfaith Council.  He lives and works in central Iowa where he is currently working on a book project.