West Seattle Holidays: Multifaith “Christmas Eve Truce” event

We’ve got several updates this morning about Christmas-week events at West Seattle-area churches. This one in Highland Park is the most unusual we’ve heard yet. Here’s the full announcement:

CHRISTMAS EVE EVENT REMEMBERS WORLD WAR ONE CHRISTMAS TRUCE

On Christmas Eve, 1914, between the muddy trenches along the Western Front, the armies of World War I spontaneously stopped fighting. They came out of their trenches and met each other in No Man’s Land as unlikely friends.

This Christmas Eve celebrate the 95th anniversary of the incredible “Christmas Truce.” In an inter-faith and non-sectarian event, hear the story in letters, drama and song. See images from the period and the truce. Share the hope of peace in the most unlikely of places.

Featuring performances by The Seattle Labor Chorus, Seattle-area singer Dan Roberts, Raging Grannies, and the Southwest Seattle Readers Theater. Also participating are Rabbi Daniel Septimus, of Temple De Hirsch Sinai, Imam Hisham Farajallah, of the Idriss Mosque & Islamic Center of Washington, Pastor Jim Major of the Highland Park Community of Christ, and Chris King, Founding President of the Seattle Chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, representing a secularist perspective.

The event is free of charge, but seating is limited. The doors open at 6 PM; the program begins at 7 PM and will not last more than an hour and-a-half. The event will take place at the Highland Park Community of Christ, at 8611 11th Ave SW [map] – next to Highland Park Elementary School and the park and ball-fields. Reserved seating for disabled or special-needs persons is available with advance notice.

For more information or disabled seating reservations e-mail ChristmasTruce.Seattle@gmail.com.

7 Replies to "West Seattle Holidays: Multifaith "Christmas Eve Truce" event"

  • DML December 21, 2009 (11:01 am)

    What a marvelous idea. Peace is so possible.

    “The people of the world genuinely want peace. Some day the leaders of the world are going to have to give in and give, it to them.”
    Dwight D. Eisenhower

    Two great songs:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dibDQEaJ_d8

    This one is hard to watch in parts, but we must:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbKsgaXQy2k

    Peace and Love to All!

  • Melissa December 21, 2009 (11:43 am)

    What a lovely idea. It warms the cockles of my heart! An interfaith, unifying service for our interfaith family.

  • Yardvark December 21, 2009 (1:43 pm)

    This sounds like a wonderful event but the Christmas Truce is a horrible story.

    As the story goes…after the enemy soilders showed each other pictures of their children, played a little soccer, and shared some laughs, they climbed back in their trenches and proceeding to kill each other until the end of the meaningless War.

    The moral: We will never learn.

    Again, though, this sounds like a wonderful event.

    Just wish they’d pick a different story.

  • glendafrench December 21, 2009 (3:20 pm)

    This project was the brainchild of one of my best friends. I think it will be an awesome event.

    (BTW to the poster above, the soldiers were actually so reluctant to have to fight again after meeting each other, they had to move new soldiers in . . . and truces were kept at bay after that. The moral, as I see it, is that when we see each other’s humanity, it becomes much harder to kill each other. That is sort of the point of the event.)

  • Meghan December 22, 2009 (7:57 am)

    This story just affirms that people are people with the same hopes, dreams, loves, and needs that everyone has – regardless of what political system and power hungry political leaders they live under. But it also affirms the sad reality that for as long as people have existed, nationalism and religious zealotry have turned otherwise good people into soldiers of war. And the powerless and poor so often march off to fight the wars of the rich and powerful.

  • Eric December 23, 2009 (2:09 pm)

    On a technical note: WWI troops were rotated in and out of the front lines on a continuous basis because after 30 days of bombardment, many soldiers would have nervous breakdowns. Any soldier that played soccer in no-man’s land would’ve been sent back to the rear by the end of January.

    On a personal note: I don’t see the point of the Truce event in any historical context after 1918. What WWI did was to end the old 19th century era of shared elite values, of which one was that war was supposed to be a limited affair, fought by Christians bound by rules, into our shared modern experience of ideologically inspired mass killings. I don’t remember the Nazis and Stalinists ever honoring a Christmas truce, and I doubt that a destructively attired jihadist would give much thought to the significance of Dec. 25. As well intentioned as the Truce event might be, what it does in actuality is to turn the celebration of the Nativity into that of the naivety.

  • Pam Walton December 23, 2009 (5:18 pm)

    The Grannies are great — all over the world! If you’re interested in their work, take a look at our new documentary — “Raging Grannies: The Action League,” about a Raging Grannies gaggle on the SF Bay Area Peninsula. These women do not go quietly into old age! They inspire us with their dedication to social justice. Winner 2009 National Mature Media Merit Award. Available for both institutional and home use. http://www.pamwaltonproductions.com

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