We have come SOfAR!

Day one of the 2009 Pilgrimage of Remembrance is over and it was a great start!!!


We began with a mass at the Doggett Center in Raleigh, with a special blessing by Fr. Alex and a wonderful procession after mass - the parishioners processed for the feast of Corpus Christi and also in solidarity with us. We had a wonderful nourishing brunch after the spiritually nourishing celebration with so many friends. We presented Fr. Alex with a T-shirt.


We gathered outside for a group picture. We're ready to walk!!

We were soon on our way to Central Prison, a mere 6/10 of a mile from the Doggett Center.









At Central Prison, Tarrah, from the North Carolina Coalition for a Moratorium and her husband, and Will with the Fair Trial Initiative and his partner joined us. Fr. David from St. Francis of Assisi lead an opening prayer.
We waved to the prisoners in Central Prison and were soon on our way.





Ellen and Moira show the 2009 T-Shirts in front of Central Prison.










We stopped briefly at the NC State Capitol building, where Governor Bev Perdue may be called to make a life or death decision in future clemency appeals. We prayed that the death penalty will be abolished before that is needed.





We continued walking and stopped in a Southeast Raleigh neighborhood, the site of three murders so far in 2009. Rev. Hardy Watkins, pastor of a neighborhood church, spoke to us about the community efforts to stop violent crime in the neighborhood and what the violence does to the families who live there. The local churches are uniting in trying to give positive choices to the youth in the area - to let them know that someone cares for them. He also spoke of the effects of gentrification on the neighborhood - the small houses which get refurbished and priced beyond the reach of the current residents, forcing them to move.


From here, we walked to the Women's prison off (ironically) Martin Luther King Blvd. About 1200 women are imprisoned here; four are on death row. We prayed for restorative justice rather than retribution.



We were soon walking again and picked up the pace - we had a long distance to go today. We put in another 8 miles, for a total of 13 miles today. Five of us ran the last two while our sag wagon driver's shuttled people to St. Mark's Episcopal Church where friends had assembled a pot luck dinner for us. It was a refreshing end to a wonderful start. We are anxious to go back out tomorrow and start walking again. We have SOfAR to go!

Complete Day One Schedule

“We have come so far! We have so far to go!”
Join us for the Day One of our 2009 Pilgrimage through eastern North Carolina. 1:00 PM, Sunday, June 14, 2009Central Prison, 1300 Western Blvd, Raleigh
Help us move North Carolina closer to:
- Support for homicide victims’ families
- Compassion for families of persons on death row
- Restorative Justice that helps individuals, families and communities heal
- Abolition of the death penalty
Schedule:
10:00 AM Mass - Doggett Center, NCSU Catholic Campus Ministry
601 Bilyeu St., Raleigh (across Western Blvd from Pullen Park)
11:15 AM Potluck lunch at Doggett Center
12:30 PM Walk to Central Prison (0.5 mile)

1:00 PM Official Beginning - Introductions, prayer and reflection at Central Prison
1:20 PM Begin walking toward State Capital (1.5 miles)

2:00 PM Rest and reflection at State Capital grounds
2:15 PM Resume walking via S on Fayetteville St. and E on Martin St.

2:30/2:45 PM Camden St./Haywood St. area of recent homicides with Rev. Hardy Watkins

3:00 PM Pause for prayer at Women’s Prison at Bragg St. and MLK Blvd (1.7 miles)

3:45 PM Nazareth House rest stop (1.4 miles)

6:00/6:15 PM End walking at Chick Filet at 6617 Knightdale Blvd/US 64B (6.9 miles)
Early arrivals and set up at St. Mark’s

6:30 PM Potluck Dinner and Celebration/Blessing Meal at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church 1725 N. New Hope Road, Raleigh. Please bring food and drink!!

Contact Scott Bass at 919-231-9752 or 910-385-6787 with questions.

A Long Post Explaining My Motivations

What Motivates a Person to Walk 300 Miles?

(posted by Scott Bass)

I left readers hanging at the end of last year's Pilgrimage with a promise of sharing more reflections on that journey. I'll do better this year. Let me begin with some "preflections" on this year's journey.

My personal motives for organizing and setting out on this 300-mile* Pilgrimage begin with the work Roberta and I do with families of homicide victims and families of people on death row. Through our work at Nazareth House, a Christian community and house of hospitality in we co-founded in Raleigh, NC, I have spent time in conversation with and offering support to both sets of families.

My background includes working since the mid 1980s in various ministry capacities and as a marriage and family therapist (since 1994) and often working with people who have experienced traumatic loss. In the past few years, I have talked with family members whose children have been murdered outside of prisons and with those whose children have been executed by the state inside of prison. I sat with one mother during the very hour of her son’s execution. While their experiences are certainly not exactly the same, they have so much in common.

My experiences with these families have taught me that we too often give only lip service to victims’ families, at least after the first few days and weeks, and we outright abandon the families of people who commit homicide. My experiences with both these sets of families and my learning more about our death penalty system has led me over the years to move from passive support for the death penalty to passionate opposition to it.

I have other motivations for this Pilgrimage. One is my deep love for my native eastern North Carolina – its people, its culture, its land, etc.. Having grown up living (and working!) on an eastern North Carolina farm (in Sampson County), the region is in me forever. I also have a deep devotion to my Christian faith and love for the Church – both Catholic and Protestant. My experiences with the above-mentioned families, my love for eastern North Carolina and the faith I embrace make this experience a deep personal and public journey. The Pilgrimage is truly a spiritual experience of praying for the people already mentioned as well as for the people whose communities we will pass through. At the same time, we want to raise questions especially among my fellow eastern North Carolina Christians, like, “What does our faith say about how we behave toward these families, toward both victims and perpetrators of violence, and what does our faith say about support for the death penalty?”

While I have come to strong conclusions already, I don’t care to impose my conclusions on others. I do want to engage in private conversation and public dialogue and to propose that Christian faith – as well as many other faith perspectives - requires us to pray both for people victimized by violence and people who commit violence and requires us to give compassion and real support to the families of both, not just tough talk and lip service. I also propose that support for the death penalty in our modern society is inconsistent with Christian faith and that people of our faith* must insist on responses to crime that prioritize reconciliation over retaliation, prevention over revenge, and some form of restoration over extermination of human beings.

In response to an anticipated criticism, let me say that I have been too close to the trauma and tragedy of homicide to keep any naïveté’ about what I am saying. I understand that there are serious justice issues, safety issues and many other issues to be considered and addressed. I do not claim that it is easy or simple. I do say that it is what I understand our faith to require and that it is what my fellow citizens and fellow human beings deserve. Therefore, though difficult, these things need to be addressed.

We will conduct this Pilgrimage under the name, Sojourners for Abolition and Reconciliation (SOfAR). On this walk and on these larger issues, “We have come so far. We have so far to go.”

* My personal hope is that if I make it through the 300 miles of this Pilgrimage, I will continue the journey later this summer to complete a total of 404 miles – one mile for each execution that has taken place at Central Prison.

**I say “our faith” in reference to the Christian faith that I embrace and the faith perspective of my primary audience. I do not mean to exclude others; I just do not believe I have the authority to say what other faith perspectives require.

How you can help now...

Many of you have asked how you can help. At this point here are some of our needs. The top three are our most pressing needs at this point. While this list is longish, any need with which you can help will be of great importance to the fulfillment of this Pilgrimage.

1. Lodging for 6-8 people (church floor, a home, motel, etc.)
We currently do not yet have confirmed lodging in: Wilson, Rocky Mount, Tarboro, Goldsboro, Washington or Wilmington.

2. Dinner for 6-12 people.

3. Lunch for 12-15 people (or as few as 6-8 depending on number of local walkers on a given day...)

4. Event opportunity. We can provide a speaker, a forum on the death penalty, a panel discussion, etc. to share information and stories about the struggles of real families - both families of homicide victims and of people on death row. We need venues and people to talk with and listen to.

5. Local walkers to join us for a few yards or miles, depending on health and heat. This is a strenous event and is not the place for strollers or pets. However, if you want to walk with us in your town, we'll slow down the pace for a mile or two.

6. Breakfast for 6-8 people

7. Water, sports drinks and snacks

8. Support Vehicle drivers

9. Local pastor and/or lay persons to offer spiritual encouragement through prayer with us, offering Communion or Mass, etc.

10. Pray for us or, as the Quakers say, "Hold us in the Light" wherever you are.

Counting down

SOjourners for Abolition and Reconciliation (SOfAR)

A 300-mile Pilgrimage through eastern North Carolina

“We have come SOfAR! We have SOfAR to go!”

Join us for the start of our 2009 Pilgrimage through eastern North Carolina.

1:00 PM, Sunday, June 14, 2009

Central Prison, 1300 Western Blvd, Raleigh

Help us move North Carolina closer to:

• Support for homicide victims’ families
  
• Compassion for families of persons on death row
  
• Restorative Justice that helps individuals, families and communities heal
  
• Abolition of the death penalty
  

Last year we walked 300+ miles from Raleigh to Washington, DC. This year we will walk 300+ miles through our own eastern North Carolina. We begin at 1:00 PM on Sunday, June 14, 2009 at the site of the most homicides of any address in Raleigh in the past century – Central Prison. We will wind past sites of recent homicides in our city and the women’s death row facility and then proceed eastward out of Raleigh.

The first miles will take a slower pace so as to accommodate a wide variety of participants. It will be hot and humid, so plan accordingly. As the day progresses we will pick up the pace as we head eastward out of Raleigh. Be aware that the route and conditions will be challenging at times.

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Additional information about the Pilgrimage, including the full route, event schedule and the many ways you can help will be posted on our blog and at our 2009 Pilgrimage of Remembrance calendar (opens in a new tab or window).

Contact Scott Bass at (919) 231-9752 or (910) 385-6787 - Nazhouse@att.net .

We're walking again!

Yes, We're Walking Again! It's a new year, and we have a new journey ahead of us. Our theme this year is SOfAR - Soujourners for Abolition and Reconciliation.

We're planning another pilgrimage to bring about restorative justice, compassion for all victims of violence, and to abolish the death penalty . Like last year's 300 mile pilgrimage from Raleigh to Washington D.C. (“We have come SOfAR”), we have several goals:

• Support for homicide victims’ families
  
• Compassion for families of persons on death row
  
• Restorative Justice that helps individuals, families and communities heal
  
• Abolish the death penalty
  

This year, we will walk through eastern North Carolina. Our plans are still tentative, but we plan to walk from Raleigh to places like Wilson, Rocky Mount, Tarboro, Williamston, Greenville, Vanceboro, New Bern, Maysville, Jacksonville, Beulaville, Kenansville, Kinston, Goldsboro, Smithfield and points in between before walking back into Raleigh to the State Capitol. We can visit other communities, depending on interest.

We currently plan to depart Raleigh on Sunday, June 14 and walk for 14 to 16 days, averaging about 20 miles a day for a total of 300 to 325 miles. ( “We have SOfAR to go.”) We hope to have events along the way - talks with church groups or community organizations, panel discussions, film screenings, Bible studies, talks with victim's families or with death row relatives, meetings with legislators or town councils, and so on. We're looking for local people to help organize events in their towns.

We hope you will join us on the road or in spirit. This event is physically and spiritually strenuous, but there are many ways to participate. We need walkers and companions — either core walkers who want to go the distance, or friends who want to join us for a morning, an afternoon, or a couple days.
But we also need a lot of support, including:

• meals,
  
• lodging,
  
• water and other essentials,
  
• "sag wagon" drivers and other transportation,
  
• home town event organizers,
  
• donations (monetary or in kind, including a mid-journey rest stop location),
  
• home town media contacts (newspapers, etc.),
  
• and much more.
  

This pilgrimage will be both a prayerful experience and a call to public conversation about the issues above, with an emphasis on ending the death penalty and supporting all persons impacted by homicide. It will be grounded in Christian spirituality, while remaining respectful of other faith perspectives and will be open to persons committed to prayer and nonviolence regardless of their formal religious faith. We need to hear from people like you. We need partners to walk and to provide the crucial support needed by the Pilgrimage in various forms.

Our 'friends' on this year's pilgrimage include: Capital Restorative Justice Project, Murder Victim Families for Reconciliation, People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, and many others. We hope to include you in our list!

Please direct inquiries to Scott Bass at Nazareth House, (919) 231-9752 or email us at nazhouse@att.net

Catching Up - Please Come Back and Read Tomorrow

We're home, catching up and reflecting on the past three amazing weeks. We have many more stories to tell that we think will be worthwhile to read and important to document. So look for more posts later by July 4th.