Swords into Plowshares

Last Sunday, after the 10 AM Worship Service, we gathered by the Peace Pole in front of Battell Chapel with Bishop James Curry of Swords into Plowshares Northeast for a participatory demonstration at the forge. Bishop Curry (in clerical collar with gun metal cross) preached during the service, which can be watched here. Several of the large group took their turns at the anvil as Bishop Currey and his associate John Cerritelli went back and forth to the portable forge to heat the metal red hot. Paraphrasing Isaiah’s prophesy, we beat Guns into Garden Tools. The gun parts were voluntarily surrendered in gun buyback programs in Connecticut. In the first photo below Ayerslea Denny of our Missions and Social Justice Team wields the hammer at the anvil to fashion a heart necklace out of a slice of a shotgun barrel. In the second you see the anvil front and center and the portable forge at far right. The open forge is clearly seen in the bottom photo.

Photo by Avice Meehan

Photo by Bill Eckert

Photo by Sue Pratt

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