The energetic Carnival troupe began its two-city tour with 10 days in Harrisonburg, camping on ’s lawn while promoting “creation care” through performance, artwork and service both there and at 91����Ƶ. Carnival de Resistance is a new venture, with artist-members from around the U.S. and Mexico, says member Sarah Thompson, who holds an MDiv from and is outreach coordinator for . Four main shows addressed themes of earth, air, fire and water.

At 91����Ƶ’s Thomas Plaza in front of the Campus Center Wednesday, more than 100 experienced the air-themed show, titled “Out of the Whirlwind.” Featuring its creators, Jay Beck and Tevyn East as Raven and Dove, it began serendipitously as a full harvest moon emerged from clouds:

Addressing human neglect of earth

Dove (East), a wordless dancer in white robes, cradles an egg. Hatchling Raven (Beck) appears, clad in black rags. Raven’s first word is “death.” His narrative – angry, mournful, sometimes humorous – attacks humanity’s neglect of Earth:

“For the earth to stay alive, your way will have to die.”

Raven and Dove briefly dance on a biblical-type ark, but Dove gets confined to a cage. “We can scarcely fly in this soup of chemicals,” shouts Raven, who warns of angering Gaia, envisioned as the mother of Earth.

“The concepts were thought-provoking,” said ’08, an 91����Ƶ staffer who brought a church youth group to the show.

At an earlier chapel service, the troupe led a Cherokee chant to “the great spirit,” along with the adaptation of a familiar spiritual’s words “When I die, hallelujah, by and by,” to “When we live, hallelujah, how we live.”

On the Carnival’s , inspiration is attributed to an array of influences, including First Nation and African earth-centered spirituality and activist theologians Ched Myers and William Stringfellow.

Resonating with students of sustainability

91����Ƶ biology professor observed that the Carnival “links oppressed people with the oppressed earth.” The radicalism, he said, may reach some who ignore conventional messages.

Troupe members visited Yoder’s classes all week. They have committed to making no purchases while touring, relying on kindnesses when needed. The Carnival is supported both by grants and hospitality.

91����Ƶ junior Chris Lehman, an environmental sustainability major, served as one of many sound-powering bikers and directed parking. Everett Brubaker, a classmate in the same major, participated as co-president of the campus . This major has been attracting increasing numbers of students, with 30 now in the program.

Junior Erin Rheinheimer, an environmental sustainability minor and Earthkeepers member, helped make sunflower signs for a parade and enjoyed a Carnival “skill-share show.”

Lehman, who enjoyed the air show most, is considering a career in conservation or wildlife biology. Brubaker, who especially liked the Carnival parade, hopes to work in advocacy.

Gifting a mural to Cedarwood

The second-floor mural in began with images by Carnival troupe member and nomadic painter Dimitri Kadiev. These were selected by art professor from his previous works, and the two worked collaboratively on shaping the overall result.

On part of the mural, between a laundry-room window and custodial closet door, a figure with outstretched arms smiles joyfully. A river seems to flow from the figure’s heart. Nearby, a quetzal (Guatemala’s national bird) displays its tail feathers.

Gusler and Kadiev started with a yellow background, which she notes, “glows through wherever there is open space.” Next, they filled in large shapes with solid colors – blue (river and shades of sky); green (landscape); purple (mountains).

Then, Gusler had all her students participate. At Kadiev’s suggestion, they created stenciled images of living things: an owl, poppy, hibiscus, egret and butterflies. Others subsequently dipped brushes in varying shades of green, instructed to “fill the shapes, and while you do, think about the earth.”

A passing student shows a spot to a companion, noting, “I did that shape.” Cedarwood resident director Micah Hurst points to the blue space his children, 4 and 8, helped paint.

Parading down Main Street

In Thursday’s Carnival parade, imaginatively retooled bicycles rolled alongside marchers from Harrisonburg’s North Main Street to Court Square. Motorists smiled at jugglers, banners, colorful costumes and percussionists with homemade instruments.

The local “Fossil Fuel Zombies,” wearing shredded black trash bags, called for burying fossil fuels with message-bearing signs, including “Oil, oil, watch Earth boil.”

“Are you really Jesus?” someone asked Kadiev, who had lettered the name atop his paint-splattered garb. “Only a stand-in,” Kadiev smiled.

The march ended with an hour-long “Power Down and Lift Up” rally at Court Square. Local groups represented by speakers included the for sustainability, the global-warming awareness movement, , , and .

Pastor Phil Kniss, who helped pedal the sound system, explained why his church installed 125 solar panels. When believers ask “Why worry about this world?” he responds, “Because God loves this world.”

At Trinity this weekend, the Carnival will offer children’s events and a “Water Show” before bicycling to Charlottesville for its final 2013 gig. Each day’s is posted on the Carnival’s website.

“We thank God that U.S. and British military forces were able to find the hostages and move them to freedom without injuries to either Iraqis or to the Coalition soldiers,” said 91����Ƶ President Loren Swartzendruber.

Referring to the CPT hostage killed earlier this month who had studied at 91����Ƶ, Swartzendruber said: “We continue to grieve for Tom Fox and will work to keep his vision of peacemaking alive.” 91����Ƶ held a memorial service for Fox Mar. 15 that was attended by hundreds of mourners from the university and the surrounding community.

Fox’s Professor Thankful

91����Ƶ professor Lisa Schirch, who taught Fox in her “nonviolent strategies” class, also expressed gratitude for the CPT workers release.

“We thank God that their captors left them alone and unguarded,” Schirch said. “We are grateful that U.S. and British forces were able to find them without using their weapons,” Schirch said.

The freed CPT hostages were Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, and Briton Norman Kember, 74. The men were kidnapped Nov. 26 along with their colleague from Virginia, Tom Fox.

The CPT workers went to Iraq to build relationships across the lines of conflict and across religious lines and to demonstrate Christ-inspired alternatives to violence.

‘Pray for others held hostage’

Swartzentruber noted that 91����Ƶ supported the call of CPT not to use violence to free the hostages, adding: “We wish to applaud the bravery and concern that motivated the soldiers who rescued the hostages.

“We also pray for others being held hostage and in prisons in Iraq, for the people of Iraq who continue to suffer so greatly, and for the Coalition soldiers, some of whom are from families in our own Shenandoah Valley,” said Swartzendruber.

Swartzendruber noted that 91����Ƶ

U.S. forces in Iraq recovered the body of kidnapped Christian Peacemaker Teams activist Tom Fox, CPT confirmed on Mar. 10.

Tom Fox (seated right) participates in a Christian Peacemaker summer camp in an undated photo. Fox was absent from footage of hostages being held in Iraq that was broadcast by Al-Jazeera on Tuesday.
AP Photo / Christian Peacemaker Teams Iraq, File

Fox, a Quaker from Clearbrook, Va., was found by Iraqi police with his hands bound and with gunshot wounds to the head and chest the evening of Mar. 9, according to the Associated Press. When police saw the body was that of a Westerner, U.S. military authorities were called to the scene, reports said.

Fox had studied one semester in 91����Ƶ’s graduate program before going to Iraq as a CPT peace worker. He was kidnapped in Baghdad Nov. 26 along with fellow CPTers Norman Kember, 74, a Briton, and Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32. The four were seized at gunpoint by a group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigade and have been shown in videos released by the group, which has demanded the release of all detainees in U.S. and Iraqi prisons.

The most recent video, a silent 25-second clip that aired on Aljazeera Mar. 7, showed all of the hostages except Fox.

Memorial Service Planned

A memorial service to reflect Fox’s life and work will be held 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Mar. 15, in Lehman Auditorium.

The service will include hymns, scripture reading, visuals, candlelighting and reflections by persons who knew Fox, with an emphasis both on “the meaning of Tom’s life and mission as a Christian peacemaker and remembering his three fellow CPTers and others still being held captive” in Iraq.

The service is open to everyone.

Professors and Staff Respond

, associate professor of conflict studies in 91����Ƶ’s Center for Justice and Peacemaking, had Fox in her “strategic nonviolence” course at 91����Ƶ.

“May we all hold every human being in Iraq in our prayers as the trauma, anger, fear and sadness rages on and on,” Dr. Schirch said in response to Fox’s death. “And may we all find a way to renew our own personal efforts to transform those energies into something more positive.

“Let us remember Tom for the bravery and hopefulness that came with his determination to be in Iraq to monitor human rights and provide a different kind of American presence there – one that sought to be in solidarity with the suffering,” Schirch added.

91����Ƶ President Loren Swartzentruber, in Florida during 91����Ƶ’s spring break for development contacts, issued a statement to the campus community:

“Tom’s death, while serving with Christian Peacemaker Teams, reminds us of the tragic deaths of people of all nationalities through senseless violence around the world. I agree completely with a statement from Carol Rose, co-director of Christian Peacemaker Teams, quoted in the news – ‘In response to Tom’s passing, we ask that everyone set aside inclinations to vilify or demonize others, no matter what they have done.'”

“Please pray for Tom’s family, co-workers, friends and for CJP faculty member Lisa Schirch and others on our campus who knew him personally,” the president said.

‘Break the Cycle’

, co-director of 91����Ƶ

By Rob Longley, Daily News-Record

Friends of Tom Fox, the former 91����Ƶ student held captive in Iraq since Nov. 26, made a renewed call for his release on Saturday, the same day Al-Jazeera aired new video of the kidnapped peace activist.

Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, and three other peace activists were kidnapped in the fall while protesting human rights abuses in Iraq.

The men were in Iraq as part of a group from Chicago-based Christian Peacemaker Teams.

The previously unknown Swords of Righteous Bridges has claimed responsibility for kidnapping them.

“Tom Fox and the other Christian Peacemaker Team members are the friends and guests of the Iraqi people,” 91����Ƶ professor Lisa Schirch, a friend and former teacher of Fox, said in a statement Saturday. “I plead with those holding Tom, the other Christian Peacemaker

A former student in the (CJP) at 91����Ƶ is among the four hostages currently being held in Iraq by a group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigade.

The American, Tom Fox, 54, from Clearbrook, Va., took the “Strategic Nonviolence” class at CJP with , associate professor of peacebuilding at 91����Ƶ, in spring 2004 and has been working in Iraq with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CTP) for the past year and a half.

91����Ƶ held a candlelight vigil for the four CTP hostages Wednesday evening, Nov. 30, on the Campus Center plaza. More than 60 persons attended the vigil as a symbol of solidarity and commitment to a non-violent resolution.

Those gathered held lighted candles and listened to information about the four abductees, spent time in silent reflection followed by a period of prayer and the singing of the hymn, “O Healing River.”

“Tom learned about other non-violent heroes in this course,” Dr. Schirch told the group. “He believes that as peacebuilders, we need to take the same risks as military people.”

Fox, a Quaker, has worked with CPT in partnership with Iraqi human rights organizations to promote peace. In Iraq, he sought a more complete understanding of Islamic cultural richness. He is committed to telling the truth to U.S. citizens about the horrors of war and its effects on ordinary Iraqi civilians and families as a result of U.S. policies and practices.

“Fox has devoted his life to working for peace,” according to CJP staff member William Goldberg, who helped organize the vigil along with Schirch and 91����Ƶ campus pastor Brian Martin Burkholder. He noted that Fox is scheduled to speak at 91����Ƶ about his peace work in mid-February.

At his web blog, Fox quoted a Quaker theologian: “Be patterns, be examples in every country, place, or nation that you visit, so that your bearing and life might communicate with all people. Then you’ll happily walk across the earth to evoke that of God in everybody. So that you will be seen as a blessing in their eyes and you will receive a blessing from that of God within them.”

More information on Fox is available at .com.

For updates on the hostage situation, go to .

The at 91����Ƶ will host Peggy Gish, an Athens, Ohio, native who recently returned from her fourth trip to Iraq, working with .

She will speak about her experiences 8 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 8, in the Coffeehouse located on ground floor of the University Commons.

Gish, 63, has been in Iraq for a total of 13 months in the past two years. The CPT team in Iraq has worked to reduce violence, promote fair treatment of Iraqi detainees and to witness the conditions of life under the U.S. occupation.

Gish