Saturday 2 August 2008

Taking Action on Guantanamo!


In blogs and conversations with people over the last year, the resounding consensus seems to be that people want to do something about their faith. Its not enough for Engage to be a talking shop. There needs to action too.

Also, out of our blog conversations just such an action idea has emerged that we would love feedback on. We are thinking that it would be good to do an event (probably in October) about Guantanamo Bay. We might watch some of the film, "Road to Guantanamo". We might ask people to contribute artistically, with music and pictures about Guantanamo Bay. We want to book a neutral venue and we want the evening to be one where we are taking action. Spending some of the time writing to inmates or to governments or just being made aware of some of the things that we could be doing about Guantanamo. The ideas are deliberately left up in the air, because we really want others to contribute ideas and get involved in this. We'd love it to be open to anyone and everyone. Although it will come from a distinctively Christian perspective, we hope it would be accessible to all, but certainly not proselytising in any way. To be honest, we haven't decided on the level/nature of the Christian element. Your thoughts on this would be appreciated.

If you've missed some of the blogging about Guantanamo, I recommend you click here to catch up on what you've missed.
In the first week or two of September we hope to have a get together (down the pub) of all interested parties to talk/plan and enthuse about what we are doing. Please post a comment or e-mail to let us know if you are interested in coming along.

Also, please post a comment either to say - I'm interested, I've got an idea - here it is, have you thought of this etc etc. Even if we don't know you we would love to hear from you and involve you in what we're doing.

7 comments:

rache said...

Amnesty usually does Protect the Human week in October and encourages it's members to hold parties to raise awareness of human rights issues - I'm sure they would be happy to provide relevant resources - information re people to write to, posters etc - if it were something we wanted.
I have a couple of ideas of venues that it might be worth exploring - cafe euro near ccc, been to a couple of performance events there for good causes, showroom cafe - I can ask Beth who they were in contact with there when they used it for their blah events.
Also, how about inviting everybone who comes along to wear orange . . .

Anonymous said...

I like all Rach's great ideas. I am just very up for it and have lots of people who might be interested in coming - the christian elements are interesting ie how they are made present on the night - or is it just that we are there and the way we speak/act?

mark said...

Go for it with the cafe venues you suggest. They sound good. The only thing is that if we want to show part of the film the venue might need some kind of license to show films (although the Showroom should presumably have that!)

I like the idea of everyone wearing orange. I think Schof has found a Guantanamo T-Shirt. I presume its orange! How about telling us where we can get one from for those who do not have orange clothes!

Keep the ideas coming!

Anonymous said...

Do we have any definite details for this?

DS said...

Hi Ben

We are meeting monday night to plan the details - fancy a pint in sheffield monday? :-)!

Seriously - if you want to input at all we can telecon or chat on here re your ideas etc?

Hope you guys all good

Anonymous said...

I actually live in Crookesmoore and can certainly meet for a pint on Monday, if you want? I'm happy to help out wherever I can.

benjaminhurrell (at) hotmail (dot) com is you want to get in touch.

mark said...

Hi Ben, It's really good to have you comment on our blog! It would be really good to meet you on Monday. I've sent you an e-mail with more details.