Peace Out! Week Ninety

Offered by Bradley A. MacLean, Nashville, TN, attorney for

Abu Ali Abdur’Rahman

Dear Episcopal Peace Fellowship:

I am asking a big favor of you in support of Abu Ali Abdur’Rahman, an Episcopalian who has been sitting on Tennessee’s death row for 33 years even though he never received a fair trial.

A documentary film about Abu Ali’s case will be shown on-line in Nashville Film Festival from October 1 to October 7. The name of the documentary is “You Don’t Know Me.” Because the Nashville Film Festival will be a virtual, on-line event this year, anyone in the nation may purchase a ticket to watch the film any time during the seven days of the Festival.

I am asking you to please do two things for our brother, Abu:

1. Please watch and encourage as many people as possible (locally and throughout the nation) to watch “You Don’t Know Me” during the Nashville Film Festival, October 1-7.

2. Please ask those people, when they watch the film, to vote for the film to receive an Audience Award at the Festival.

If enough people watch the film and vote for it to receive an Audience Award, that will improve the odds that the film can be placed on a nationwide platform (such as Netflix, Prime, Hulu, etc.) which could greatly help Abu.

A ticket to watch the film costs $12.80. Here is a link to the site where you can purchase a ticket:

https://watch.eventive.org/nashfilm2020/play/5f4cea82ed5f7b00452ea515?m=1.

To get an idea of what the film is about, here is a link to the trailer for the film:

https://vimeo.com/298478335

This documentary was produced by Jon Kent, an independent Nashville documentary filmmaker, who spent the past three years learning about Abu Ali’s case. The name of the film, “You Don’t Know Me,” aptly describes the fundamental problem with Abu Ali’s case. Because of the complete failure of Abu Ali’s trial lawyers to defend Abu, and because of the egregious misconduct of the prosecutor in the case, the jury that sentenced Abu Ali to death never heard a massive amount of available evidence about who Abu Ali is or about the true circumstances of the case. To give just one example, the blood evidence in the case establishes that Abu Ali was not the person who killed the victim. But the jury never heard anything about that evidence. And, as I say, this is just one of many examples.

It was a great honor for “You Don’t Know Me” to be accepted into the Nashville Film Festival, one of the leading film festivals in the nation. This attests to the quality of the film.

We know it’ll take each of us to protect our democracy, but we’re up for the challenge.

If you’re interested in being a poll monitor, please sign-up for one of the non-partisan trainings happening on various dates for various places around the nation and encourage your friends and family who may be interested to do the same.

Trainings will be held via Zoom and will last 1.5 hours. During training we’ll learn how to spot issues, report problems and assist voters. All poll monitors must attend one training, so we hope to see you there!

Join Rev. Melanie Mullen for a group discussion addressing the challenges facing Episcopal leaders in direct action and street witness.

Tuesday, October 6th, at 4:00 PM EST
Register in advance for this training: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMufu-qrzIuH9eM2EaiWSrA4kueM_A-JiN4

VoteFaithfully Resources:
Check out the Office of Governmental Relations 2020 Vote Faithfully Election Engagement Toolkit to learn how you can help encourage voting in your community!
In English: Vote Faithfully Toolkit 2020
En Español: Vote Fielmente 2020

In the month of October, join Episcopal Migration Ministries, in partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) and Lutheran Family Services of the Rocky Mountains (LFSRM), for a three-part training series for congregations interested in supporting and walking alongside asylum seekers. The three 90-minute virtual events will provide advocacy updates, resources for group discernment, ministry models, and important considerations when engaging in ministry with asylum seekers.

Walking with Asylum Seekers: Ministry Opportunities for Congregations
WEBINAR: October 8, 4:00 – 5:30PM Eastern

Walking with Asylum Seekers: Sponsorship Part 1
MEETING: October 20, 4:00 – 5:30PM Eastern

Walking with Asylum Seekers: Sponsorship Part 2
MEETING: October 27, 4:00 – 5:30PM Eastern

Register here (https://episcopalmigrationministries.org/walking-with-asylum-seekers-a-training-series-for-congregations-october-2020/).

Participants may choose to attend one or more of the virtual events offered. Registration is required. The October 8 webinar will be available on-demand following the event; the latter two meetings will not be available on-demand.

Episcopal Migration Ministries is a ministry of The Episcopal Church and is one of nine national agencies responsible for resettling refugees in the United States in partnership with the government. Episcopal Migration Ministries currently has 13 affiliate offices in 11 states. In addition to its long-standing work in refugee resettlement ministry, Episcopal Migration Ministries is The Episcopal Church’s convening place for collaboration, education, and information-sharing on migration. To directly support EMM and its life-changing work, visit www.episcopalmigrationministries.org/give or text ‘EMM’ to 41444 (standard messaging and data may rates apply).

Witness Palestine
Film Festival
Online October 4 –
November 3, 2020

The ninth annual Witness Palestine Film Festival is scheduled for October 4 – November 3. With no or very limited access this year to our traditional venues of The Little Theatre and St. John Fischer College, the festival will be online. In this new format, we plan to make four films available via the web at no charge. This year’s films offer perspectives on Palestine/Israel through a variety of lenses: historical; shared heart-felt personal experiences of former Israeli soldiers and of American Jews encountering first-hand the realities of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation; and the stories of Arab Americans in Brooklyn seeking a political voice. Film titles, dates, registration information, and other details may be found at WitnessPalestineRochester.org.

New Zealand Prayer Book