We, members of the Atlantic Life Community, have come to this place this Holy Week to commit ourselves to keep the Covenant God made with all Creation. Love, liberation and justice are God's promises to all -- if we do our part. The Covenant is reciprocal.

Love demands nonviolence--the laying down of life, as Jesus demonstrated with his crucifixion which we remember this week. Loving others means wanting the best for them; not threatening to kill them. War and preparations for war, and an economy built on war, are violations of the Covenant of love. We must be willing to lay down our lives for others.

Liberation, the freedom from oppression, was God's gift to the Jews at Passover, also celebrated this week. Oppression continues to crush people all over the world, from Tibet to East Timor. We must contribute to the nonviolent struggle for liberation wherever it occurs.

Justice is God's hope for how we will treat one another and the promise of how God treats us. Today the war on the poor, the sanctions against Iraq, the use of the death penalty and the build-up of nuclear weapons arsenal in earth and space represent grave injustices to human beings and to the earth.

We humans have been violating the Covenant for too long. People all over the earth--even the earth itself--cry out for love, liberation and justice. We come to the White House, the Pentagon and the Air and Space Museum to publicly repent for breaking God's Covenant. We will form a " human cross" to symbolize our unity with Jesus and with all who are suffering, our desire to pick up the cross as Jesus did, and our hope for a resurrected earth and humanity. Please join us in prayer and action in fulfillment of the Covenant.