Australian Plowshares

Our Statement

Today the 28th of December is the feast of the holy innocents. On this day we remember the children of Bethlehem slaughtered by king Herod because he perceived the birth of the Christ child as a threat to his power and security.

In our time children continue to die as victims of greed and the thirst for power. The blood we pour represents the blood of these children who die of hunger every day while the world uses its resources for armaments. Their blood is on these weapons before they are ever used.

We beat with hammers on the weapon launchers as we symbolically enact the biblical imperative of Isaiah to “beat swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks” Isaiah 2:4

In the tradition of Christian resistance, we act to uphold the sanctity of human life whenever it is threatened by the power of violence and injustice.

                                                                               - A Gwyther