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Readers’ theatreO Bind Us in ThatHeavenly ChainMatthew Bailey-DickErb Street Mennonite ChurchWaterloo, Ont.Voice 1– The pastVoice 2– The presentVoice 3– Scripture (Jeremiah 17; Hebrews 11, 12)Voice 4– Conscientious objectors (contributions fromAlbert Erb, Roy Snyder, Becky Paetkau, HowardGimbel, Eileen Kennel, Monte Corwin)Voice 1: Dateline: July, 1940. Canada is mobilizedfor the war in Europe and all able-bodied men arerequired to register with the government. Location:Waterloo Mennonite Church, which would later beknown as Erb Street Mennonite Church. A meetingis called to organize the Ontario Conference ofHistoric Peace Churches, which then goes about thework of presenting a unified peace stance to the governmentand formulating a proposal for analternative service program for conscientious objectors.Voice 2: Wow, 1940. I wasn’t even born then. So thestory goes back that far?Voice 1: Do roots go deep into the earth?Voice 2: Pardon me?Voice 1: Do roots go deep into the earth? Does thepast help the present come into existence? What doesit mean to go back to the roots of our faith?Voice 2: Well, those folks who met in 1940 to supportCOs—conscientious objectors—they sure musthave had faith!Voice 3: Now faith is the assurance of things hopedfor, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, byfaith our ancestors received approval. By faith weunderstand that the worlds were prepared by theword of God, so that what is seen was made fromthings that are not visible.Voice 1: And how did their faith lead them to bewitnesses for peace? What did they do as Christiansin the face of violence and warfare? While manywere led by conscience to enlist in the army, manysimply said, “No, I will not fight.” Among theseCOs, some were sent to logging camps, some weresent to build roads, some were sent to work onfarms.Voice 2: Where did they get that kind of courage?How could they stand up against the government,against the army, against Canadian society in general?Well, by now, radicals like them are history.Everything’s different now, so why are we talkingabout this?Voice 4: For myself, as a Christian, I feel personallya great deal of respect for the conscientious objectorsin the past. Standing firm in one’s beliefs, as a youngCanadian today, generally does not require oneselfto defend those beliefs. As a result it is easy to avoidthinking about the call that we as Mennonites haveto be pacifists.Voice 3: Now faith is the assurance of things hopedfor, the conviction of things not seen.Voice 4: In the comfort of my day to day life, Ioften have little reason to reflect on what it means tobe a pacifist. The conscientious objectors did nothave such a luxury—to assume CO status they hadto go against the pressure of society and defend theirbeliefs.Voice 3: Faith is the assurance of things hoped for.Voice 2: But something I want to understand is this:People make decisions and follow their conscience.But with these stories of COs, there seems to besomething else as well—some kind of longer history,some kind of longer chain of events. Does that makesense?Voice 3: By faith, Noah built an ark. And by faith,Abraham and Sarah obeyed when they were called.And…Voice 1: Dateline: the early 1940s. By faith,Mennonite leaders are busy organizing peace committees.Pastor J.B. Martin is a leader in thealternative service effort in Canada, along with E.J.Swalm, Jacob H. Janzen, and others who are alsosupporting the young men in the work camps. Thecongregations work hard at adjusting to the absenceof their young men.Voice 3: And by faith, Isaac invoked blessings for thefuture. And by faith...Voice 1: During World War Two, there were over10,000 Mennonite young men performed alternativeservice during the Second World War. Those involvedin the CO movement faced risks: Some wereharassed by judges and government officials. Somewent to prison. The Leamington Mennonite Churchwas vandalized and ransacked for information. AMennonite church in southern Alberta was burnedby arsonists.38