As part of its commitment to ensure equal rights for all people regardless of economic status or race, Hope for Peace & Justice has embarked on a journey to educate its members about capital punishment. At the heart of our mission to equip progressive people of faith to be champions for peace and justice are values such as hope, acceptance, repentance and forgiveness. The death penalty is in opposition to all of these. Yes, some people do terrible things and should never be allowed out of prison, but surely no person is ever beyond repentance and forgiveness.  As Sister Helen Prejean said, “People are worth more than the worst act of their life.”

On Sunday, August 17, H4PJ will screen the film “Dead Man Walking,” starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. The film, based on the book by the same title by Sister Helen Prejean, is a perfect starting point for a five-week Wednesday night series based on Sister Prejean’s DVD series “Questioning Capital Punishment” led by Hope for Peace & Justice Director of Programming Lynn Walters and Sr. Patricia Ridgley of the Dallas Peace Center. The series will end just in time for a very special weekend of events. This is in partnership with Dallas Peace Center.

We are sponsoring our second Peace Practitioner Workshop to be held September 19-21 at Cathedral of Hope. Come gain essential conflict management skills so that conflict won’t manage you! Conflict is all around us, but most people try to avoid it because they lack basic conflict management skills. Rather than react to conflict on a purely emotional level or purely cognitive level, learn to manage disputes and disagreements positively and proactively. MORE Info...
 
On Saturday, September 20 at 7 p.m. H4PJ will present a one-night only reading of the award-winning play “The Exonerated” by Erik Jensen and Jessica Blank. Culled from interviews, letters, transcripts, case files and the public record, “The Exonerated” tells the true stories of six people sent to Death Row for crimes they did not commit. Moving between first-person monologues and scenes set in courtrooms and prisons, the six interwoven stories paint a picture of an American criminal justice system gone horribly wrong and of six brave souls who persevered to survive it. MORE Info...

Finally, Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, will be the special guest preacher at 9 & 11 am for morning services at Cathedral of Hope on Sunday, September 21. A remarkable and courageous woman, Sister Helen began her prison ministry in 1981 when she dedicated her life to the poor of New Orleans. While living in the St. Thomas housing project, she became pen pals with Patrick Sonnier, the convicted killer of two teenagers, sentenced to die in the electric chair of Louisiana’s Angola State Prison. Upon Sonnier’s request, Sister Helen repeatedly visited him as his spiritual advisor. In doing so, her eyes were opened to the Louisiana execution process. Sister Helen turned her experiences into the book Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty, which was later turned into the Academy Award-winning film. MORE Info...