Clergy representing Catholics, Protestants, and Jews gathered in Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco yesterday to offer prayers on the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Throughout the week, people from churches and synagogues throughout the Bay Area brought hundreds of pairs of boots and shoes to honor American and Iraqi casualties of the war.
The American Friends Service Committee’s “Eyes Wide Open” exhibit, a display of 425 pairs of military boots, representing Californians who have died in the Iraq War, formed the centerpiece of the event. To “complement this exhibit,” said an announcement on its web site, Grace Cathedral invited “faith communities and individuals to collect shoes to represent the more than 88,800 Iraqi civilian causalities.” After the exhibition, the shoes would be donated to Episcopal Charities and other organizations serving the needy.
It’s all here.