Voices of Veterans: A Welcome Home Ceremony

Voices of Veterans: A Welcome Home Ceremony
For veterans from Iraq, Afghanistan, and other wars
First Unitarian Church ~ Portland, OR

On Veterans Day, Tuesday, November 11th at the First Unitarian Church in Portland, Oregon, Mosaic Multicultural Foundation presents a public gathering that brings together veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and community members in a ceremony of honoring, healing, and welcoming home. Such a welcoming involves a community conversation that moves beyond politics and goes deeper than the rhetoric of war; it requires courage and is too-often avoided. It begins with tragedy and loss, the aftermath of any war, and requires the language of poetry and story as well as the dignity of ceremony.

Voices of Veterans: A Welcome Home Ceremony allows citizens to become compassionate witnesses and agents in the healing that can happen when the burdens of war becomes shared by the larger community. As one veteran writes in a poem:

"Can we create a village as strong as a war?"

The Welcome Home Ceremony will draw upon intensive work with veterans that begins in a five day retreat that focuses upon healing from the effects of combat and dealing with the post-traumatic stresses that follow exposure to modern warfare. The retreat will be facilitated by Michael Meade, a Vietnam era veteran, noted mythologist, author, and storyteller, along with veterans from other wars and experts in the field of trauma recovery.

Tuesday, November 11th ~ 6:00 pm

Doors open at 5:30 pm

First Unitarian Church

1011 SW 12th Ave, Portland, OR

EVERYONE WELCOME ~ DONATION SUGGESTED

For reservations to the event, call 1-800-233-6984 or go to www.mosaicvoices.org

To arrange interviews with Michael Meade, veterans from past retreats, or for more information please contact Peter Fedofsky at Mosaic Multicultural Foundation 206-935-3665 or email info@mosaicvoices.org.