In honour of #EarthDay2020 , the story of 3 Dominican nuns who temporarily shut down a U.S. nuclear weapons in an action they called 'Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares':

On 6th October 2002, Sisters Carol Gilbert, Jackie Hudson, and Ardeth Platte broke into Minuteman III Silo in Colorado. It contained reactivated first-strike nuclear missiles. They dressed in hazmat suits which read 'Citizen Weapons Inspection Team' and 'Disarmament Specialist'.

It was the anniversary of the bombing of Afghanistan. They cut through the chains securing the outer and inner gates and peeled back a section of fence in order to reveal a weapon of mass destruction.

As a religious order of preachers, they felt it their duty to expose and symbolically disarm the weapon: they repeatedly poured their own blood in the shape of a cross around the entrance to the silo, on its lid, and on the tracks which took it to a firing position.

They used household hammers to bang on the silo lid, using a liturgy of prayers for peace. They were arrested, imprisoned, charged, and convicted. They refused an offer of personal recognisance because of its condition barring civil resistance.

In the words of Sr Carol Gilbert, they were there to show that nuclear weapons kill people, yes, but also "Mother Earth herself, the species, the trees, anything living."

At their trial, Sister Platte represented herself: "I left Jonah House Community in Baltimore, where we feed hundreds, where we grow food to share with those In need...

...We carried tools that were not threatening, In obedience to the Biblical mandate: 'They shall beat their swords Into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not pick up swords against nation, nor train for war anymore.'"

As plowshares activists, the nuns were testifying to an alternative reality: one of peace. Violence against the earth is violence against its inhabitants, and vice- versa.

The U.S. military’s supply chains, bureaucracy, and infrastructure make it a bigger polluter than 140 countries. If it were a country, its fuel use would make it the 47th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.

The UK is also complicit: we joined the fight over oil in the Middle East, surrendering ourselves to its economic stranglehold. When the threat of war in Iran hit our newsfeeds last Autumn, the share prices of fracking firms and oil corporations jumped.

In the same greedy breath, we do violence to the Earth, and violence to each other.

On this #EarthDay , celebrate Sisters Carol, Jackie, & Ardeth. As women of faith, they participated in the reconciling work of Christ: to repent from, oppose, and resist tools of death, working not only for the absence of violence or reduction of emissions, but for creating peace.

Sources for this thread:
Rosemary P. Carbine, 'Imagining and Integrating an Integral Ecology: A critical Ecofeminist Public Theology', Planetary Solidarity: Global Women's Voices on Christian Doctrine and Climate Justice
and
http://www.jonahhouse.org/archive/sacred_earth.htm

*typo in first tweet - should say 'U.S. nuclear weapons facility'