Monks for peace leave North Adams on Monday for cross-state walk

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- Ten Japanese monks devoted to abolishing nuclear weapons leave this small Berkshire County city on Monday for a five-week, 200-mile education walk eastward across Massachusetts, according to Mary Ellen Cohane, an English professor helping set them on their way.

They will be visiting nineteen mayors of cities and towns who have signed on as "Mayors for Peace." These include Mayor Barrett of North Adams, and the mayors of Pittsfield, Great Barrington, Greenfield, Amherst, Springfield, West Springfield, Easthampton, Holyoke, Leverett and Westfield.

Cohane says the public is welcome to walk a part of the way with the Nipponzan Myohoji monks and nuns. She says Natalie Cain, and several members of the Women's House of Peace in North Adams, have already signed on to begin the walk on Monday.

The walk is called "Walk for a New Spring 2007," and will end on the first day of spring in Boston. Nun Sister Claire of Leverett writes that the timing of the walk symbolizes a move to nurture the seeds of hope during a time of fear and stress, caused by our living in a world that has become a nuclear arsenal.

The monks will leave at 9 a.m. from a city parking long beside St. Anthony's Church, proceeding up Church Street, through the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Campus St. Anthony's Church in North Adams, then to Ashland Street, then on Route 8 south through Adams to Pittsfield.

For more information, contact Cohane at: Mary.Ellen.Cohane@mcla.edu or (413) 664-8669.