St. Johannes Cemetery Alliance SJCA eNews Monday, October 29, 2005 APPEALS COURT TEMPORARY STAY LIFTED - FOR NOW! As you may have seen in various press reports recently, the court Stay, which prevented the City of Chicago from proceeding with the OMP construction which began on 30 September, was lifted by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. In the case of the Cemetery, it appears that the promises of the City, delivered by way of affidavits submitted to the Court, caused the Court to feel that the Stay was not necessary. This is similar to what happened previously in the Chicago Federal Court. The City voluntarily agreed to hold off on touching the Cemetery, the injunction was lifted, but no harm has come to the Cemetery, while the legal case has proceeded. Although the City has promised not to interfere with the operations of the Cemetery or disturb our loved ones while the case continues, we need your assistance with making sure that the City is abiding by this promise. If you are contacted in regards to St. Johannes or Rest Haven Cemeteries, and/or your loved ones interred there, by the City of Chicago or by anyone representing the City, please call or email right away and let us know. The email address and telephone number are listed below. For those located outside the immediate Chicago area, if you come across any newspaper or other notifications seeking out families of those interred at St. Johannes or Rest Haven, please respond to the email address or telephone number which follows, and let us know when and where these notifications appeared. For those persons within easy driving distance of St. Johannes and Rest Haven, we encourage you to feel free to visit the cemetery often. Spend time in prayer and meditation among your ancestors. Let your visitations be a sign of your support for the struggle to save these consecrated grounds. The cemetery hours, for both St. Johannes and Rest Haven, are 7:00am until 5:00pm, seven days a week. If you should by some chance run into any difficulties during your visit - like being questioned by security persons - finding the gates locked during the above listed hours - etc., or notice any out-of-place activity within the cemetery properties while you are there, then please, again, contact us as soon as possible via email or a telephone call, and let us know. Here are the email address and/or telephone number for your use in getting a hold of us if you experience any of the above: Emails may be sent to michael.kirchhoff@sbcglobal.net<mailto:michael.kirchhoff@sbcglobal.net> or by telephone 847-877-5702 IN THE MEANTIME ... .. Members of the Cemetery Committee at St. John UCC have already begun to make more frequent and, if possible, daily trips to the cemeteries, to ensure that the resting places of our ancestors are not disturbed. .. The legal team, representing St. Johannes and Rest Haven, and the villages of Elk Grove and Bensenville, continue to push our concerns within the structure of legal system. Please keep them and their staffs in your thoughts and prayers each day, as they work within the courts to protect our communities, the peoples and businesses thereof, and each of our rights to worship and protect our sacred burial grounds. .. and, with your continued encouragement, participation, and support, we will prevail in our efforts to save our cemeteries and our freedoms to bury and worship there. Again, THANK YOU all. ________________________________________ Rev. Michael Martens Kirchhoff, Sr. michael.kirchhoff@sbcglobal.net<mailto:michael.kirchhoff@sbcglobal.net> St. Johannes Cemetery Committee Member