When the Rev. Bob Edgar addressed the gathering at the Church of the Apostles United Church of Christ on Sunday afternoon, he was only half joking when he told them, "I have been given five honorary degrees, but I've only been arrested for civil disobedience four times. My one regret in my life is I haven't been arrested enough."

While he didn't urge anyone to go get arrested, Edgar, a former U.S. congressman and the president and CEO of Common Cause, did urge them to stand up and get involved, to work together to make a difference in the world.

"We are the leaders we've been waiting for," Edgar told the crowd, who came to hear him speak on the topic: "Feeding the Hungry While Paying for War: Let the Light Break Forth."

The event, which drew more than 100 people, was sponsored by the Lancaster Interchurch Peace Witness, a group that draws its members from 15 congregations in Lancaster County.

Edgar, 66, quoted the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who said, "Our lives begin and end when we become silent about things that matter."

The talk covered a number of issues, from concerns about the election process in this country to runaway defense spending, which, Edgar noted, will bankrupt our grandchildren.

"We have these old World War II concepts that we have to bomb cities. That's a false concept we carry in our heads about war," he said. "The terrorists love the idea that we're spending our grandchildren's treasury on weapons."

And, he noted, we must learn to live together on a planet whose population grows as it loses its natural resources.

"There are 6.6 billion people on earth today. More than half of all the people who ever lived are here on earth now," he said.

"Liberals will tell you there's about one-third of the world's oil supply left, conservatives will tell you it's two-thirds," Edgar said. "Either way, it could be gone in 100 years. What will happen to children born 101 years from now?"

One of our biggest moral tests, Edgar said, was how we treat the people in the "shadow of life" — the poor, the sick, the disabled.

"We must learn to live together as brother and sister on planet Earth."

And, he noted, in this world, that's a tall order.

"Eighty percent of the world lives in substandard housing, 70 percent can't read or write, 50 percent go to bed hungry," he said. "And 6 percent owns one half of the world's wealth."

Edgar, a liberal Democrat, was the U.S. representative from Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District, a largely conservative Republican area, for six terms, serving from 1975 to 1987.

He also was the general secretary for the National Council of Churches before taking the leadership role at Common Cause in 2007.

A lively question-and-answer period followed his speech, with topics ranging from Pennsylvania's voting machines to reinstating the draft to concerns about global warming.

Edgar, who preached Sunday morning at First United Methodist Church, closed the talk with an African proverb:

"If you want to walk fast, walk alone. If you want to walk far, walk together, as a group."

jholahan@lnpnews.com