Bermuda's faith communities are being asked to include the theme of Reconciliation in their services this weekend to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1959 Docks Strike.

Imagine Bermuda, which earlier this year helped to celebrate the 1959 Theatre Boycott which led to the desegregation of Bermuda's public facilities, said the docks strike had the potential to be explosive, but in the end was settled amicably.

"By September 16, 1959 the dockworkers division of the BIU, had become engaged in a most dramatic and dangerous confrontation with local authorities at No.1 Shed," Imagine Bermuda spokesman Glenn Fubler said.

"This was the first time that the Riot Act was read in the island as workers reportedly armed with home-made weapons faced off the Police Riot Squad. Sirens rang out across Hamilton in a call for back-up by the Reserve Constabulary.

"The crisis was only averted by the intervention of a small group of local residents. They included Arnold Francis who had been appointed the formal mediator, Leonard Bascome – then-president of the BIU, Gilbert Darrell – a BIU committee-member and a young minister Rev. Vernon Byrd, who had arrived only two weeks before to take over the pulpit at St. Paul AME.

"It was the involvement by this group that led to a dramatic turnaround to a volatile situation which by most accounts could have led to some serious violence. It is a "road to Damascus story" that offers us some guideposts from our shared past, on how we can move forward today in spite of challenges.

"We are asking the faith communities to include in their services on the weekend of October 3rd and 4th the theme of Reconciliation since the Final Agreement that transformed employment relations on the Docks was signed on October 4, 1959, 50 years ago."