From Mary Roe: The difficulties encountered by those arranging the Lambeth conference are indications that we are called to be peacemakers in all walks of life, between quarrelsome neighbors, and political and religious factions as well as nations. This conference needs our prayers.

Here is the schedule as of early March, with more details in the May issue of The Anglican Peacemaker (read the February issue at http://www.cloud-ten.co.uk/apf2/newsletters/TAPFEB08.pdf). Please confirm schedule closer to the events.

APF at and around Lambeth: July 2008

Tuesday 22nd: 11.00AM service in the Dick Sheppard Chapel at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, with the pilgrimage starting from there.

Tuesday 22nd – Thursday 24th: Walking portions of the Pilgrims’ Way, arriving at The Friars, Aylesford, mid afternoon Thursday. Transport provided for baggage and between walking points, accommodation with churches along the way.

Thursday 24th – Sunday 27th: APF annual conference at The Friars, Aylesford

Saturday 26th: Travel by coach to Canterbury to meet others there, returning in the evening. Walk from the Old Leper Hospital of St. Nicholas on the outskirts of Canterbury to the Cathedral. There will be a service in the Eastern Crypt at noon, a short witness at the Martyrdom, and a visit to the grave of Dick Sheppard in the cloisters, followed by a lunch at the Greyfriars House gardens.

Sunday 27th: Final day of the conference including Eucharist, closing after lunch.

Monday 28th, 2.30-4.30PM: APF fringe meeting ‘The Church’s response in areas of military conflict’ at the University of Canterbury.

Tuesday 29th, 4.30PM-8.15PM: APF musical fringe event ‘Caught in the crossfire: sounds for peace and justice’ at the University of Canterbury.

Week beginning Monday 28th: APF will have a stall ‘Peace is the Church’s business’ in the Lambeth Conference “marketplace” at the University of Canterbury, open from 10.00AM to 6.00PM.

Cost of the annual conference, including room and board, at The Friars is estimated at $260-$300. Additional expenses would include accommodation in London and Canterbury, and pilgrimage expenses.
For more information and to sign on to be a part of the pilgrimage, contact Donna Hicks at 919.688.3419 or djhicks2790@earthlink.net.

A note from Donna Hicks: Seasoned APFers say that the only thing on which they agree is NO WAR. In this time of division, fear, anger, and mistrust, this says to me that APF can model for the Anglican Communion a way to acknowledge common ground, stand on it, and work together in spite of other differences to reach a common goal. I invite you all to come to stand with me and others at Lambeth this year.

One of the many benefits of our new blog-based format for the e-zine is the opportunity for discussion to happen. It is our hope that you will join in the process by commenting on articles.

Looking for a good place to start? How about with a Word from the Editor? Otherwise, take a look over our detailed Table of Contents below. Let us know what you think! And, if you’re still looking for a hard copy, please download the issue as a PDF suitable for printing at home.

In This Issue:

The Chair’s Corner

Sweet Soaps and a Terrible Stench by Gary Commins

Fresh Perspectives

Passing Down Peace as a Family Value by Amanda Vaughan

Everyday Peacemaking

Someone Else’s War by Connie Dee Belmore

The Wisdom of the Elders

Ruminations of an Introvert by Midgene Spatz

Journal/A Theologian Speaks

Stopping the War: Politics, Strategic Options, Christian Ethics by Gary Dorrien

The View from the Monastery

Rebels, War and Cracked Glass by Joseph Brown

Book Reviews

Becoming Bridges: The Spirit and Practice of Diversity, Gary Commins/Cowley Publications, 2007
reviewed by John L. Kater

God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now, John Dominic Crossan/HarperSanFrancisco, 2007
reviewed by Robin Jarrell

Religion, Empire and Torture: The Case of Achaemenian Persia, with a Postscript on Abu Ghraib, Bruce Lincoln/University of Chicago Press, 2007
reviewed by Robin Jarrell

Special Features

Iraq Action Group Report: Cant I get a witness? by Hal Hayek

A Soldier’s Journey to Peace Activism by Michael Burroughs

EPF Strategic Planning Process by Linda Gaither

Peace Partners Initiative by Gary Commins

Designer Joins EPF Team

Peace Notes

EPF participates in Diocese of Minnesota MDG Summit by Rex McKee

When the Violin Can Forgive the Past by Terry Rogers

Peace Delegation to Iran: February – March, 2008 by Ellen Francis

Years before Muriel Lester became one of Gandhi’s friends, before she was an Ambassador-at-Large for the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, before she founded Kingsley Hall to work with the poorest of London’s poor, when she was a child, she had a memorable experience on an ordinary day.
As she rode on a train through London, a terrible stench suddenly filled her compartment. Adults rushed – too late – to close the windows. Flustered, she asked what caused such a horrible odor. Unruffled, her nanny said that it was the factories that made the sweet-smelling soaps that her privileged family used at home. Her nanny told her not to worry about the people who lived near the factories. They weren’t like Muriel. They didn’t have the same feelings.
Recently, I told this story to the Los Angeles Port Commission. The Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports are multi-billion dollar businesses. Every day the Ports welcome the consumer products – the sweet-smelling soaps – our society craves to feed its insatiable gluttony. The job of the Ports, as one Long Beach Commissioner told a delegation of clergy, is to “generate wealth.”
The Ports also generate injustice, an environmental disaster, and health nightmares. Instead of trains passing near factories, in Southern California trucks pass through neighborhoods leaving behind poisoned air and congested lungs.
Although politely unspoken, the same attitude Muriel Lester heard prevails today: Those people? The children suffering in the asthma epidemic? The truckers working long hours without benefits? The deaths directly caused and indirectly induced by diesel exhaust? They don’t matter. They aren’t like us.
Labor and environmental groups work together through a Coalition for Clean Ports to advocate for a solution that provides decent working conditions for truck drivers and healthier living conditions for families living near the ports and freeways.
For people of faith, there is a spiritual connection between health, justice, and the environment. We do not live by a living wage alone, by healthy lungs alone, or by clean air alone. But a just resolution of this issue requires not even one strand of moral fiber. The Coalition’s proposals are systemic and pragmatic. Yet neither principles nor pragmatism hold any sway with the Port Commissions.
Powerful people blissfully ignore the stench of injustice, ill health, and a poisoned environment, but they have a keen sense of smell in discerning political winds. They can try to satisfy one part of the coalition – the environmentalists – and pry them apart from their allies in labor. If it were politically viable, they would do the opposite. Time will tell if the Coalition’s center holds.
Today’s sweet-smelling soaps – the products to appease the bottomless abyss of our appetites, the wealth generated by the ports – still mar the environment, scar children’s lungs, and lay siege to decency. The cost is born by ordinary people who – apparently – still do not matter. For some, the Ports are sweetness; for others, they stink.
Gary Commins is the Chair of the National Executive Council, Rector of St. Luke’s Church in Long Beach, California, Deputy to General Convention, and author of Becoming Bridges: The Spirit and Practice of Diversity.

…the rain, the cold, the Capitol, Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, with yet another front page photo in Episcopal Peace Witness. Five years of war. Over 4000 U.S. troops are dead, 29,000 others have been wounded, while far too many American families deal with the invisible psychic scars of combat. Millions of Iraqis have been killed, wounded or driven from their homes. Inter-sectarian violence continues to rage in Iraqi cities, even as al-Qaida gains a firm foothold in a country where it never operated before the war. The price tag? Over $500 billion, and that figure is rising by $10-12 billion each month.
The theme of this issue seeks to broaden and deepen our fall 2007 focus on Iraq, without losing sight of the moral imperatives with which the war presents us. We wish to probe the question of the environmental costs of war, the weapons industry and our unsustainable lifestyles that war presumes to protect. Our Journal piece, “Know Nukes,” by Dr. Thomas F. Lee, exposes the deadly impact of nuclear wastes associated with weapons and power production. Our Features develop this theme from a variety of perspectives. The “Genesis Covenant” provides a way for all of us to work for change. Don’t miss the plans for this summer’s Lambeth Peace Pilgrimage, as well as reports on current and up-coming EPF actions. And don’t forget to write to us…you are the voice of EPF.

Enjoy!

The purpose of this delegation, sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, is to seek alternatives to the current political standoff between the United States and Iranian governments and to affirm friendship and solidarity between the people of the United States and the people of Iran. This will be the sixth Iran Peace Delegation to be sponsored by FOR.

These delegations allow a diverse and representative group of Western peace activists to see firsthand the realities of life in today’s Iran, to experience the rich and ancient history of Persian culture and art, and to meet with members of Iranian civil society. Also, they provide a chance for ordinary Iranians to encounter citizens of the United States.

Participants will visit Tehran (the contemporary capital), Qom (the world center of Shi’ite theology), Isfahan (the legendary capital of medieval Persia), and Shiraz (the jewel of classical Islamic culture as well as the seat of Iran’s ancient pre-Islamic civilization).

The deadline for applications will be November 15, 2007. Due to the limited number of places on the delegation, FOR is obliged to select only the most qualified candidates. A detailed itinerary is available at epfnational.org.

For more information or to join the EPF Iran Action Group, please contact Sr. Ellen Francis at 845-562-0592 or sisters@osh.org. You may read reports of the previous FOR Iran delegations and find the application form on the FOR website: www.forusa.org or contact Leila Zand at iran@ forusa.org or 845-358-4601.

Sr. Ellen Francis, OSH will be a leader of this delegation. She lived in Iran for 7 years in the 1960s and 70s, and speaks Farsi. She has been a co-leader and staff person on three recent delegations to Iran and has been actively working against the threat of a U.S. military attack on Iran. She is a sister of the Order of St. Helena and a priest of the Diocese of NY, and an EPF member.

“I don’t want to see war ever again,” said the middle-aged Iranian man in the wheelchair. We met him in a convalescent home in Tehran, where he lived with 25 men, disabled in a war that ended 19 years ago, the Iran/Iraq war (l980-l988).

During my recent trip to Iran, sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, our delegation was told that this war had been the longest conventional war of the 20th century, yet it had barely registered in my awareness at the time. The Iranian government (which had arranged and approved the schedule of all our meetings) clearly wanted us to understand the suffering from this conflict, in which at least a million Iranians had died.

The convalescent home was clean, spacious, full of air and light. We met with a number of patients, bringing them roses, chocolates, and notes and pictures given by American children for Iranians we might meet. Many of these patients expressed their affection for American people (though not our government). “Thank you for following the way of peace, after Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed,” one man said to us. “I don’t want to see war ever again ”was a particularly poignant phrase, since many in both our countries feared the US would soon be launching air strikes on Iran.

Our time in Iran changed many of our own preconceptions. Not only the disabled soldiers, but many Iranians we met on the streets and in other public places were delighted to hear we were visitors from America. We were met with such hospitality and warmth that the idea of pervasive Iranian hostility toward Americans just couldn’t be maintained.

We visited the tomb of Hafiz, a 14th century Persian Sufi poet. His work expresses both divine and human love, radiant with forgiveness and generosity.

Even after all this time
the sun never says to the earth
you owe me.
Look what happens to a love
like that
it lights the whole sky.
-Hafiz

Hafiz is buried in a marble tomb within a large landscaped garden. It’s a place of pilgrimage for many. Several of our group sat on some steps in the garden and read Hafiz’s poems aloud among ourselves. For hundreds of years his poetry has been so quoted and loved that it has become part of the ordinary speech of Iranians.

Our last full day was spent in Qom, a town devoted primarily to seminaries where Shia clergy, both men and women, engage in what is normally a 20 year course of theological study. We met with teachers from an institute for theological study devoted to interfaith understanding. They surprised us with examples of their commitment to inter-religious dialogue: many of their students share an on-line curriculum with students from Eastern Mennonite university in the U.S.; they’ve participated in two conferences recently with Benedictines in England; they took part in an interfaith dialogue in Innsbruck; they study not only the other Abrahamic religions (Judaism and Christianity) but also Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. “Interfaith conversations have a deep root in Islam, ”they told us. “Often it’s the spirituality more than the theology that is a better ground for conversation.”

When asked what we can do about the dangerous standoff between our two countries, one of the clerics said, “We can pray for one another. When Christians and Muslims fast and pray together, it’s very powerful. We know God is going to help whoever is trying to do what is right.”

Earlier in the trip we drove by the former American embassy, where embassy staff were held hostage for 444 days by Islamic militants in l979-l980. There’s still anti-American graffiti on the wall around the compound. Our guide made two comments:

“When Madeline Albright was U.S. Secretary of State, she made an important speech indicating an apology for the CIA-backed coup in Iran in l953, which overthrew the popular prime minister Mossadeq. He had threatened the West by nationalizing the Iranian oil industry.”

“Some of those militants who captured the U.S. embassy in l979 have met with some of the former hostages and apologized to them.”

When the violin
can forgive the past
it starts singing.

Terry Rogers is a community health nurse in New York City and belongs to the Third Order of the Society of St. Francis. She has been a member of EPF for many years.

(Poems by Hafiz translated by Daniel Ladinsky in The Gift: Poems by Hafiz)

This article was also printed in the Catholic Worker, June-July 2007.

Reviewed by Robin Jarrell

“Empire studies” has taken root as a branch of Biblical scholarship, where the focus of “empire” is usually mapped out using ancient Rome as the ultimate reference. In his postscript to his masterful work Religion, Empire, and Torture, Bruce Lincoln admits that in this study on ancient Persian empire, his “anguish and outrage concerning the American imperial adventure in Iraq frequently bubble close to the surface.”

Lincoln begins his survey of the empire of ancient Persia, the empire of Darius – in 521BCE, of Xerxes, and Cyrus who is mentioned in the Old Testament. He uses the practice of torture used by the Persian empire to examine the relationship between religion and empire – and ends his survey by pointing out the terrifying similarities between the uses of torture by ancient Persia, and that now used by the United States of America – specifically in Abu Ghraib.

Empires tell themselves, by religious discourse, that their acts of brutality are not only warranted for the safety of the empire, for peace and prosperity of the people – they are mandated by the divine. Lincoln argues that the manner, modes and frequency of torture escalate in direct correlation to the breakdown of the empire’s control – physical and mental – of it’s populace. As he puts it, “operations [such as … blurring the issues, invoking the divine, flogging scapegoats, slandering critics, and reasserting one’s devotions to traditional ideals] become increasingly strained with repetition since a people’s capacity to tolerate contradiction is distinctly more finite that is an empire’s capacity to manifest them.” Thus is with Abu Ghraib: the practice of torture only provides evidence that not only is the United States of America an empire, it is an empire on the verge of decline and disintegration.

See Robin Jarrell’s companion review of God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now by John Dominic Crossan/HarperSanFrancisco, 2007

Reviewed by Robin Jarell. Robin is rector of a small parish in Milton, PA and an active member of EPF for 4 years.

Reviewed by Robin Jarrell

In sharp contrast to Lincoln’s book (see companion review), John Dominic Crossan’s God and Empire is written from a distinctly Christian perspective. In what may be his finest work to date, Crossan asks “anyone who is both Christian and American today” the question, “how is it possible to be a faithful Christian in an American Empire facilitated by a violent Christian Bible?”
Crossan begins by pointing out “that the Bible proposes the radicality of a nonviolent God struggling with the normalcy of a violent civilization” and that this is the worth of scripture. Thus, Crossan argues, the Kingdom of God is a radical new way to live outside of the normalcy of empire.

Crossan’s conclusion is that, while our problem of empire and violence “is as deep as human civilization,” Jesus and the Christian witness give us the Good News that “the violent normalcy of human civilization is not the inevitable destiny of human nature.” Indeed, for Crossan, we are called, as Christians, to “un-invent” empire and to “cooperate in establishing the Kingdom of God in a transformed earth.”

Both these fine works should be read by anyone who questions the role of religion within empire, and who wishes to reclaim the Christian message from those in the American Empire who would try and distort the Gospel.

See Robin Jarrell’s companion review of Religion, Empire and Torture: The Case of Achaemenian Persia, with a Postscript on Abu Ghraib, by Bruce Lincoln/University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Reviewed by Robin Jarell. Robin is rector of a small parish in Milton, PA and an active member of EPF for 4 years.

Reviewed by John L. Kater

Books about diversity are no longer a rarity; but Gary Commins’ book is an unusual treasure for a number of reasons. First, unlike many books that address racism or homophobia or sexism or distinctions of class or religious pluralism, Commins considers that an adequate treatment of the subject requires we pay attention simultaneously to all the ways in which human beings are different. The point is not to address one or the other form of difference, but to recognize that our world divides people in many ways, all of which are capable of lending themselves to discrimination.

Another valuable aspect of this book is its insistence that while attention to diversity calls us to make significant changes – in the way we relate to one another and the ways in which our institutions are structured – the reality of diversity is not just about practicalities; it is ultimately about our spirituality. In other words, the ways we approach diversity reveals something fundamental about how we understand and relate to God as well as each other; hence its subtitle, “The Spirit and Practice of Diversity.” Indeed, each chapter concludes with an invitation to undertake a “spiritual exercise” that helps us heighten our awareness; “spiritual counsel,” a series of quotations, often from the scriptures, that help focus the issues raised by the text; and finally a “spiritual practice” designed to keep the issues before us after we have closed the book and put it aside.

Commins acknowledges that like all religious traditions, Christianity can be used to foster an attitude of superiority and defensiveness towards human differences. But he argues that at its best, our faith encourages “the capacity for openness, respect, empathy, and compassion” (p. 7). The heart of the biblical message about diversity is that we all stand as equals before God, and growth in Christian faith means learning to see, think and act in the light of that good news.

Both his own personal experience and his years of pastoral ministry have convinced Commins that such spirit and practice do not come easily. The examples he cites throughout the volume are often drawn from the memory of his own work as a parish priest in congregations that were committed to honoring diversity but often hesitant about how to proceed and where differences of opinion, taste and spirituality created difficulties. Indeed, learning how he and the congregations addressed those difficulties provides the reader with a sense that, though difficult, differences can be transcended and truly welcoming congregations can actually come into being. In his attention to the opportunity for individual and congregational growth towards God, he places the enterprise of learning to affirm diversity squarely within the Anglican ethical tradition.

The last section of Becoming Bridges is entitled “Hope In Community,” and this is indeed a hopeful book. There is almost none of the chiding tone, the eat-your-vegetables-they’re-good –for-you attitude that sometimes accompanies studies of diversity; rather, the book is a celebration of the possibility, and the unexpected blessing, of living in community with those radically different from us.

Gary Commins is a fine writer, and nearly every page of this book contains sentences or paragraphs that are worth careful reading and savoring, not only for what he says but for how he says it. This book is written from the perspective of someone whose own background and experience place him on the privileged side of every equation, but who has learned to see with others’ eyes and feel with others’ hearts. Those of us who, like him, approach the issues of diversity from a position of privilege are the primary audience he has in mind; but after all, we are the ones for whom affirming the blessings of diversity may come hardest. I expect to return to this book often, to be reminded of how grand is the vision of a church and a human race that truly embraces every one of us and to remind myself how hopeful that vision is.

Reviewed by John L. Kater, Emeritus Professor of Ministry Development, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, CA.

The Diocese of Minnesota Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Task Force hosted the first ever training summit on Saturday the 15th of September attended by over 200 adults, children and youth. Participating in this summit were Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD), Episcopalians for Global Relief (EGR), Episcopal Public Policy Network (EPPN), Bonnie Anderson President of the House of Deputies, and the Episcopal Peace Fellowship (EPF).

The day was organized into several fast paced presentations: a powerful keynote address by Bonnie, organizational training by ERD, EGR, and EPPN, an open forum aptly named the Three legged stool of the MDG’s, and 8 workshops including From Violence to Wholeness provided by the Reverend’s Jackie Lynn and Rex McKee of the EPF, An introduction to the MDG’s by the Reverend Mike Kinman, Thinking Globally organizing locally by Dr. Michael McNally, The MDG’s and Worship by the Reverend Leeanne Watkins, The Willing Heart by the Reverend Barbara Mraz, Organizing a Mission Project by Laurie Beckman Yetzer and Reading the Times: Using everyday life to inspire MDG commitment by Dr Lisa Kimball.

The Reverend Devon Anderson, chair of the MDG task force, shared that the success of the day ‘could only be explained by the Spirit in our midst’ adding ‘we provided a forum for people to network and join forces and we offered practical, utilitarian workshops that were armed with new ideas and strategies to take back to congregations and be God’s agents of reconciliation in the world.’

Rex McKee is a deacon serving in the Diocese of Minnesota at St Mary’s Episcopal Church, St Paul MN, and at the St Paul Area Council of Churches. Rex also serves on the MDG task-force for the Diocese of Minnesota and preaches and leads educational events on the MDGs. He has been a member of EPF since the late 60’s and currently serves on the Executive Committee.

• EPF collecting Nonviolence Resources: Do you have a wonderful nonviolence resource you would like to share? EPF is pulling together the best of our resources for our up-coming Tool Kits. Send your resource to epfnational@ameritech.net and we’ll include it in our Tool Kits.
• Passed Great Resolutions? Did your Diocese pass Peace and Justice Resolutions this year? Please send a copy of your resolution and let us know the result of the election…we need to share these!

Human beings operate out of basic assumptions. These paradigms are learned and fostered by culture, education and religion. They constitute the lens through which we make our choices, filter information, determine our goals and relationships.

My monastic life of prayer, work, study and obedience is a grinding process that one day (probably my last) will grant me, through grace, a deep sense of knowing God. I go through my life with the presumption that this is so, and that as I come to know God I will be docile to his will and loving to my fellows. I believe this with all of my heart and it is the core “lens” through which I view my life. But I can no longer rest easy in this assumption.

“And war broke out in heaven…And the dragon and his angels were defeated and there was no longer a place for them in heaven.” (Rev. 12:7a, 8). This passage demolishes the lens I have been trying to describe. The war was in heaven. The rebelling angels saw God. They were not warring against an idea, theology or hermeneutic. They were in The Presence. Unclouded by doubts of God’s existence, they knew God and still warred against him. We humans may be forgiven for not knowing because of our blindness, hardness of heart or honest doubts, but to see God in all of God’s glory and to still rebel?

Christians (specifically American Mainline Christians with a post-modern world view) have a deep-space-telescope-sized lens that most of us focus our basic beliefs through: democracy, pluralism, social justice, inclusivity (for most groups) and self-identification are core gospel values. We believe these are clearly described in scripture. “Why can’t they (insert favorite other here)see that? Isn’t it obvious?”.

But before I scoff at devils I am reminded of Jesus’ reply to his apostles “You have seen me, and still say ‘Show us the Father’?”. In Jesus I have seen God. In a glass, darkly, but in someway just as clearly as those rebel angels. And so humility must come. It is not a war located out there, between governments, nations, tribes or ideologies. It is a war at the center of the human heart. And until this war is resolved, there will not be a place for us in heaven. I can not assume that if they saw the truth, they would change, for I believe I have seen the truth, and I fight against it. The lens is not only cracked but shattered.

What does all of this have to do with the Episcopal Peace Witness? To be honest, I am not entirely sure myself; the Spirit leads where she wills. But I do know that it raises questions: What are my assumptions? What do I expect others to see? Do I live that expectation myself? What is the nature of war?, in society?, the person?, the soul? I haven’t answered anything, but I hope to have scratched a lens or two.

Joseph Brown is a brother in the Order of the Holy Cross, a Benedictine Anglican Community in West Park, New York.

I believe it is possible to grow older without necessarily growing wiser. In nonviolence training we are reminded that PEACE making begins within each individual. We are called to become increasingly aware – often painfully aware – of anger, hatred, and resentment within ourselves that must be supplanted in order for PEACE to prevail. I share here some of my attempts to nurture INNER PEACE while also participating in PEACE ACTION. If one or more of these simple ideas resonates with your spirit, you may wish to give them a prayerful try, flinging them aside with carefree abandon if they don’t work for you.

Handing out slices of bread once a week in the early morning keeps me grounded in the here and now. In this action, perhaps, a miniscule portion of the world’s pain begins to heal. ‘’The Only Solution is Love, Dorothy Day,” emblazons the hot pink T-shirt I often wear when I assist in the food line for the homeless with the faithful folks from the Las Vegas Catholic Worker. Their twenty years of persistent ministering and sharing in the suffering of the homeless is a humbling experience.

A small, faithful group publicly witnesses against the war each Thursday in front of the Federal Building on Las Vegas Boulevard. Living near the Nevada Test Site and the ill-conceived Yucca Mountain Project (proposed national storage site for nuclear waste), provides many opportunities to demonstrate opposition to the current administration’s intention to accelerate the nuclear arms race.

It is a gift of elder wisdom to be selective as to the investment of one’s energies, not to “die in every ditch” or try to be “the ever-present Messiah.” Whether young or old, one must carefully choose the level of participation that is sustainable at any given time. Burn Out is always lurking in the shadows.

Rest is an antidote to despair. When our bodies say “Enough,” it is advisable to listen. The medical community is now documenting the fact that naps can stave off heart attacks by greatly reducing stress. The work of peace making can be stressful business; the stakes are high and the outcomes are uncertain, in part, due to the complacency and indifference of the masses.

Midgene Spatz is a long-time, active EPF member in Las Vegas, Nevada.

As part of its ongoing strategic plan, EPF has hired Josh Frank as the new Communications Specialist. This part-time consultant position will encompass four main areas: layout and design of the Episcopal Peace Witness (beginning with this issue); design and maintenance of the EPF website (www.epfnational.org); design of the monthly e-mail newsletter; and other design needs as they arise (such as posters, flyers, mailings, tool kits, etc.).

Josh, his wife Jillian, and their 5 month-old son Jude reside in Scranton, PA, where Josh completed his Bachelor’s degree in English at Marywood University in 2006. Before settling on English, he studied Religion, French, and Art at MacMurray College in Illinois, his home state. Josh’s background in publication and design work includes photojournalism, print, and web work. Along with his work for EPF, he hopes to continue to build his freelance client base over the next year.

Josh currently works part-time as both Missioner to Youth at Church of the Epiphany (Episcopal), Glenburn, PA, and Director of Youth Ministries at First Presbyterian Church, Clarks Summit, PA. Josh and his family call Peacemeal, an emerging Episcopal community in Scranton that he serves as a member of the leadership team, their church home.

You can contact Josh by e-mail at iamjoshfrank@gmail.com or through his blog at joshfrank.blogspot.com

Until this last election, there were no members of either house of Congress who had served in Iraq or who even had a child serving in Iraq. Therefore when the vote for war was taken, no members of either house had any direct, familial contact with anyone who would be going to fight the battles. We all know President Bush’s sterling record of military service, and as one commentator put it, Dick Cheney “had other things to do” during the Vietnam War.

No one in our government, who has sent thousands of men and women into harm’s way, has any “dog in the fight.” War is something done by proxy. Violence is committed to on a national scale without any pain. No one in government has to touch or be touched by the horror and the gut wrenching that goes with being shot or maimed or tortured. President Bush would do well to remember the words of Dr. King, who noted that if one engaged in civil disobedience, one had to expect consequences for that act. Mr. Bush should realize that his international disobedience should have consequences – even though he would seem to think otherwise.

The point is we have a bloodthirsty government operating with no blood on their hands. Based on how George Bush felt about serving his country in Vietnam, he had led us into a mindset that “someone else” can do the fighting. We are being taught that “someone else” will commit the unsavory acts. “Someone else” will be tortured and die. “Someone else” will pay for all of this.

But I am not here for political polemic. This matter touches home much more closely. I have a son who turned eighteen on the Fourth of July. Our good friend, Jon, who eats at our table at least four nights a week, turned eighteen in January. He filled out his selective service registration.

Believing that creating peace begins at home, two years ago I got on the EPF website and found all the documents for Conscientious Objector Status registration. My son, Thomas, “yeah yeah-yeah’ed” it and allowed as to how it was a good idea. So, fast-forward to a few weeks ago. Jon and Thomas and I were at the dinner table and I mentioned the CO papers. “I’m not an Episcopalian anymore, Mom, ”Thomas said. “I’ve never even been in a church, ”Jon said. I asked them, “Couldn’t you just pretend to be an Episcopalian for the fifteen minutes it would take for our Rector to sign your forms?” And then the fireworks started.

The gist of their argument was that “someone else” would go to war. “There are people who like to do that sort of thing,” was kind of their excuse. I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. These young boys are victims of George Bush’s milieu. They have no concept of the agony of war. They have been raised in a culture that allows “someone else” to do it. They do not even think that they will ever have to pay for war.

I never taught my children peace. Instead, I protected them from evil. These are two entirely different things. Since they never had to face the darker side of the culture, they not only have no skills to face it, but they also are unaware it exists. War is for “someone else.” And I have not raised my son to realize the horrors and consequences of that evil. They are children of the Bush era, culture, and way of life. “It won’t happen to me.” My desire to protect my children has not taught them peace. It has taught them avoidance. I must accept my complicity in the Bush way of life. I guess I, too, have been influenced by ease and complacency.

I always thought the term, “waging peace,” was somehow oxymoronic terminology, but now I am wondering how to do just that in my very own home. My husband says that the War in Vietnam dragged on as long as there were student deferments in the draft. He contends that the war only ended when the lottery system for the draft was instituted. Suddenly every young man was eligible, rich and poor. The war ended soon after that.

I believe in Resurrection. The draft may be the Crucifixion that comes first. I have to pray and hope that my boys (and my 15 year old daughter?) will not face that horror. In the bottom of my avoidance/ complacent heart, I have to believe that Thomas and Jon will come out all right. I have to believe that all of our poor military fodder will come home all right. As I said, I believe in Resurrection. The Peace of God passes all understanding. Does that mean that if you don’t look for it you won’t see it? Does that mean that God somehow redeems the “someone elses”? I hope it means that we all reach resurrection. Thanks be to God.

Connie Dee Belmore is a native of North Carolina. She was the first woman postulant in the diocese of East Carolina and the first woman priest in the diocese of South Carolina. Connie Dee also served as college chaplain and parish priest at Grace Church, Charleston, and then Director of Community Ministries for the Diocese of Atlanta for 16 years. Currently she is a priest of the Diocese of Nevada.

My son, Jess, was three years old when he saw the newspaper on August 15, 1998, with a photo of a bombing in Omagh, Ireland. He asked me what happened. I had little choice but to explain the painful truth. This was Jess’ introduction to war. I stumbled through some explanation of violence fueling more violence. Jess understood the instinctive “he hit me first” rational for aggressive behavior. But he was incredulous that adults behaved this way. Something was lost in him at that moment, and his little brow was too furrowed for a three-year-old.

That one photo rocked his little world. His innocence and shock would be lost and replaced with the familiarity and numbness we all tend to take on. Jess fretted and wanted to know what we could do to help. All I could say is that we could pray for peace, and we did.

Four years later, our entire family, including Jess’ younger brothers, stood on a corner, silently, in downtown Auburn on the coldest day of the year, in a silent public peace vigil, urging our nation to slow the drumbeat toward war with Iraq. We were a small group of participants focused and serious as cars sped past, some honking and voicing opinions from car windows, most disagreeing with our message, some very angered by it.

The reporter approached Jess and asked if she could talk to him. I hesitantly said yes, but stood close, not wanting my seven-year-old to be put on the spot. She asked reasonable and responsible questions, and Jess answered without pause. I wasn’t sure what he would say. Jess started talking, and soon he was citing Gandhi, Jesus, and his current hero, Martin Luther King, Jr., saying that war kills people, rarely solves problems and often leads to more killing. He was speaking his own words, and he was as articulate and grounded as any adult who would speak that day on either side of the issue.

This year, Jess, now twelve, read the Gospel passage at a prayer vigil for peace at our parish in Auburn, speaking with a clear, strong voice that carried Jesus’ words across the silent, dimly lit nave. My three children were some of the only little ones there, but they are used to that by now. They know we will be there because we believe that our faith speaks clearly about war and peace, and that discipleship demands our witness, even though it may be unpopular. Now, that doesn’t mean, by any stretch, that my children don’t lean over and bop each other or hurl an insult in the heat of the moment. But they do understand we believe that Jesus calls us to something different.

Jess said he was very nervous about reading in church that night, but I don’t think anyone could tell. We talked about the Northern Ireland event from nine years earlier. It was hard for him to imagine that moment, when war was a new idea. He couldn’t recall feeling so worried about that bombing, so unnerved by it. He said, “Now,that’s just common. I mean, there is war on the news everyday. I just don’t notice it that much. It just seems normal.” I asked him how that realization felt.

All he said was, “Sad. Sad that it doesn’t even seem like a big deal anymore.” We talked about how important it is to participate in things like the peace vigil at our church, because it is one way of trying to stay aware—awake—even though numbness is easier and perhaps, more popular.
I can’t change how scary our world is or protect my sons from the violence they will come to know in their lives. But I can help them find ways to stand against it, ways to join the struggle and be part of the longing for the fulfillment of all creation.

Amanda and Walton Vaughan are members of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Auburn, Alabama. She works as a full-time home-school teacher for her three sons Jess – 12 years old, Andy – 9 years old, and Nathan – 6 years old. As their teacher, she continually searches for ways to engage her sons in issues of faith, politics and contemporary affairs.

With the leadership of our Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the EPF is launching a Peace Partners Initiative that will play a critical role in our future success. The Peace Partners Initiative invites individuals, parishes, dioceses, and institutions to become our active peace partners.

Three years ago, Passion for Peace was our first development campaign in 65 years. It enabled us to expand nonviolence work into underserved communities, organize regional and ecumenical events to protest the war in Iraq, revolutionize our communications, have our strongest presence ever at General Convention, and launch new efforts with young adults.

In the next three years, the Peace Partners initiative will enable the EPF to build on its recent success and help it to:

• Create a national network of congregations within the Episcopal Church
• Continue to take a lead in regional and ecumenical anti-war actions
• Provide liturgical and educational resources to local congregations
• Provide support for local organizing and action
• Expand access to nonviolence training
• Expand its impact within the Episcopal Church
• Nurture new generations of peacemakers

Individuals, parishes, dioceses, and institutions can become Peace Partners by making a three-year financial commitment to the EPF. If you have any questions about what it would mean for you, your parish, diocese, or institution to become a peace partner, please contact Jackie Lynn, EPF Executive Director at 312-922-8628.

The success of EPF’s new Strategic Plan will depend on many things. Our National Executive Council has taken the first steps by reorganizing itself to undertake the work we have envisioned. We will be seeking greater participation from our members in our new national network of congregations, in Action Groups, in local and regional events, and in becoming a more active part of our leadership. And we will need many strong and active Peace Partners throughout the Church.

Our Presiding Bishop invites you all to join her “in taking a stand against violence and for the new earth Christ came to inaugurate.” We hope that you will become our Peace Partners.

Gary Commins is the Chair of the National Executive Council, Rector of St. Luke’s Church in Long Beach, California, Deputy to General Convention, and author of Becoming Bridges: The Spirit and Practice of Diversity.

“Episcopal Peace Fellowship is actively dismantling violence, doing justice and striving to be peacemakers.”

This EPF mission statement is one achievement of an intensive strategic planning process undertaken in 2007. Your national executive committee engaged in this process to more effectively partner with you, the chapters and individual members, as we build our witness through national and regional events. Our vision: every parish a Peace Partner. Our strategy: provide tools, training and organizational support to dismantle the culture of violence in ourselves, our congregations, our communities and our nation.

In April, 2007, the NEC gathered in Chicago to begin the strategic planning process under the excellent leadership of consultant Barbara Raye of Minneapolis. We had in hand the results of a membership survey involving 400 households, tabulated using SurveyMonkey.com. Our survey instrument provided an overview of members’ past and present experience of EPF, as well as suggestions for new directions. We also had in hand reports of conference calls with constituent groups, such as chapter conveners and allies. We carefully considered responses to questions such as “What is your present experience or impression of EPF?”, “Where are the linkages between religious peace fellowships?”, “What practical actions will promote our goals?”. This valuable information acted as our spring-board into a reflection process.

What was our process? In intensive sessions, Barbara led the assembled NEC through a series of exercises focused by reflection questions. What are our opportunities? What are our challenges? We articulated what we believe are EPF’s strengths and weaknesses. What are our goals? This question involved us in visioning exercises and imagined scenarios of the future. We struggled to articulate our core values, looking for those four or five values that show up in all of EPF’s work:

• Radical Nonviolent Activism
• Personal and Corporate Conscientious Objection
• Prayerful Discernment
• Prophetic Spirituality
• Baptismal Covenant Promises

These values are reflected in our current tag line: Connect, Pray, Act for Peace.

To move from vision to action, the following actions steps were articulated:

• Develop tool kits for EPF chapters, members and parishes to empower local organizing, education, worship, connections and actions.
• Increase organized ecumenical opportunities for public witness.
• Develop and disseminate intellectual work analyzing key issues and their relationship with peace and justice action.
• Change in the church: promote nonviolent peacemaking skills and values as core competencies in education for ministry; promote collaboration at all levels and imbed peace in all aspects of the life and mission of TEC.
• Increase public policy and advocacy at local, state and national levels, including the honing of networking and lobbying skill development.
• Expand nonviolence work in underserved communities.
• Strengthen EPF by increasing our diversity, breadth, age range and involvement of its members.

So what does all this mean for you, our members, chapters and readers? We believe EPF’s strategic vision and goals put the national office in a position to more effectively partner with you. Communicating and Connecting are key aspects of this partnership. Two new positions have been created to provide us with professional assistance: a media master with skills in web-site design, maintenance and E-zine production; and a publicity manager for advertising, news releases, etc. Our staff and our projects will require funding. Our membership will make it all happen.

The EPF is the membership. All of us together are stake-holders in our vision and goals.
We are Peace Partners: individuals, chapters, parishes, cathedrals, all of us working together, pledging together, praying together, eyes wide open to peace with justice. Please read carefully the information on Peace Partners presented in this issue. Make your pledge to support and participate in the EPF Mission: dismantle violence, do justice, become peacemakers.

Linda Gaither is the Vice-Chair of the National Executive Council.

I’m often asked: “Why would a retired Army officer like you be a peace activist?” Many are surprised that I now carry a sign in peace marches and am a member of Veterans for Peace while some of my military friends just call me “a hippie.” For me, striving for peace and justice has become a spiritual matter rather than a political one.

As a child I had always wanted to be a soldier. As with many of my friends, I saw the military as a noble institution in which to grow in stature while serving and defending my country. I went on to seek an Army commission while in college with the full intention of making it my career. My twenty-nine years of service fulfilled most of my expectations, and entering the military was a decision I never regretted.

For both professional and personal reasons, I was against the war with Iraq well before it started, and I was very vocal about it. However, it seemed at the time that the nation was fervent for “shock and awe,”and few I encountered had any patience to discuss alternatives with me. I was in a state of cognitive dissonance.

Conversion experiences are very powerful. The philosopher William James speaks of two types of conversion experiences—the “once born” and the “twice born.” Since my baptism at age 12 in a large fundamental church, I had been a once born—active in a comfortable sort of way, but uncommitted for the most part and still searching. My confirmation as an Episcopalian in 1997 took me down a new spiritual path.

On 9/11, I was beginning my third year in the Education for Ministry program. EfM was the beginning of my twice born experience. My former career, my assumptions about war, and my faith had to be examined in a new light— both spiritual and historical.

Early criticism was that we were simply not fighting a Just War. Later, after much study and prayer, I reached another more personal conclusion: there are no Just Wars—only wars. We cannot love our enemies while destroying them. We are told in the Gospels that the “Way” is arduous. Peace activism is an example of how arduous it can be. Pacifism goes against our most basic instinct for self-preservation.

My purpose here is not to make a case for or against Just War. That is a personal decision each of us must make after much theological reflection. Study the topic in depth. Make it a subject for discussion (and not argument) in church settings. Pray for guidance. Listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit. Then live the conclusion you reach, with God’s help.

In light of my own studies, prayer and reflection, and after spending over half my life as a soldier, quietly attempting to reconcile the Sermon on the Mount with the realities of war, “love your enemies” and “shock and awe” have become theologically incompatible. This has taken me down a new path—from soldier to peace activist. I struggle with it still, and know I am not alone. I pray for a day when the global community finds peaceful ways to settle disputes. And I pray for a day when the Church, throughout the world, will settle for nothing less.

May the peace of the Lord be always with you.

Michael Burroughs is a retired Army Reserve colonel and is a lay religious brother in the Anglican Order of Preachers (Dominicans). He serves the Diocese of Missouri as EfM coordinator and mentor, and with his wife, Jan, is co-convener of the diocesan chapter of Episcopal Peace Fellowship.