From the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, 6-21-06

The resolution that PPF wrote and got entered as a Commissioner Resolution was amended on the floor of GA. A minority report was offered and defeated, but then the same opponents recommended the referral to ACSWP for study item 5 that called for a variety of things to transform U.S. policy from military to non-violent aid. The objection was that the commissioners did not know enough about the situation to act on such a far reaching proposal. See the amended resolution at http://les-pcusa.org/Item.aspx?IID=502&

While we regret the referral, we celebrate that GA took action to commend the work PPF and others are doing with the churches in Colombia and that GA actually went on record with commendations for non-violent work of the Colombian church and for the many entities in the GA that work for peace and justice.

COLOMBIA: Commissioners Resolution prepared by Marilyn White and Parrish Jones passed through the Ecumenical Affairs Committee with minor amendment. However, a minority report is expected when it is recommended to GA this week. See the resolution at http://les-pcusa.org/Item.aspx?IID=502&

IMMIGRATION: Parrish Jones and Rick Ufford-Chase worked with GA staff to revise the overtures on immigration to present a substitute motion on 09-15. Minister Commissioner Norman Fong entered the substitute into committee and with one good amendment, the committee recommended the overture to the GA for approval. Read the overture at http://72.54.6.218/Business/Business.aspx?iid=297

TORTURE: Both overtures 09-01 and 09-11 were sent to GA with recommendation for passage. You can read them at 09-01 and 09-11.

GLOBALIZATION: The ACSWP study paper on Globalization was sent to GA with recommendations for approval, publication and prepartion of study materials. See recommendations at http://les-pcusa.org/Item.aspx?IID=226&

Len Bjorkmann honored as Moderator Emeritus of Presbyterian Peace Fellowship

See Video news from the GA about PPF

The news release from PPF begins:

What do you do with a former moderator? Rick Ufford-Chase, the first moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to serve a 2 year term, will return to his activist and spiritual home, the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship. The 62 year old organization announced at its June 17 General Assembly Peace Breakfast that Ufford-Chase will become the first full-time Executive Director of PPF, starting August 1, 2006.

[from Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, Parrish Jones; 6-16-06]

The General Assembly will be receiving a Commissioners' Resolution which praises efforts by the PC(USA), the Presbyterian Church of Colombia and the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship to provide volunteers to accompany church workers who are in danger because of their work for human rights in Colombia.

The resolution also calls for continued support for the accompaniment program, and urges changes in US policies and actions in Colombia.

LEGISLATIVE STRATEGISTS FOR PPF

Our chief Strategist will be
Bill Galvin   cell: 202-498-3486

Others who are backups or specializing in various issues:
Middle East
Len Bjorkman   cell: 607-972-9115

Colombia
Parrish Jones  cell: 202-262-1850

Nonviolence
Bill Galvin  cell: 202-498-3486

PPF representative to other groups:
Peggy Howland   cell: 914-318-3103

News release from Jan Orr-Harter, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship  [6-10-06]

Birmingham, AL---With multiple wars boiling, and another in the oven, the 62 year old Presbyterian Peace Fellowship will borrow the traditional "laying on of hands" ceremony to bless a tower of cardboard boxes at its Peace Breakfast on Saturday June 17 at the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly meeting in Birmingham, AL. The breakfast begins at 6:45 am at the Sheraton Hotel.

"These are pretty important boxes," said Rev. James Atwood, Chairman of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship Endowment Fund. "They link us to the peacemakers of the future. Even as we struggle to reduce the level of violence in the world now, we must also set aside resources for those who will do this work in an increasingly difficult future." The boxes contain the first round of 2100 appeal letters to members of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, seeking pledges toward the $2 million goal of the Endowment Campaign.

Early on the morning of June 17, Atwood and Ann Barr Weems, Honorary Co-Chair of the Endowment Campaign, will invite 250 breakfast attendees to "lay hands" in prayer over the boxes in preparation for a delegation taking them from the breakfast at the Sheraton Hotel to the Birmingham Post Office. The 1963 Martin Luther King "Letter from the Birmingham Jail" inspired the event.

In his letter King challenged the church to take seriously the work of justice and peace. "What kind of people worship here? Who is their God?" he asked, searing the white church for its lack of prophetic witness in the world. "In Birmingham," said Weems, "we commit ourselves and our dollars to the nonviolence of Martin Luther King for the long haul. His prophecy that different kinds of people must learn to live together as human family or perish together as fools is more important today than ever. It will become even more important for our children and grandchildren and their children."

Weems, nationally-acclaimed Presbyterian poet, will be awarded the Peace Fellowship's Peaceseeker Award, its highest honor, at the June 17 Breakfast. Also receiving the Peaceseeker Award are Rev. Milton Mejia and Elder Anne Barstow for their leadership of the Colombia Accompaniment Program. The keynote speaker for the breakfast, the Rev. Dr. Alice Winters, Presbyterian Mission worker in Colombia, will highlight the Accompaniment Program which sends North American Presbyterians to accompany and protect ecumenical church workers living under death threats in the increasing violence in the nation of Colombia.

The purpose of the PPF Endowment Fund is to ensure Presbyterian activism for nonviolent approaches to global problems and conflicts in perpetuity. "Our generation has already left a legacy of the most destructive weapons and the bloodiest human century ever," concluded Atwood. "That cannot be our only legacy as Christians to our children and their future. Through this Endowment Fund, we seek to encourage and empower those who will do the work of peacemaking long after we are gone."

The Presbyterian Peace Fellowship is a national community of Presbyterians who trust in the nonviolent Jesus Christ. We call forth and celebrate prophetic action by individuals and by our denomination in the search for alternatives to violence, exploitation, militarism and war. Through the decades, across generations and in the changing circumstances of history, this is our trust and our task.

The Presbyterian Peace Fellowship is an activist group.

Our purposes are these:

1. To be agents of change in the world according to the words of Christ Jesus: "Blessed are the peacemakers."
2. To be a witness within the Presbyterian Church USA to the vocation of active, nonviolent peacemaking, which we believe is the true calling of Christ's church.
3. To join with other nonviolent groups in taking concrete actions to further the cause of peace in particular trouble-spots.

EVERYONE IS INVITED TO JOIN US FOR

"Rethinking War, Rethinking Peace, Making Peace: Trusting the Nonviolence of Jesus Christ Today"