Vietnam to Iraq: 40 years of Peacemaking
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Christian Peacemaker Teams is a program of Brethren, Quaker and Mennonite Churches and other Christians that support nonviolence. CPT was formed in the U.S. in 1992 with the mission of "getting in the way" of violence in conflict areas. They currently have teams in Colombia, the West Bank, Iraq, Arizona (U.S.), and Ontario (Canada). CPT UK represents the efforts of CPT members and friends around the United Kingdom to support one another in peacemaking work and work towards an eventual CPT training in the UK.
Visit the Christian Peacemaker Teams UK site at
www.cptuk.org.uk
January 2009: Invite Christian Peacemaker Teams director emeritus Gene Stoltzfus to speak to your local group!
Pioneering Christian peace activist and organizer Gene Stoltzfus will be in the UK this January, speaking to groups around the UK about nonviolent intervention in situations of conflict and injustice.
Gene Stoltzfus was the director of the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) since its founding in 1988 until September 2004. CPT trains and places violence reduction teams in high conflict situations like Iraq, the West Bank, Columbia and various native communities in the United States and Canada. Teams and peacemaker delegations have worked in Chiapas, Vieques, Puerto Rico, and Washington D.C. and investigative teams have visited Chechnya, Afghanistan, Congo and the Philippines.
Stoltzfus traveled to Iraq immediately before the first Gulf War in 1991 and spent extensive time in Iraq again in 2003, consulting with Muslim and Christian clerics, Iraqi human rights leaders, families of Iraqi detainees and talking with American administrators and soldiers.
Gene's commitment to peacemaking is rooted in his experience in Vietnam as a conscientious objector with International Voluntary Service during the US military escalation there from 1963-68. He recalls that watching the helicopter personnel unloading their cargo of bloodied bodies in Saigon set him "on the search to make sense of life and death where the terms of survival, meaning and culture don't forbid killing. I had to ask myself," he said, "whether I was as willing to die for my conviction as the Vietnamese and American soldiers all around me were being asked to do."
For more information, check out Gene’s blog “Peace Talk” at http://gstoltzfus.blogspot.com/
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO INVITE GENE TO COME AND SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP then please e-mail cpt.unitedkingdom at gmail.com or leave a message on 0845 450 0214.
Please specify:
1) Your group (or groups)
2) The likely size of the meeting etc. (Large and small groups are welcome.)
3) Any date preferences or dates to avoid during 15-31 January
4) Your e-mail and phone number
Deadline for requests is 6pm, Friday 1st August.
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD! Pass this email on to others in your network who might be interested in hearing from a veteran Christian peace worker.
Interested in becoming more involved with CPT? Check out our webpage to learn more about delegations or joining the corps:
http://www.cpt.org/participate/delegation
http://www.cpt.org/participate/peacemaker