Newsletters

Date: October 15th 2009

From Rick

Friends,

Many exciting things are in the works! We've tried to fit as many of them as we can into this email.

Mark your calendars now for a national gathering of Presbyterian peacemakers to deepen the roots of nonviolence and radical discipleship within the PC(USA): April 15-17, 2010 at Stony Point Center. If you're longing to energize, connect with others, and get active in your faith through radical discipleship and peacemaking, please plan to join us.

Rev. Dr. Obery Hendricks, Jr. (The Politics of Jesus) and Rev. Dr. Peter Heltzel (Jesus and Justice: Evangelicals, Race and American Politics), both of New York Theological Seminary, will keynote this gathering. The rest of convocation will be built around open conversation and planning for how to build the cadre of PPF activists and volunteers around the country, and how to use those volunteers to transform the PC(USA).

(Cost: $230 per person, scholarships available based on need). Don't miss this great event!

Rick

Delegation to Gaza

Join the PPF delegation with the Interfaith Contingent of the Gaza Freedom March (www.gazafreedeommarch.org) - leaving Cairo December 27 and returning to Cairo January 2. There are some scholarships available to join this delegation, but time is short. Contact Rick at rickuffordchase@gmail.com immediately for more information.

Help to close the School of the Americas November 20-22, 2009!

There is a great group of PPFer's who are planning to witness together at the commemoration of the lives of the Jesuit Priests and their housekeepers who were murdered in El Salvador in 1989, and to continue the call to close the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly known as the School of Americas. We have a block of rooms reserved and a breakfast planned again this year as well. Please contact Marilyn White at marwhite@igc.org for more information. More info also on our website.

PPF Birthday Bashes

PPF birthday bashes are going great! In the last month, there have been celebrations in St. Augustine, FL, Washington, DC, Rydal, PA, and Stony Point, NY, with a total of more than 150 people in attendance. At each gathering, there were stories from PPF's past, an update on all of the activities of the present, and a conversation about the PPF Endowment Campaign as we dream about the future. We also paused to toast past, present and future peacemakers. If you'd like to hold a 65th Birthday party in your area, please contact Jan Orr Harter at JanOH4@aol.com and MaryAnn Harwell maryann@presbypeacefellowship.org.

Overtures for General Assembly 2010

PPF teams are working on drafts for two overtures for the General Assembly. One is on ending the war in Afghanistan, and the other is on asking the denomination to enter into a time of discernment about whether the PC(USA) should embrace nonviolence as the only responsible and moral ethic to respond to violence and war in our time. The Afghanistan overture is drafted and ready to go, and the nonviolence overture is nearing completion. Sign up on our networking site at presbypeacefellowship.org/network for more information.