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Date: March 7, 2005
Contact: Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
V: 847/742-5100 F:  847/742-6103
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Newsline       Special	Report

March 7, 2005

"...To guide our feet into the way of peace."  Luke 1:79

1) Anabaptist Consultation on Alternative Service meets on  the
possibility of a military draft, discusses military recruitment,
and  highlights the tradition of Christian service.

2) Statement by members of  the Council of Moderators and
Secretaries in attendance at the Anabaptist  Consultation on
Alternative  Service.

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1)  An Anabaptist Consultation on Alternative Service March 4-5 in
Elgin, Ill.,  brought together more than 90 people from the historic
peace churches--Church	of the Brethren, Mennonites, Brethren in
Christ and Friends (Quakers)--and  other peacemaking traditions to
address the possibility of a military draft,  discuss increased
military recruitment, and highlight the tradition of  Christian
service.

Participants came away from the meeting with  renewed determination
and new ideas to strengthen the peace witness of their	churches,
the task of working together in the event of a draft, and  a
priority to counter military recruitment of youth and young  adults,
which was called a "back-door draft" that is already  happening
across the country.

Participants also said the churches need  to strengthen their
commitment to Christian service whether there is a draft  or not,
and need to extend the Christian peace witness and the	conversation
about these issues beyond the peace churches. "This calling is	not
just for Anabaptists," said Dick Davis, pastor of Peace  Mennonite
Church in Dallas, Texas, and a former Southern Baptist	Army
chaplain. "This calling extends beyond our communities. We are
agents	of reconciliation, ambassadors of Jesus."

A Selective Service System  official told the group no draft is
planned. "The administration's position  on the draft is quite
simple: There isn't going to be any," said Richard S.  Flahavan,
associate director of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs  for
Selective Service. Cassandra Costley, manager of Selective
Service's  Alternative Service Division, also gave a presentation on
current planning  for what a draft would look like if it were
enacted.

In a counter  viewpoint, J.E. McNeil, executive director of the
Center on Conscience and  War, a conscientious objector advocacy
group, urged participants to consider  the draft a real possibility.
Recruitment shortfalls by the National Guard,  Army, and Marines
indicate a draft can't be ruled out, she said.

Many  speakers warned that increased military recruitment is
creating unprecedented	enticements that disproportionately target
youth in communities of color and  in impoverished communities. "In
reality, the draft is ongoing as we speak.  It's what I call a
back-door draft," said	Davis, who noted he hoped  this would stir
churches to become increasingly concerned about communities  outside
their own.

The military has long enticed people of color by  promising a better
life and options that would not otherwise be available to  them,
Conrad Moore, an anti-racism trainer for Mennonite Central
Committee  US, told the group. Moore, who joined the Marines as a
young man and later  turned against the violence of the military,
pointed out that slaves were  promised freedom for fighting in wars,
that those who were free hoped to  become first-class citizens. For
all people of color "it was always about  improving our condition,"
Moore said.

Presentations on denominational  volunteer service programs focused
on discipleship to Jesus Christ as the	foundation of Christian
service. Dan McFadden, director of Brethren Volunteer  Service,
represented service as counter-cultural in North American  society,
and talked of preparing volunteers to deal with the racism,  sexism,
classism, and the discrimination endemic in society.

He also  pointed out the need for more funding, staff, and church
support for  volunteer programs in the event of a draft, citing
rises in numbers of  volunteers in church service programs during
the Vietnam  war.

Mennonite service programs reflect the belief that "we really  can
transform the world," said Iris de Leon-Hartshorn, director of
Peace  and Justice Ministries for Mennonite Central Committee US.
She cited the  reform of the mental health care system after
Civilian Public Service  workers--mostly conscientious
objectors--worked in state hospitals and other	mental health
facilities during World War II, witnessed abuses, and worked  to
correct them. "The historic peace churches were a voice for  the
voiceless," she said.

De Leon-Hartshorn raised three ethical	questions for denominational
service programs: how to listen to communities	in which service is
being done, how to connect short-term service experiences  with
longterm advocacy, and how to connect overseas and  domestic
assignments. "We must form partnerships that are loving  and
mutual," she urged.

Other questions related to service included  how to create service
opportunities for people of color and economically  disadvantaged
youth, and how service programs can provide opportunities  to
undocumented church members.

The Council of Moderators and  Secretaries (COMS), a group of
leaders of Mennonite and Brethren  denominations that sponsored the
consultation, will carry forward the issues  and concerns raised in
the consultation.

The consultation was held at  the Church of the Brethren General
Offices in Elgin, Ill. Participants  attended from the Church of the
Brethren, the Mennonite Church USA, the  Brethren in Christ Church
of North America, the US Conference of Mennonite  Brethren Churches,
Mennonite Central Committee US, the Conservative  Mennonite
Conference, the Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends  (Evangelical
Friends International), the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of  the
Religious Society of Friends, Friends United Meeting, the  Beachy
Amish, Amish Mennonite Church, and the Bruderhof  Communities.

Church of the Brethren members who took part were Jim  Hardenbrook,
Annual Conference moderator; Ronald D. Beachley, Annual  Conference
moderator-elect; Stan Noffsinger, general secretary of the  General
Board; Dan McFadden, director of Brethren Volunteer Service;  Phil
Jones, director of the Brethren Witness/Washington Office;  Ken
Shaffer, archivist for the General Board's Brethren Historical
Library  and Archives; Kim Stuckey Hissong, program coordinator for
Peacemaker  Formation at On Earth Peace; Verdena Lee, a physician
and board member of On	Earth Peace; Tim McElwee, Plowshares
Associate Professor of Peace Studies at  Manchester College; Debbie
Roberts, campus minister and director of the Peace  Studies Program
at the University of La Verne (Calif.); Belita D. Mitchell,  pastor
of First Church of the Brethren, Harrisburg, Pa.;  William
Olivencia, a youth from First Harrisburg; Andrew Duffey, a youth  at
Westminster (Md.) Church of the Brethren; Scott Duffey, pastor	at
Westminster; Richard M. Judy Jr., on the ministry team at New
Covenant  Church of the Brethren, Columbus, Ohio; Carrie and Torin
Eikler, students at  Bethany Theological Seminary; and Travis
Poling, a student at Manchester.  Brethren videographer David
Sollenberger filmed the  consultation.

2) A statement by members of the Council of Moderators	and
Secretaries in attendance at the Anabaptist Consultation  on
Alternative Service:

The Council of Moderators and Secretaries  includes the leaders of
the following denominations: Brethren-in-Christ,  Church of the
Brethren, Conservative Mennonite Conference, Mennonite	Brethren,
and Mennonite Church USA

"As members of the Historic Peace  Church family of churches, we
gathered in Elgin, Ill., on March 4 and 5,  2005, as people in need
of God's salvation, seeking God's healing and peace  in a time of
war and violence. Aware of the rich history on which we stand,	we
leave asking God for grace and courage as we face the challenges
and  the opportunities before us.

"We are called to a clear allegiance to  Christ above all other
allegiances, and a recognition that it is only through	Christ that
we can show love to our enemies. We confess that not only have	we
often failed to love our enemies, we have not always shown respect
and  love to one another in the Spirit of Christ. We remain rooted
in our	conviction that Jesus calls us to a life of love and peace,
and call on our  members to reject violence in all its forms.

"We listened carefully to  presentations by staff from the Selective
Service System and the Center on  Conscience and War about the
potential for a return to military conscription.  Selective Service
reported that a draft has not been authorized and is not  imminent,
but detailed plans for a draft and alternative service are in  place
in the event a draft becomes law. We acknowledge with  appreciation
the sincere efforts of Selective Service to protect the right  of
conscientious objection to war.

"Whether conscription is imminent  or in the distant future, we know
that God calls us to lives of joyful and  sacrificial service in the
way of Christ. We confess that we have not always  modeled this in
our own lives. To teach peace only when a draft seems  imminent is
a failure to live out the full meaning of Christ's ministry  of
reconciliation. 

"We learned that intensified, high-pressure  military recruitment is
already occurring where poverty and racism exclude  our brothers and
sisters from the opportunities that give life meaning and  hope. We
were challenged to offer clear and meaningful alternatives to  young
people who would otherwise go to the military for jobs,  education,
or leadership training. 

"We learned that many past and	present models of service are
designed around the needs of those serving  without adequate thought
to the longterm impact on the communities being  served. We believe
that God's Spirit is stirring anew among us, enlivening  our
imaginations and opening our hearts to patterns of relationship
that  are characterized by mutuality across the lines of race,
class, and nation  that too often divide us.

"We were called to openness and transparency in  sharing Christ's
way of peace and loving service beyond ourselves, with	our
neighbors, our communities, and our world. 

"The Council of  Moderators and Secretaries will be the authorizing
and delegating body for  continuing work on the issues discussed at
the consultation, such as:  contingency plans for a military draft
or mandatory national service;	responses to the ongoing military
recruitment among communities of color and  areas of poverty."

--Stan Noffsinger, Church of  the Brethren; Charles Buller, US
Conference of Mennonite Brethren churches;  James Schrag, Mennonite
Church USA; and Ben Shirk, Conservative Mennonite  Conference.

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Newsline  is produced by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, director of news
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