wfn.org | Newsline: Art Gish (1939-2010) remembered as a prophet for peace

[CoBNews <CoBNews@brethren.org>]

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service, News Director Cheryl

Brumbaugh-Cayford, 800-323-8039 ext. 260, cobnews@brethren.org

ART GISH (1939-2010) REMEMBERED AS A PROPHET FOR PEACE

(July 29, 2010) Elgin, IL -- Church of the Brethren peacemaker and activist

Arthur G. (Art) Gish, 70, died in a farming accident yesterday morning when

his tractor rolled while he was working on his farm in Athens County, Ohio.

Gish and his wife Peggy have been organic farmers, life-long workers for

peace, and members of the New Covenant Fellowship in Athens, Ohio, a

communal church affiliated with the Church of the Brethren. Peggy Gish

currently is serving with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in Iraq.

"We have lost a person important to the Church of the Brethren, who has

been a visible witness to Christ's peace around the world," said Stan

Noffsinger, the church's general secretary, remembering Gish's strong

witness for active Christian peacemaking. "It is a true loss to the church

and the thousands of people he served.... We mourn this loss."

"He has been a formative influence for so many people," said Bob Gross,

executive director of On Earth Peace. Gross and his family were part of

the New Covenant community along with the Gish family for some years

>beginning in the 1970s.

Gish is remembered for his participation in the Civil Rights movement

of the 1960s and the protest movement against war in the 1970s, and for

his work for peace in the Middle East in more recent decades. He was a

speaker, preacher, and writer with "incisive and frequently controversial

views," as characterized in an interview with "Messenger" magazine

published on Aug. 13, 1970. Up until recently he had worked in the Middle

East for periods of time with Christian Peacemaker Teams, beginning in

1995, often as a part of the CPT teams in the West Bank city of Hebron

>and in the Palestinian village of At-Tuwani.

He wrote a number of books that have been influential in church and peace

movement circles, including "The New Left and Christian Radicalism,"

published by William B. Eerdmans in 1970. Gish described the origins of

the book in the wide-ranging 1970 "Messenger" interview by Larry

Fourman, who was then on the church's Parish Ministries staff:

"Working in the protest movement," Gish said, "I have come to see that

the early Brethren and the Anabaptists were not conservatives. They were

the radicals of their day.... The early Brethren understood that a Christia n

is different from the world, that a Christian stands over against the world

and is in conflict with the world. To be at peace with God means that one

>is in conflict with the world."

Gish also authored "Beyond the Rat Race" (Herald Press, 1972), "Living

in Christian Community" (Herald Press, 1979), "Hebron Journal: Stories

of Nonviolent Peacemaking" (Herald Press, 2001), and "At-Tuwani

Journal: Hope and Nonviolent Action in a Palestinian Village" (Herald

>Press, 2008).

He was born and raised on a farm in Lancaster County, Pa., and held

degrees from Manchester College in North Manchester, Ind., and Bethany

Theological Seminary. His peacemaking career began as a conscientious

objector working in Europe through Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS)

from 1958-60. According to a biographical note in "Hebron Journal,"

Gish "opposed United States involvement in every war since his youth."

The Gishes have been prominent members of the community in Athens,

where they are known for selling organic produce at the farmers' market,

and as peace activists who regularly wrote letters to the editor of the

"Athens News." The newspaper reported in an obituary yesterday, "On a

regular basis, one or both of the Gishes could be found with a few other

people standing on Court Street outside the Athens County Courthouse,

holding signs calling for peace, in a weekly lunch hour vigil." Art Gish

also "repeatedly placed first in the reader-nominated Athens NEWS Best

of Athens awards, as 'Best Leading Citizen,'" the newspaper said (go to www 
.athensnews.com/ohio/article-31680-prominent-local-activist-dies-
in-farming-accident.html<http://www.athensnews.com/ohio/article-31680-promi 
nent-local-activist-dies-%0bin-farming-accident.html>  for the obituary onl 
ine).

Two photographs offer starkly contrasting images of Gish's life and work

--both true to his convictions and commitments, and to his faith:

One photograph was widely reproduced, an Associated Press (AP) image

by photographer Lefteris Pitarakis, taken in 2003 as Gish stood in front of

an Israeli tank in Hebron (go to http://mideastchristians.virtualactivism.n et/
articles/amongapples.htm<http://mideastchristians.virtualactivism.net/%0bar 
ticles/amongapples.htm> where Art Gish's reflection on the incident is

>reprinted along with the photograph).

The other image by photographer Sahal Abdulle was taken the following

year, in 2004, as Gish worked the land, with hoe in hand (go to www.lightst 
alkers.org/images/show/274381<http://www.lightstalkers.org/images/show/2743 81> 
).

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to

continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its

faith in community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and

Pietist faith traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches.

It celebrated its 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts some 125,000

members across the United States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and

sister churches in Nigeria, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti,

>and India.

># # #

>For more information contact:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford

>Director of News Services

>Church of the Brethren

>1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120

>800-323-8039 ext. 260

>cobnews@brethren.org