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06321 June 13, 2006
Presbyterian Peace Fellowship to launch endowment fund
June 17 GA breakfast to include "laying on of hands" on appeal letters
by Jerry L. Van Marter
BIRMINGHAM, AL - With armed conflicts raging throughout the world, the 62-year-old Presbyterian Peace Fellowship will borrow the traditional "laying on of hands" ritual to bless a stack of boxes of letters at its Peace Breakfast here June 17 during the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly.
"These are pretty important boxes," said Rev. James Atwood, chair 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 2,100 appeal letters to members of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, seeking pledges toward the $2 million goal of the endowment campaign.
Atwood and Ann Barr Weems, honorary co-chair of the endowment campaign, will invite 250 breakfast attendees to "lay hands" in prayer on the boxes in preparation for a delegation taking them from the breakfast to the Birmingham Post Office.
Martin Luther King, Jr.s 1963 "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 breakfast.
Also receiving the Peaceseeker Award are Colombian Presbyterian church leader the Rev. Milton Mejia and Elder Anne Barstow for their leadership of the PC(USA)'s Colombia Accompaniment Program, in which the Peace Fellowship has played a key role. Mejia is seeking asylum in the U.S. after years of threats on his life in Colombia for his human rights advocacy.
The keynote speaker for the breakfast, the Rev. 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."
Information for this story furnished by Jan Orr-Harter, editor, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.
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