DownloadMay 18, 2009 issue
N.Y. forum sets CPT’s work in context
By J. Roger Kurtz Rochester Area Mennonite FellowshipPage:
- 1
- 2
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Rochester Area Mennonite Fellowship joined like-minded Christians in a forum on global Christian peacemaking as part of a book launch for a newly published history of Christian Peacemaker Teams written by one of the fellowship’s members.
Kathleen Kern, left, and Melanie May listen to a questioner during a forum on Christian peacemaking sponsored by Rochester Area Mennonite Fellowship.
Speakers at the May 7 forum, co-sponsored and hosted by the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, assessed the 20-year history of CPT.
Kathleen Kern, a member of the Rochester church, is the author of In Harm’s Way: A History of Christian Peacemaker Teams (Cascade Books, 2009). She has worked with CPT since 1993 in conflict situations including Haiti, Colombia and the West Bank.
“I’ve been part of many peace and social justice groups that no longer exist,” Kern said. “They disband because what was started in a flash of inspiration or adrenaline can’t be maintained. CPT is no less fallible than those organizations, but it’s still here, and I’m convinced that the primary reason we are still around is the grace of God.”
Kern offered anecdotes and insights from her years of work with CPT and discussed the process of writing the organization’s history. Originally envisioned as a one-year project, the book took five years to write, partly because CPT was experiencing dramatic events.
CPT achieved a high level of publicity in November 2005 when four of its workers were kidnapped in Iraq. One of their number, Tom Fox, was killed on March 9, 2006, and the others were rescued two weeks later, after 118 days in captivity. Today, the CPT presence in Iraq has resumed. A team is serving in the Kurdish-governed area in the north of the country.
Historical background
At the book forum, Melanie May, academic vice president and professor of theology at Colgate Divinity School, also spoke, offering a theological and historical context for the work of CPT. She highlighted a number of watershed events as background to the 1986 meeting in Chicago at which CPT was first formed: a 1935 meeting of Mennonites, Friends and Brethren; a 1948 assembly of the World Council of Churches that called war “contrary to the will of God”; and a series of ecumenical meetings over the ensuing decades.
CPT is the result of engagement between Anabaptists and the larger church, May said.
“CPT emerged from decades of work — a call and response — between the work of the historic peace churches and ecumenical calls to share peacemaking theology, experience and strategies,” she said.
Page:
- 1
- 2
Comments
-
[Spam comment removed.]
Comment on the article N.Y. forum sets CPT’s work in context
The purpose of comments is to engage in dialogue. We expect commenters to treat authors and each other as each would want to be treated. Respectful criticism is welcomed; offensive comments or parts of comments will be removed by the site administrator. Name and comment will be posted; email address is for follow-up only and will not be made public.
Download a free PDF showing the populations of
Mennonite groups and other Anabaptists.
