Mennonite leaders in Civil Rights era return to Atlanta bearing peace message

ATLANTA (MC USA) -- Forty-two years after Mennonite Central Committee sent Rosemarie Freeney Harding and Vincent Harding to Atlanta to establish the first interracial community center in that city, they returned to Georgia as guest speakers at the Mennonite peace gathering July 1-3. Centered around the theme, "When the Saints go Marchin'," the conference was the first peace gathering of the newly-organized Peace and Justice Support Network of the Mennonite Church USA.

At the first session on Tuesday afternoon, Hardings opened by playing a rendition of "This little light of mine." Harding, a professor at Iliff School of Theology, told the group that God gave the Southern Freedom Movement to the people involved in that period of history. "We are open spaces to let this light shine," he said.

At the closing of the gathering, Rosemarie Harding told the participants, "It's been a beautiful time for Vincent and me. Thanks so much for the invitation. You are the ones who are going to sustain this country and this world. There is no other way than peace."

When asked if he had any final reflections for the Mennonite Church, Harding said, "My own major desire for the church to know is that if there is any time that the Anabaptist Movement needs to work it is now. We must not get lost in a vague American Protestantism that does not have the sharpness of the Anabaptist core of peace and reconciliation. This is a wonderful time for Mennonites to be Anabaptists." Photo available.

Kathleen Kern of Webster, N.Y., serves with Christian Peacemaker Teams.