Mennonites and Christian Peace Witness for Iraq 2008

• Join the CPWI local organizers across the country who are creating a Christian Witness for Peace in Iraq in their communities. Periodic hour-long conference calls are times to share stories and hear from someone who has had recent, direct experience in the Middle East. Host a local vigil in your community on March 7th or sooner
• Come to Washington, D.C., on March 7th! Join us for Christian worship to end the war and an interfaith public action on or near the National Mall.
• Imagine 10,000 Feet of Hope. Whether or not you can come to Washington in March you can be part of the web of resistance by offering a strand of hope. Here are directions for creating your piece of rope.

Below you will find specific Mennonite events and notes. For the complete schedule, see the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq website http://christianpeacewitness.org

BE SURE you are subscribed on the CPWI website, so you receive logistical updates by email.

Workshops: Thursday March 6th at 6:30 p.m.

• Escalating Diplomacy: A new foreign policy towards Iran (Sponsored by MCC Washington office: Rachelle Lyndaker Schlabach and J. Daryl Byler)
• Today's COs in the military (CCW & Titus Peachey of MCC US)

8:10 - 11:15 a.m.

Extra special opportunity for Mennonite children!
learning about MCC’s work in Washington, D.C. while their parents attend a CPWI seminar.
See below for registration

12:00 pm

Worship Services: This year you will have 8 or more worship services to choose between. HOWEVER—for one, the music is a Mennonite hymnsing! We need some Mennonites to carry the harmony. Additionally, at a DIFFERENT worship service, the preacher is J. Daryl Byler.

 

6:30 – 8:30  p.m.

Peace and Justice Support Network/Anabaptist Peace Center—Washington, D. C. meeting for Mennos (open to all): Pizza, PJSN and APCWDC input, talk by Lisa Schirch, professor of peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University and program director of the 3D Security Initiative which promotes conflict prevention and peacebuilding in US security policymaking. A former Fulbright Fellow in East and West Africa, Schirch has worked in over 20 countries   Join us at St. Luke's United Methodist Church, 3655 Calvert St. N.W., Washington D.C. 20007 (across from Glover Park).

 

7:30 – 8:30  p.m.

There will be lessons on peace and the Middle East for children  K-8th grade led by Cindy Byler, co-director of the MCC Middle East  office. We would like to know if you will be coming, so we can have enough pizza ready for you.
You can contact Leo Hartshorn, Minister of Peace and Justice, or  call 717-399-8353.

More information: Leo Hartshorn,

Send a note to to let her know how many green armbands you need! (By wearing green armbands, Mennonites can find each other even if we don't recognize each other.)

Come really early and attend the MCC Washington Office seminar, March 2-4!

A small group of children will have the privilege of learning about MCC’s work in Washington, D.C. while their parents attend a CPWI seminar. Valerie Ong, Legislative Fellow for domestic and international affairs, will teach children why Christians care about the laws passed in Washington, D.C., what MCC does there and take children on a walking tour of the Capitol.  

This is NOT a baby-sitting service. Children must be in at least first grade and self-sufficient.  

To register your children, send an e-mail by FEBRUARY 15 to with this information:

Names
Ages/grade
Parents’ cell phone number
Congressional district
What are your child’s interests in this workshop?
Food allergies or other concerns