Peace Out! Week Eighty-two

Join us for an online vigil marking the 75th anniversary of the bombing of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The hour long event will include reflections, prayers, readings and songs with contributions from APF members, trustees and friends, including Bishop Paul Bayes and Canon Paul Oestreicher.

Tomorrow, Thursday 6 th August 11 am Eastern time, on Zoom.

To attend, register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/5315961192026/WN_XsFCGsoeT9iPlsbChoIesQ

Episcopal Peace Fellowship has worked collaboratively with the Anglican Peace Fellowship and the Global Anglican Network for Peace and Justice throughout the years to bring attention to the work of peace and justice worldwide. We are grateful to be able to share this invitation with you, the members and friends of EPF.

We’re happy that our national Episcopal Peace Fellowship has signed the Back From the Brink: A Call to Prevent Nuclear War. Now, let’s call on our church and local communities to do the same. We also can sign this resolution as individuals. This is one tangible action we can take to make the world a much safer and saner place for all. www.psr.org.

Caroline Stevenson
Arkansas EPF
Little Rock, AR

Escape from Portland
offered by Rev. Jeremy Lucas
former member of
EPF National Executive Council
Portland, Oregon

Watching the news and social media lately you might be forgiven if you thought Portland, Oregon had been turned into the latest installment of John Carpenter’s 1981 classic Escape from New York. [Cut to the streets of Portland] Black clad, gas mask wearing, antifa terrorists are laying siege to the city, oh my!! What is a president to do, now that the local and state government have been overrun? [Pan to fires burning bibles, and people screaming “Black Lives Matter and ACAB” at police officers and federal agents in fatigues]

Most of you reading this article from the Episcopal Peace Fellowship will have heard by now that Portland has not been reduced to a burning pile of rubble and that a deal has been made to withdraw federal troops. Graffiti and some broken windows in a 10-block area of downtown are the only physical damage to the city. Most residents went about their lives without experiencing even the slightest whiff of smoke.

The real damage done to the city was by those who have sworn an oath to protect it, and the propaganda puppets sent by a failing president to boost his re-election chances. After the video of George’s Floyds death brought America to life again, attacks on citizens by officers of the law became shockingly common. Every night for over two months the Mayor of Portland, who is also the police commissioner, had protestors gassed, beaten, shot with rubber bullets and pepper-balls, and assaulted by sonic assault weapons.

As a member of the National Lawyers Guild, I have seen and read harrowing stories of official legal observers and the press being assaulted and arrested without cause. I have also watched the overwhelmingly disproportionate response by those in authority against peaceful protestors and have been shocked and outraged. All of this happened before the President decided to use Portland as a propaganda tool for his reelection.

Do not be fooled, sending federal agents to Portland, after the protests had largely ended, was a show. It is a page out of the new social media propaganda playbook. Images from Portland were meant for white suburban families in battleground states.

The film “Roadmap to Apartheid” graphically asserts that the Israeli system of total military, economic and social control over the lives of Palestinians constitutes Apartheid. Historical footage and the compelling testimony of South Africans take us back to see and understand the system of White Supremacy that gave its name to a UN-banned crime against humanity.
Side-by-side with what happened in South Africa, the highly acclaimed film takes us to Palestine-Israel, where we see the same kind of rules and the same brutality inflicted on Palestinians. South Africans make the connection and say: “This is another Apartheid.” Palestinians and Israelis detail how Israeli Apartheid operates and how it is being resisted.

Is it really Apartheid? Many in Israel and the U.S. deny it. …
On September 13, please join us in a 90-minute interactive discussion of the film, which will be made freely available to view in advance at your convenience. Guest experts will update us on subsequent developments that are making the Israeli-Apartheid reality ever more evident and ever harsher.
In a time of crisis, when Americans and the whole world are waking up to the profound harm of racism – and insisting that things must change – the issue of Israeli-Apartheid demands our urgent attention and response. Please mark your calendars for Sept. 13 and be on the lookout in the coming weeks for registration details and instructions for accessing the film.

VOLUNTEER NEEDED

The Episcopal Peace Fellowship is recruiting an experienced volunteer who is deeply committed to the mission of EPF. This person will play a significant role in leading the organization’s sustainability initiatives. The individual will collaborate with the EPF Sustainability Committee in the creation and implementation of institutional advancement strategies; including major gift procurement, fundraising, and grant submissions. Episcopalians and candidates with identifiable connections within The Episcopal Church will be given preferential consideration. Specific volunteer responsibilities will include working with the Executive Director and the EPF National Executive Council, as well as supporting leadership of national EPF Action Groups, and the EPF Palestine Israel Network (EPF-PIN). Effective oral and written communication and presentation skills, grant writing and fulfillment, creative “out-of-the-box” thinking, planned giving and execution of annual campaigns are essential requirements for becoming an effective addition to our team. Please send letter of interest with reference to specific experience and accomplishments in development to EPF Executive Director Melanie Merkle Atha at epfactnow.

JOHN NEVIN SAYRE AWARD
NOMINEES SOUGHT

Episcopal Peace Fellowship seeks nominations for its John Nevin Sayre Award. EPF established the Sayre award in 1979 to honor founding EPF member Rev. John Nevin Sayre for his lifetime of service waging the Gospel of Peace. Sayre was an Episcopal priest, pacifist, missionary, teacher and author who gained notoriety when he challenged President Woodrow Wilson to address the devastating events of World War I. Because of Sayre’s efforts, Wilson agreed recognizing conscientious objection as a legal alternative to military service. Sayre has been described as a peace apostle whose life was devoted to the waging of peace and opposition to war.

In 1979, two years after Sayre’s death, Episcopal Peace Fellowship honored his lifelong commitment to peace by establishing the John Nevin Sayre Award. The award is conferred every three years at General Convention for courageous witness in the cause of justice and peace to a recipient selected by the EPF National Executive Council. Through this award Episcopal Peace Fellowship publicly recognizes Episcopalians who are actively living their baptismal promises of striving for justice and peace among all people, and respecting the dignity of every human being. Like the person for whom the award is named, recipients have dedicated their life’s work to courageously promoting a culture of peace and nonviolence in the face of cultural opposition. Past recipients include Rev. Naim Ateek, Madeline Trichel, Mary Miller, Louis Crew, Newland Smith, Very Rev. Canon Patrick Augustine, Caroline Stevenson, and Patty and the late Rt. Rev. Ed Browning.

The 2021 John Nevin Sayre Award will be presented at the EPF General Convention reception on Tuesday, June 29, 2021. The Rev. Bob Davidson, chair of EPF’s National Executive Council, looks forward to EPF’s reception each Convention. “It isn’t often that we are witnesses to peacemakers of such magnitude living in our midst. These awards remind us that working among us are living, breathing models of God’s call to follow the Prince of Peace,” said Rev. Davidson.

Nominations should be emailed to EPF Executive Director Melanie Merkle Atha at epfactnow by November 1, 2020, including in the letter of nomination the ways in which the nominee has worked for peace and justice.