Yes, friends, we need to do a little “preaching to the choir.” Many of you are already convinced that CPT is doing good work. As we celebrate twenty-five years of disciplined, nonviolent peacemaking, we face the challenge of ensuring the financial foundation to go forward for the next twenty-five years.

CPT continues to have a large chorus of strong and faithful contributors. With gratitude, we look to you for the sustained melody of funds needed to support accompaniment of local peacemakers in Colombia, Iraq, Palestine, First Nations, and elsewhere as they wage nonviolent direct action against systems of violence and oppression. 

In December and January individual donations dropped $70,000 (U.S.): 7% of our annual budget. How might you be able to help CPT make up the shortfall and advance into the next quarter century?

Make an anniversary donation today for $25, $250, $2500 or more!  This spring, a generous donor will match your gift up to $5000! 

CPT seeks applications for a co-director to work with Carol Rose, current co-director.  Position begins in July 2011.  Job description is flexible depending on the intersection of applicant’s skills with current co-director.  Applications from members of racially marginalized groups and from outside North America are warmly welcomed.  As with all Support Team members, compensation is a stipend based on need.  The initial appointment is for a period of three years.  

CPT staff members join the Iglesia Menonita Hispana (IMH) in urging the Mennonite Church USA (MCUSA) not to hold its 2013 convention in Phoenix, Arizona.  CPT will not have an organizational presence in Phoenix if the denominational convention is held there.  

“I am disappointed that MCUSA’s leaders are still leaning toward a Phoenix convention despite concerns about Arizona’s recently enacted law that creates such wide space for imposing racist discrimination.  Right now we have a priceless opportunity for U.S. Mennonites to stand with those on the margins, to stand for justice,” says CPT Co-Director Carol Rose.

Christian Peacemaker Teams’ income from individuals, groups, and grants for the first six months of this financial year is U.S. $77,000 less than the same period last year.  This figure reflects a drop of 23%.  Can you help us make up that shortfall over the next two months?  Follow this link to make a contribution.

For an overview of CPT’s work in 2009, including a financial summary, see http://cpt.org/news/year_in_review

CPT has immediate openings for full-time or part-time stipend-eligible members of its field teams in Colombia, Iraq, and Palestine.  If you have questions about responsibilities and qualifications stipended positions entail, contact dougp@cpt.org.

Compensation is a subsistence stipend based on need.  Persons with the required experience and skills who have not gone through CPT training are welcome to request application materials from CPT. Such individuals will need to participate in a CPT delegation and successfully complete the standard month-long training and discernment process before CPT support team members finalize their appointment to a field team.

CPT is engaged in the process of building an anti-racist identity for our organization and is working towards becoming a more diverse community.  As with every CPT position, factors other than job-specific skills and experience may be taken into account to meet these goals.  Members of indigenous or racialized groups therefore are encouraged to apply.

11 March 2010

FORT FRANCES, ONTARIO: Gene Stoltzfus 1940-2010 – PRESENTE!

Wednesday, 10 March, Christian Peacemaker Team’s founding director Gene Stoltzfus died in Fort Frances, Ontario when his heart stopped while he was bicycling near his home on the first spring-like day of the year.  He is survived by his wife Dorothy Friesen and many peacemakers who stand on the broad shoulders of his 70 years of creative action.

• Biography
• Memorial Services
• Memorial Messages

Gene was at the heart of those who planted and nurtured the vision for teams of peacemakers partnering with local communities in conflict zones to build justice and lasting peace which has grown into CPT.  Gene played key roles in CPT's founding gathering of Christian activists, theologians and other Church leaders at Techny Towers outside Chicago, IL in 1986.

Christian Peacemaker Teams announces the publication of it its first official history, In Harm’s Way: A History of Christian Peacemaker Teams by CPTer Kathleen Kern (Cascade 2008).

Covering the period from 1986-2006, the book examines CPT’s responses to invitations from grassroots organizers all over the world who have used nonviolent strategies to confront systemic oppression.  According to the publisher, it “provides a glimpse into the mistakes and successes, the triumphs and tragedies, that teams have shared in with local co-workers in various nations.  It also continues to pose the question, ‘What would happen if CPT’s efforts were multiplied by millions of Christians with a radical commitment to Jesus’ nonviolent gospel?’”

Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) cannot continue to walk beside peacemakers in all our current project sites without more donations and people to do the work.

CPT works in zones of lethal conflict. These are valleys of dry bones like the one that the prophet Ezekiel saw in his vision (See Ezekiel 37.) In those very valleys, we also witness the restoration to life.