Effective 1 September 2011 Doug Pritchard stepped down as CPT Co-Director.  Pritchard became involved with CPT when he attended a 1990 CPT consultation with the Innu people regarding low level NATO flights over their traditional lands and joined the CPT Southern Ontario support group for the Innu.  In 1995, he joined the CPT Steering Committee as a representative of the Mennonite Church and became CPT Canada Coordinator in 1997.  After CPT’s first director, Gene Stoltzfus, retired, Pritchard, along with Carol Rose, became a Co-director of CPT as well as assuming the position of CPT Iraq Project Support coordinator.  

Peacemaker Congress XI: Re-imagining Partnerships for Peacemaking

A 25th Anniversary Celebration

October 13-16, 2011
Chicago, Illinois,  USA

Hosted by Reba Place Church
535 Custer Ave, Evanston, IL 60202

REGISTER NOW

Please join CPT for this special 25th anniversary gathering

CAMPAIGN AGAINST DEPLETED URANIUM WEAPONS (Jonesborough, Tennessee, USA)
DATES: 21-30 October, 2011

ABORIGINAL JUSTICE DELEGATION to Treaty #3 Territory (Northwestern Ontario)
DATES: 24 September-5 October, 2011.

COLOMBIA
DATES: International delegations:  22 September - 5 October, 2011; November 2011 (special for Latin American church leaders—tentative); 24 May - 6 June,  12-25 July,  20 September - 3 October, 2012; National delegation (for Colombians)*: 31 March - 7 April, 2012

IRAQ (Kurdish North)
DATES: 13-26 October, 2011; 12-25 April and 4-17 October, 2012

PALESTINE / ISRAEL
DATES:  6-19 September (German language delegation), and 15-28 November, 2011; 10-23 January, 13-26 March, 22 May- 4 June, 4-16 July, 2-15 October, and 6-19 November, 2012.

Faced with increasing pressure from the U.S. and Israeli governments, the government of Greece has officially prohibited any ships in its harbors fromleaving for Gaza.  This action was directed at the organizers of the Freedom Flotilla, the organizers of which intended to break the blockade that Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip since June 2007. 

CPT reservist David Milne is among the passengers on the Canadian boat in the flotilla, the Tahrir, as well as Harmeet Singh Sooden, a member of the CPT delegation to Iraq kidnapped in 2005, and Israeli journalist Amira Hass, who has had extensive contact with CPT’s Hebron team.  On the U.S. ship along with luminaries such as Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, are CPT trainer and colleague, Kathy Kelly and former CPT reservist, Robert Naiman.

An antique sapphire and diamond pin brought in $150.  Brass pineapple candleholders brought in $18.  A child’s Ethiopian dress brought in $40.  A 1927 edition of Winnie the Pooh brought in $35.  A Paragon bone china cup and saucer from the 1940s brought in $20.  Some 1854 stamps from India brought in $60.

All of these items were donated by CPT supporters over the last year to the CPT Boutique—one less material thing in their lives meant a little more money to support CPT’s work in the Middle East and the Americas.

Wars continue to boil.  Occupations char the land.  Nonviolent uprisings sizzle with hope. CPTers stand side by side with peacemakers in those hot places.

During the first six months of this fiscal year, donations to CPT from individuals were down 20% from last year.  We have managed to keep our already trim expenses lower.  But, overall, CPT is now US $67,000 behind our budget projection for this point in the year.  If donations do not increase in the coming months, important project work will need to be cut.  CPT's operations are already very lean.  The on-site and travel budget for the Iraq or Colombia projects is roughly 67,000 for the year.  That amount also roughly covers the expenses of four full-time CPTers for a year.  Can you help heat up the donations during these warm months?

Doug Pritchard and Carol Rose, Co-Directors
Click here to donate

 
“Create Space for Peace,” a collection of CPT founding director Gene Stoltzfus’ experiences and insights gained from forty years of creative, nonviolent peacemaking made the list of finalists in the 2011 International Book Awards.
 
The JPX Media Group announced the winners and finalists of the 2nd annual awards on 11 May 2011 in Los Angeles, California.  Awards were presented to over 300 winners and finalists from eleven countries in 140 categories covering print and audio books.
 

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! 

This summer the CPT Aboriginal Justice team will participate in the inaugural Wild Goose Festival set in North Carolina’s Shakori Hills from 23-26 June 2011.  The gathering will bring together disparate voices in a conversation on the present and future state of Christian faith in North America and around the world.  The organizers have invited Christian Peacemaker Teams to contribute by sharing tales from its work and its dream of a world without violence.  

In early March 2011 representatives from around the globe, including Colombia team member Eloy Garcia, gathered in New Delhi, India for three days.  The event, convened by Ekta Parishad, was a planning session for forming a global alliance called "South-South Solidarity— Global Action 2012."  

Ekta Parishad (“Unity Forum” in Hindi), is a federation of 11,000 organizations and counts more than one million supporters in at least fifteen Indian states.  Ekta Parishad espouses the Gandhian principles of nonviolence and works at the grassroots level so that all Indians can live in dignity with access to land, forest, and water.