CPTnet
11 November 2011
CHICAGO: Peacemaker Congress celebrates CPT’s 25 Years

by David Hovde

“Re-Imagining Partnerships for Peacemaking - A 25th Anniversary Celebration” was the theme of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) Peacemaker Congress XI, that took place October 13-16, 2011 in Evanston, Illinois.

Sylvia Morrison, CPT’s Undoing Racism Coordinator, gave the opening teaching Thursday evening on “Honoring Story”, urging CPTers to incorporate the neglected stories of oppressed people, while not hesitating to tell their own stories as well.  Elce Redmond, organizer of the Austin Peaceforce spoke about how his experience accompanying Palestinian children to school on a CPT delegation influenced him to organize a group of volunteers in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago to accompany the children there to school, because fights regularly break out among the students.

Angelica Castellanos of CAHUCOPANA, a grassroots human rights group that CPT Columbia accompanies, spoke Friday morning.  She said that multi-national corporations drive local people off their lands and force small companies to close.  Paramilitaries target those who speak out for the rights of the displaced people.  Castellanos said CPT’s accompaniment of CAHUCOPANA members is essential to protect them from paramilitary violence.  Fatiyeh Gainey, a Palestinian and the first Muslim CPTer, spoke Saturday morning on the topic “A Partner Within,” describing role of nonviolence in Islam, challenges she has faced being the first Muslim CPTer, and her hopes for CPT.  Mohamed Salah, a Kurdish Muslim schoolteacher who is the translator and advisor for the CPT Iraq team, spoke Saturday afternoon of his “Five Years of Partnership with CPT in Iraqi Kurdistan,” during which he moved from a driver for the team to translator and advisor.  He showed slides of an action he took, supported by the team, for which he decorated his truck with a banner that said “Turkish Bombing Kills People”, then drove to a hotel where the media was present.

Shanta Premawardhana of the Seminary Consortium on Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE) led Bible studies Friday and Saturday mornings, which he titled “Lessons form the Margins” and “In It Together: Working for Peace with the Religious Other.”  Sunday morning worship with Congress host Reba Place Church included lively music by the Reba Praise Team and a sermon by Elaine Enns and Ched Meyers titled “Standing in the Rock Where Moses Stood.”  They encouraged CPTers to take what is foundational in their faith traditions with them as they work for peace.

Congress participants took parting a candlelight vigil procession Friday evening, stopping for prayers at a local park where violence had occurred,  and at another park to pray for the people of Afghanistan on the tenth anniversary of the war.

On Saturday evening, a celebration of CPT’s 25th anniversary was marked by cupcakes and a concert by internationally acclaimed baritone and CPT Steering Committee member Tony Brown.