The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America April-June 2015 - (Page 26)

BpFna hIghlIghTs T he BPFNA celebrated our 30th anniversary in 2014-three decades of working with you for peace rooted in justice! We have listed below some of the things we accomplished last year. Seminaries * Along with the Alliance of Baptists and Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, we sponsored Rev. Dr. Doris J. García in teaching a course titled Interculturality in the Old Testament: Challenge and Opportunity for Peace and Reconciliation, as part of the annual Hispanic Summer Program for master's level Latino/Latina seminarians and graduate students. * Board President Amaury Tañón-Santos taught a course called Christian Ethics and Peace: A Latin American Perspective at the Mayan Intercultural Seminary (SIM) in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. * Received a $21,000 E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation grant through the Foundation's program in graduate theological education. The grant will support a gathering of Baptist seminarians from Canada, the US, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Cuba as part of BPFNA's annual conference to be held July 2015. The students will come together for a week of intensive and experiential education with the purpose of equipping and mobilizing them to return to their schools/communities inspired and able to serve as progressive religious leaders and agents of social change. * Continued to publish Baptist Peacemaker, our quarterly journal, which again won Associated Church Press awards: one for Bob Tiller's "A Proposal to Christian Peacemakers about Guns" and another for Lee McKenna's "Rosa Parks Goes to Tutti Island." * Created Dando a Luz a un Nuevo Mundo, an annotated list of peace and justice resources written in Spanish. * Published an essay series called The Vocation of Peacemaking to celebrate and inspire individual efforts to live a life of peace. * Continued to publish Model Ministries, an e-newsletter for Partner Congregations. Partner Congregations * Shared stories of our Partner Congregations in Model Ministries, created a monthly update to keep them informed, and shared resources for the annual celebration of Peace Sunday. * Worked formally and informally to support Partner Congregations looking to fill staff positions and pastors looking for churches. * Shared materials for congregations to celebrate/recognize: Gun Violence Prevention Sabbath, Earth Day, Torture Awareness Month and the People's Climate March-as well as materials related to specific issues and seasons of the church year. Companion Program * Continued our popular companioning program pairing young adults with more experienced peacemakers. Gavel Memorial Peace Fund Publications * Opened up our social media resources to BPFNA members and friends to share worship resources, news stories, congregational updates and a wide variety of pieces on such topics as marriage equality, immigration, gun violence and racism. * Continued to promote the second edition of Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth: A Resource for Congregations on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. * Published Ten Great Things to Give to guide people in gift-giving that supports peace rooted in justice. * Published What your Church Can Do About Human Trafficking, the latest in our series of issue monographs empowering congregations to respond to issues of injustice. BPFNA Financial Report January-December 2014 INCOME Contributions Programs TOTAL Carryover 210,358.48 149,939.78 360,298.26 24,657.80 EXPENSES Administration Programs TOTAL 76,968.04 307,988.02 384,956.06 * Supported the Fourth Women's Interfaith Gathering held on March 2014, in Abbottabad, Pakistan. * With our help, Lancelot Muteyo of the Pan African Peace Network (PAP-NET) was present at the Baptist Convention of Malawi Youth Easter Conference. In the first part of the convention, he made a presentation introducing approximately 500 youth and their leaders to the techniques of Conflict Transformation. The second part was more intimate, with a session in which he trained 30 youth in the skills of Conflict Transformation. Each of Malawi's seven provinces selected approximately five youth to participate in the training. * Enabled the Peacebuilding, Healing and Reconciliation Programme (PHARP) to lead a four-day peace-building training to strengthen the capacity of pastors, teachers and community leaders to promote peace, forgiveness and reconciliation in Kenya. * Sponsored ongoing Conflict Transformation trainings led by Boaz Keibarak among the Pokot and Turkana tribes in Kenya, areas in which where there has been violence for many years and a series of recent killings. * Made it possible for PAP-NET to create a Conflict Transformation training for chiefs, sub chiefs, village heads, kraal heads, police chiefs, council heads, pastors and the general public in Masvingo, Zimbabwe. Thirty people were expected but 64 attended. The paramount chief of Ndanga Clan, who is in charge of 254 villages, extended his invitation for the group to come back again and conduct Conflict Transformation Workshops for Members of Parliament and Councillors. Please see "Highlights" on page 31. 26 Baptist Peacemaker APR-JUN 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America April-June 2015

Crossing Borders in 2015
BPFNA Welcomes New Office Manager
Unsettled By Truth: A Border Awareness Experience
What Nagaland Needs: Report from a Conflict Transformation Training
Songs of Victory in Uganda: Report from a Conflict Transformation Training
It Was a Large Day: Reflections on the US-Cuba Policy Change Announcement
My Vocation as a Peacemaker
Christians & Commitment To Truth & Justice: How Churches Are Responding to the Ayotzinapa Kidnapping
Report from the SOA Watch Vigil
BPFNA World Peace Network to Fund Five African Peace Projects
In the Land of the Willing: A Review of Ken Sehested's New Book
Prayer & Politiks: A Review of Ken Sehested's Online Journal
Resources & Opportunities
2014 BPFNA Highlights
Contributors
Rags of Weariness

The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America April-June 2015