Endorsements of ECAPC by Church Leaders

MARCUS BORG
(Jesus scholar, author of Jesus, A New Vision)

"One of the most certain results of historical scholarship is that Jesus and the early Christian movement of the first three centuries practiced non-violence. One of the most encouraging developments in our time is that an increasing number of Christians are willing to take seriously the non-violent stance of Jesus and early Christianity. ECAPC builds on that willingness even as it seeks to encourage it. It is an idea and movement whose time has come. Best wishes in this important endeavor."

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JOHN DOMINIC CROSSAN
(Jesus scholar, author of The Historical Jesus)

"Hello to your gathering! I have learned from a lifetime of research, first, that the historical Jesus would have worn a T-shirt with WWJD on the front and WHAT WOULD JUSTICE DEMAND on the back; second, that peace is the necessary result of justice, of structural, systemic, distributive justice in a world that belongs to God and not to us; third, that peace without justice is the quiet of the desert or the grave; and fourth, that non-violence is never enough since non-violent RESISTANCE to evil, injustice, and violence was the way of Jesus, the incarnation of God. With best wishes for your conference."

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LOWELL O. ERDAHL
(Retired bishop, St. Paul synod, ELCA, Lutheran Peace Fellowship National Board Member)

"Jesus wept over Jerusalem saying, 'Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace!' He certainly must weep now over our violent, war-ravaged world. We Christians are quick to pray 'Lord, Lord' but are often exceedingly slow in following the clear teaching and example of Jesus. How essential and urgent for both church and world is the witness ofthose whom Jesus called the 'Blessed Peacemakers.' All this underscores the validity and necessity of the Every Church A Peace Church movement. I thank, encourage and strongly affirm all who are working to move ECAPC from vision to reality. Power to you all!!!"

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JANET CHISHOLM and RICHARD DEATS
Interim Co-Executive Directors
Fellowship of Reconciliation

"We at the Fellowship of Reconciliation are deeply grateful for the challenge of Every Church a Peace Church. May your gathering be blessed, may the work go far and wide to awaken passive congregations to the peacemaking calling of Jesus."

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BRENDA HARDT
Peace With Justice Coordiinator
Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church
5/1/01

"The charge to Christians is clear. We are called to transform the world not be conformed to it. We live in the assurance of such transformation in final victory. We participate in that victory when we order our lives and our institutions around the principles of Christian nonviolence. The scriptures give us visions of victorious nonviolence, of love's power over the forces of sin and violence. Every Church A Peace Church is a concrete expression of that scriptural vision. That is why I endorse it and pray for the widest possible participation of our churches in its work."

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JEAN MARTENSEN
(Director of the Women's Commission of the ELCA, Lutheran Peace Fellowship National Board Member)

"The word 'every' in Every Church A Peace Church provides an open invitation that is engaging and dynamic. Every church which has at the heart of its self-understanding this commitment to radical nonviolence is a potential friend... whether one is Lutheran, Jewish, Muslim, or justwondering about it all."

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CHED MYERS
(Biblical scholar, Director of Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries, author of Binding the Strong Man)

"We at Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries have been getting the ECAPC material, and are very excited and grateful for this new initiative. We wish to support you all in this important "new call to peacemaking." We will not be able to send anyone to the April conference, but will look forward to the results. (By the way, you are to be commended for holding a national conference in Duluth!) If you are looking for endorsements,count me in!

Because we Christians pursue peacemaking with half a heart, wrote Dan Berrigan years ago, the war-making continues. The church's witness against the injustice and violence of militarism has for too long been carried on by only a faithful few. ECAPC is a movement whose time has surely come to move this witness from the margins to the center of the church's life, where it truly belongs. We at Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries are committed to the ecumenical work of peacemaking, conflict resolution, and war tax resistance, and so welcome your initiative warmly and enthusiastically. We cannot join you in Duluth, but are holding you in the Light as you deliberate how best to organize a movement to return our traditions to their gospel roots. Grace and strength to you from companeros here on the West coast."

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BISHOP DESMOND TUTU
(South African Church Leader)

Dear Sir,

The world needs peace and the world needs peace churches. And so each church a peace church is what the church needs. That is my endorsement.

God bless you,
D. M. Tutu

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C. T. VIVIAN
(Civil rights hero and co-worker with Martin Luther King, Jr.)

"I'm enthusiastic about Every Church A Peace Church. The past century has proven forever the power of nonviolence over violence. Given the nature of world society today, we have no other alternative. This is the New Testament strategy that Martin Luther King understood as the way to solve one of the most emotionally charged, socially difficult and politically challenging problems of our time. As a result of what we have done and what we now know, this must be the century when every church becomes a peace church for the triumph of the meaning of the Sermon on the Mount."

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"I can still remember around 1990 when a very close Quaker friend of mine first told me of John Stoner's visionary witness and ministry for New Call to Peacemaking.  I've followed this moving ministry over the years, as it has transformed itself into Every Church A Peace Church.  Over the years, as I became more involved, ECAPC has been invaluable to my own ministry, my calling into peacemaking.  I have met many wonderful people through its network, and spoken to regional church groups through its Speakers Bureau.  ECAPC will surely enhance your vocation and ministry immeasurably, as it has mine."
-- John Wilmerding

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WALTER WINK
(Jesus scholar, author of Engaging the Powers)

"I'm booked for April, but I will be there in spirit. Greet the conference for me. With the exception of the historic peace churches, the churches of America have never repudiated violence or domination. Every Church A Peace Church is a prophetic attempt to bend the churches toward the spirit of Jesus and say 'Yes' to a vocation of peacemaking. All the best."