In late April, Lehman, now 85, made another trip – not quite so far – from his home in Ohio to James Madison University (JMU) in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where he and nearly 60 other “Paxers,” including organization co-founder and former leader Cal Redekop, received a from JMU’s .

Pax, a program of (MCC), was created in response to the reinstatement of the military draft in the United States after the start of the Korean War. Mennonites, Quakers, Brethren and other conscientious objectors could perform alternative service in Europe, and later in Africa and South America. Pax continued until 1975, three years after the draft ended. By the time the program closed, nearly 1,200 young Americans, and some Canadians, had served in 40 countries.

An ‘influential’ program

Nearly 300 people packed a reception hall at JMU to celebrate the organization’s legacy. Terry Beitzel, director of the Mahatma Gandhi Center, noted that Pax was receiving only the fourth award in the center’s 10-year history. The center gives a global nonviolence award, which has been presented to former President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter and South African anti-apartheid leader Desmond Tutu, and also the community service award, past co-recipients of which include restorative justice pioneer , a professor at ��ݮ���� (EMU), and JMU nursing professor Vida Huber.

“Pax was chosen for the award because of its contribution to establishing alternative service programs and influencing the formation of the U.S. Peace Corps, but primarily because of the emphasis on service to others,” said Beitzel, who has taken courses and taught at EMU’s and earned a PhD in conflict analysis and resolution from George Mason University.

“Pax serves as an example of service and peacemaking for all of us today,” said JMU Provost Jerry Benson.

Redekop, now 89 and living in Harrisonburg, accepted the award on behalf of Pax and its volunteers.

“I’m only the handmaiden for Pax or handlanger – German for lackey,” he said, before calling up ‘76, who chairs the MCC U.S. board. Hershberger, a professor at EMU, spoke of the Pax legacy and how it affected her own MCC work, with husband Jim ‘82, in Central America.

‘Paxers’ still connected

Redekop and Paul Peachey ‘45 dreamed up the new organization while the two were in Europe serving in post-war relief efforts with MCC. (Both Peachey, who eventually taught at EMU, and Redekop went on to academic careers in the field of sociology. Redekop is also a former business executive who has written widely on Christian ethics in business.)

Inspired by the Latin word for peace, the Pax program began in Europe with housing projects for war refugees, including German-speaking Mennonites from Ukraine, who were caught between the German and Soviet armies. Redekop, raised in the Midwest in an immigrant community of German-speaking Mennonites from Russia, was able to communicate in the low-German dialect.

The cultural exchange between Paxers and the people they helped was rich and rewarding. Lowell E. Bender ’67, current MCC board member and the evening’s master of ceremonies, was a Pax worker in Germany, Austria and Greece from 1961-63, where he witnessed the long-term devastation caused by the war while constructing new houses for families whose homes had been destroyed years before. Bender came back to the United States after his service and enrolled at EMU.

“We were all changed by our experiences,” he said, of the Paxers.

“Many of the Pax veterans still stay in touch with the people they served,” says ‘62, whose interest in the German language and culture began with his Pax tour and eventually led to a teaching career as a German language professor (he retired from EMU in 2004). Reunions of the , the unit Glick served in, have been held nine times since 1970, including once in Salzburg, Austria.

Paul M. Harnish ’64, of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, visited a large, modern chicken processing co-op that he helped start years ago in an impoverished area of Greece. His little hatchery began with 500 chicks imported from the United States. Harnish remembers his delivery being complicated by the need to spend the night in a hotel with the chicks before he could return to the village.

Editor’s Note: The history of the Pax program is featured in two books: Urie Bender’s Soldiers of Compassion (1969) and Cal Redekop’s The Pax Story: Service in the Name of Christ (2001). A 2008 award-winning documentary Pax Service: An Alternative to War was produced by Burton Buller, Cal Redekop and Albert Keim, a former EMU history professor.

and , co-directors of the , delivered the plenary address, entitled “Putting a Face on the ‘Other.’”

Four days later, Zehr was one of two recipients of the 2013 “,” conferred by the in a ceremony hosted by JMU President Jonathan R. Alger. The other recipient, Vida S. Huber, was a 1961 graduate of EMU who chaired from 1967 to 1984 and then held leadership roles at JMU until her sudden death in 2005. The awards were given in recognition of the duo’s “visionary leadership and enduring commitment to the creation of a more compassionate, equitable and caring community.” Huber’s surviving husband, Harold, accepted her posthumous award.

Evoking empathetic responses

At the state-wide mediation conference, Zehr and Stauffer, who is a CJP professor, spoke of how a process of “othering” – or increasing the social distance between people or groups – makes it easier for them to harm each other. They then contrasted the ways in which the traditional criminal justice system increases “othering” with the ways that restorative justice processes can reduce social distance and evoke empathic responses between victims and offenders.

Their presentation garnered an enthusiastic response from the audience of mediators, many of whom were hearing specifics about restorative justice’s objectives and techniques for the first time.

“It made a … light bulb go off in my head,” said Doreene Thomas, who wants to start a restorative justice program in Chesapeake, Va., where she mediates cases referred from local courts. “I see a huge need for it.”

Jennifer Phillips, a mediator from Richmond and the VMN president-elect, said the plenary session’s focus on restorative justice opened up a “new world” to her. “I’d heard of restorative justice, but this was the first time I’d been exposed to it like this.

“Hidden treasure”

“I had no idea that [so much] was available here,” Phillips continued, calling EMU “a hidden treasure.”

Zehr and Stauffer also discussed the arts as a good peacebuilding tool for putting faces on “others.” Zehr shared photographs and stories from several of his books intended to humanize prisoners, crime victims and children with incarcerated parents. Stauffer told the audience about a project he worked on in South Africa, where two opposing factions in a violent conflict created films about their experiences. Once the two videos were completed, the two sides combined them into one film exploring the conflict’s roots, which was eventually screened before a mixed audience of people who had previously been unwilling to meet and discuss their differences.

“We think the arts have the power to engage people emotionally and intuitively [in ways] that other things don’t,” said Zehr. “They allow us to engage the ambiguity and complexity of the world.”

Nine CJP-linked presenters

Using the arts as a peacebuilding and conflict resolution tool was the subject of a separate session led by three CJP students – Sarah Roth Shank, Corie Custer and Jonathan Swartz.

Judith Tolleson Clarke, with a 2011 MA from CJP, was one of four panelists who discussed their experiences using “dialogue circles” as part of restorative justice processes within Virginia’s correctional facilities. Clarke, from Richmond, Va., is the executive director and founder of the Virginia Center for Restorative Justice.

Other CJP-affiliated presenters at the conference included professor emeritus Vernon Janzti, who co-led a session on trauma awareness for mediators, Barbie Fischer, a 2012 MA graduate of CJP, who spoke about family group conferencing, and Brenda Waugh, a lawyer from Winchester, Va., who graduated from CJP in 2009. Waugh was co-leader of a session on how the architecture and layout of a room can help or hinder a mediation process.

VMN President Paula Young said one of the reasons she wanted to hold the conference on the EMU campus was to give mediators from the region exposure to the expertise in conflict resolution and peacebuilding resources present at EMU.

“[CJP has] a particularly strong program with particularly strong scholars who can introduce our members to a lot of conflict theory that they might not otherwise get,” she said. “I’ve heard nothing but positive things [from attendees] about being here.”

Shared desire to reduce violence, increase justice

Members of the VMN attended the conference to receive continuing education credits to maintain their certification as mediators, as well as for more informal professional development and networking.

“The sessions have been wonderful,” said Ron Williams, a retired attorney and a relatively new mediator who said the opportunity to learn from more experienced mediators was valuable.

Young said that because some VMN members have long experience as mediators, she wanted to develop a program that would keep them engaged by looking in-depth at challenging and engaging topics – something accomplished by tapping the expertise of the “distinguished scholars” at CJP.

“It was a great pleasure to host the VMN conference on campus,” said CJP professor and program director . “The questions and conversation in response to the plenary talk by Howard Zehr and Carl Stauffer indicate that we need to continue our conversation with members of VMN. We seem to have a lot of shared concerns and similar commitments to reducing violence and increasing justice in our communities.”

The highly-acclaimed Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir will sing at the Sept. 21 ceremony at James Madison University when former president Jimmy Carter receives the Global Nonviolence Award from the Mahatma Gandhi Center at JMU.

The Concert Choir of SVCC, a program of EMU, will sing for Nobel Peace laureate Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter at JMU, Monday, Sept. 21. The honor follows the invitation to sing for Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the first award ceremony put on by the Center in Harrisonburg, Va., in fall 2007.

“Having been selected before to sing for a president, we know it is a great honor to have been chosen as the choir for this event,” notes artistic director Julia White.

In 1997 the choir sang at the National Tree Lighting in Washington D.C., with opera star Placido Domingo, Motown singer Martha Reeves and country name Lori Morgan. Actor Gregory Peck hosted that event which was co-led by then-President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Clinton. “It was a huge honor to sing with the U.S. Coast Guard band and brass quintet,” recalls White.

The SVCC Concert Choir (65 children ages 11-17) will be augmented by 13 alumni to make the large chorus of 78 for the award ceremony Sept. 21. The choir will sing “Celebration Medley”, during the academic processional. The medley, a combination of the spirituals “Walk Together Children”, “Every Time” and “Yesu asali awa” was arranged for this event by Celah Pence, a graduate of both EMU and JMU.

In addition, they will sing an arrangement by John Coates, Jr., of President Carter’s favorite hymn, “Amazing Grace.” Accompanist Maurita Eberly will play on “Amazing Grace”. Andrew Richardson, percussionist, will accompany on both selections.

Six months in the making

White and Pence worked for nearly six months preparing for the project. “I wanted it to be celebratory, exciting, and inspiring,” said White. “The final measures of the African folksong are ‘There’s a great camp meeting in the promised land!,’ and it will be a thrill with the high 6-part chord in A Major,” she said.

White recorded this challenging piece with several choristers in early July before the SVCC left for Hawaii where they participated in the 2009 Pacific Rim Children’s Chorus Festival. SVCC staff mailed CDs in early August to the choristers so that they could prepare ahead, having only four rehearsals before the event. Read more about their trip to the Pacific Rim festival…

Choristers come to EMU campus for rehearsal each week from as far away as Page County, Waynesboro and West Virginia. They represent public, private and homeschool settings.

“We are honored to sing for President Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter and hope that our musical offerings will add a special excitement to the ceremony,” concludes White. “We are humbled by the task at hand and hope the ceremony is enhanced by the children’s beautiful voices.”

Rev. Tutu receives a quilted wall hanging from EMU President Loren Swartzendruber that was created by sisters Brownie(l.) and Gladys Driver (r.) of Harrisonburg. Photos by Jim Bishop

At a mid-morning tree-planting ceremony at James Madison University, EMU President Loren Swartzendruber thanked JMU’s Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence for including EMU in welcoming Tutu, who is renowned for championing human rights and global peacemaking.

In brief remarks to Tutu and some 75 others present for the ceremony, Dr. Swartzendruber praised Tutu’s commitment to the cause of peace and reconciliation. “EMU, in the Christian peace church tradition, is also committed to this cause, believing that Jesus taught us to love our enemies and to find peaceful solutions to conflict,” said Swartzendruber.

The Gandhi Center was established in 2005 under JMU Professor Sushil Mittal “to promote a culture of nonviolence and peace worldwide based on universal values of justice, equality, freedom,” according to the center’s web site ().

The Gandhi Center selected Tutu to be the first recipient of its annual Mahatma Gandhi Global Nonviolence Award and chose to present the award on the International Day of Peace, Sept. 21.

‘Message of Peace and Non-Violence’

“We are proud to join with the Gandhi Center in promoting a message of peace and non-violence,” said Swartzendruber. “Thirteen years ago, EMU established what is now known as the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding with an annual Summer Peacebuilding Institute. From three students in two countries – the U.S. and Burma in 1994-95 – our Center has grown to have more than 3,000 alumni living and working for peace in more than 103 countries, including 10 peacebuilder graduates in South Africa.”

Loren Swartzendruber presents Rev. Desmond Tutu with a CD-ROM of greetings from EMU students who are studying in South Africa the fall semester.

Swartzendruber presented Archbishop Tutu with a CD of recorded greetings from 24 EMU students and two faculty members who are spending the fall semester in a cross-cultural seminar in South Africa. He also gave the archbishop copies of “Peacebuilder,” the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding’s semi-annual magazine, and books from the “Little Books on Justice and Peacebuilding” series.

“As a symbol of Mennonite’s strong belief in community,” Swartzendruber presented Tutu with a quilted wall hanging made by sisters Brownie and Gladys Driver, residents of the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community and members of Weavers Mennonite Church.

The Archbishop told sisters Brownie and Gladys Driver, “I’ll hang [the piece] in my office so I can look at it and think of you when I am working.”

The tree planting celebrated the establishment of the Gandhi Center. The Anglican archbishop congratulated JMU on “establishing a center that seems a vibrant, lively institution” dedicated to the promotion of peacemaking and nonviolence.

Tutu Speaks on ‘Power of Goodness’

The evening of Sept. 21, Rev. Tutu spoke on “The Power of Goodness” at JMU’s Convocation Center with thousands of people attending, including many students, faculty and staff from EMU.

Tutu’s remarks displayed his warmth, humility and disarming sense of humor, as this anecdote shows. While attending a ceremony for a 400-year-old school that was named in his honor in England, “a student came up afterwards and asked me if I was there when the school began.” Tutu chuckled at the recollection, then added this punchline: “A few years later, they changed the name.”

“I hold young people in the highest regard,” Tutu declared. “Many of them have an incredible passion for making this a more caring and sharing world through a most wonderful collaboration with God.”

EMU Well-Represented

Swartzendruber with his wife, Pat, sat at Tutu’s table at the banquet that preceded the convocation program. Present at other tables were executive director Lynn Roth and professor Lisa Schirch of EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, among other EMU officials.

The Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir, associated with EMU’s music department, treated the thousands in the crowd to a South African medley, “Freedom is Coming/Siyahamba” and “Abide With Me,” arranged by Celah Pence, an EMU alumna.

Dr. Myron S. Augsburger, EMU president emeritus and member of the board of trustees of the Gandhi Center, and alumnus Ron Yoder offered a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing on Archbishop Tutu at the close of the award ceremony. Yoder, the chief executive officer of Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community, is also a member of the Gandhi board of trustees.

Anglican Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, Africa, and a 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner for his work in ending apartheid, Tutu will receive the JMU Mahatma Ghandi Center for Global Nonviolence’s top honor.

The award will be presented during a public program 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21, 2007, the “International Day of Peace,” at the JMU Convocation Center. Archbishop Tutu’s award presentation is entitled, “Goodness is Powerful.”

EMU representatives are honored to be among the invited guests for the evening, and the entire EMU community is encouraged to attend the public event.

EMU President Loren Swartzendruber with his wife, Pat, and Lynn Roth of EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and wife Kathleen will represent EMU as guests of JMU President Linwood Rose and Gandhi Center Director Sushil Mittal for the banquet preceding the convocation. Swartzendruber will provide a special blessing for the meal.

The Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir, part of EMU’s music department, was honored to be invited to sing at the ceremony honoring Archbishop Tutu. They will sing the South African medley, “Freedom is Coming/Siyahamba” and “Abide With Me,” arranged by Celah Pence, EMU alumna.

The name Desmond Tutu resonates profoundly with people all around the world.

Dr. Myron S. Augsburger, EMU president emeritus and member of the board of trustees of the Gandhi Center, will offer a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing on Archbishop Tutu at the close of the award ceremony. “Rev. Tutu’s influential endorsement of the Gandhi Center and its activities has been a major contributing factor to its development and success,” said Dr. Augsburger.

Archbishop Tutu will receive the Gandhi Award “for his contributions to peace, encouragement of a nonviolent approach to human relations and world affairs, and efforts to promote reconciliation and forgiveness among people,” said Professor Sushil Mittal, director of the Gandhi Center.

The name Desmond Tutu resonates profoundly with people all around the world. While his vigorous anti-apartheid activism in his native South Africa first propelled him into the glare of international news media, today he is revered as a “moral voice” and someone who speaks with gravitas on a range of issues. While he is an Anglican Archbishop emeritus and steadfast in his religious beliefs, Tutu places great value on religious inclusiveness and interfaith dialog.

Desmond Tutu joined the International Advisory Board of JMU Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence in 2005.

Admission is free and open to all. Seating capacity is 6,000 on a first come, first seated basis. Convocation doors open at 5 p.m. It is recommended that persons arrive early. Once the program has begun, there is no late admittance.