Authors , who met at ��ݮ���� (EMU), launched Gather at the Table at EMU in early October 2012.  A couple of weeks after this launch, the two were interviewed for “Race Talk” with on MSNBC. This appearance that boosted the sales of their book from around #40,000 to #149 on Amazon.com, with the book listed among Amazon’s “Movers & Shakers.” Random House also recommended the book for its list of new freshman-year readings.

The book uses a joint journey through 27 states over three years ­– visiting ancestral grounds, courthouses, plantations, and civil rights sites – as a framework for exploring “the journey toward understanding and peace and reconciliation . . . understanding how slavery affected the psyche of everyone who still lives in America today and how it informs the social structures that govern our lives,” as Morgan explained in a J for “Weekday” on KUOW, Seattle’s NPR station.

“I think what we were trying to do is to look at things from both sides of the equation as a black person and a white person, and a man and a woman, and people who were in opposition in a lot of ways,” she said.

Morgan is a black woman from Chicago’s South Side, a descendant of slaves on both sides of her family. She speaks of living much of her life with a deep fear of white people. DeWolf is a white man from rural Oregon, a descendant of a slave-trading dynasty.

Opposition to Reconciliation

“The intense and non-trusting relationships were so very fragile and suspect at the beginning of the journey but gradually they were able to begin to reach out to each other in order to understand their misunderstandings regarding each race and reach a mutual respect and love,” posted a reviewer on amazon.com on Dec. 20, 2012. That reviewer was one of nine, all giving the book a five-star rating as of Jan. 9, 2013.

Morgan and DeWolf met at Coming to the Table, a program launched by EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding in 2006 with the hopes of bringing together descendants of slaveholders and enslaved people to explore history, uncover truths, build relationships, promote healing, and inspire action for a more just society.

The new book credits teachings by both STAR (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience) and Coming to the Table,  each developed out of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU. As a result, the authors are dedicating part of the book’s royalties to EMU’s work in this field.

Hope Springs at EMU

“The actions of one or two people rarely make a significant difference in the world,” wrote Morgan and DeWolf. “But the commitment of many people, acting individually and collectively, has great potential.

“Hope springs when people take the STAR training: when members of Coming to the Table congregate on a conference call to discuss restorative justice, genealogy, or relationship building, when six women in Seattle create a weekly ‘Healing Together’ workshop, and when a man in Virginia inspires people in his community to explore the history and impact of slavery through Negro spirituals and to raise their voices together in song.

“This is our work,” they added, “to repair unhealed wounds from the past and challenge systems that remain unjust and either dismantle them or work to heal the damage they continue to cause.”

The Morgan/DeWolf book tour includes presentations at universities, churches, musuems, libraries, and book-selling venues around the country. To invite the authors to speak or to learn of their scheduled appearances, visit .

In mid-April, 2013, EMU will be hosting a workshop pertinent to Morgan’s and DeWolf’s story, titled “Transforming Historical Harms.”  The two-day training will provide tools for analyzing the legacies and aftermath of historical trauma, and will examine the beliefs, narratives and structures that perpetuate that trauma. It will also cover strategies and practices for addressing historical trauma, including facing history, making connections, healing wounds, and taking action. to the public.

Ted Swartz (l.) and Trent Wagler in a scene from Ted & Company TheaterWorks’ original play, “I’d Like to Buy An Enemy.”

The play, starring Ted Swartz, Trent Wagler and Peter Nelson with original music by Wagler, is both hilarious and poignant. It allows us to laugh at ourselves while raising important questions about the place of the U.S. in the world, why fear is such a large part of our culture and asks the question: How can we honestly work for peace and justice in this country … and just maybe in the world?

Sketches include: “I’d Like to Buy an Enemy,” “Why Can’t I Get My Money Back?”, “The Reptilian Brain Speaks: We’re late! We’re late … are we late?” and “You Started it! – a treatise on the cycles of violence.”

CJP representatives will lead a discussion after the play.

Ted Swartz lives in Harrisonburg when he’s not on the road presenting workshops, sermons, solo shows or performing with the variety of actors that make up Ted & Company TheaterWorks. Perhaps most well-known for finding the humor and humanity in biblical stories (“Fish-Eyes,” “Creation Chronicles” and “DoveTale”), created with Lee Eshleman during their 20-year partnership, Swartz has recently begun creating plays about peace and justice (“I’d Like to Buy an Enemy”), the meaning of church and faith (“What Would Lloyd Do?”) and acting with Ingrid De Sanctis, Trent Wagler, Jeff Raught and others.

Trent Wagler is a freelance actor and musician from Harrisonburg. He has recorded four full-length albums and toured across the country with his band, The Steel Wheels and in duo performances with Jay Lapp. Wagler has played the role of Gabriel in Ted & Lee’s “DoveTale” show and worked with Swartz to create “What Would Lloyd Do?” and “I’d Like to Buy an Enemy.”

Pete Nelson is a 2008 graduate of ��ݮ����.

Tickets are available at the door only (no advance tickets will be sold) for $12/adults; $6/students. Call 540-574-4877 for more information.

But regret is only the beginning. We in Virginia

By Tom Mitchell, Daily News-Record

Upon taking the podium at Monday

It almost sounded like Martin Luther King Jr. was at the podium, his gift of powerful oratory resounding across Lehman Auditorium at ��ݮ����.

Derrick Parson, campus pastor with the Wesley Foundation at neighboring James Madison University, drew excerpts from several of the late minister and civil rights leader’s memorable speeches in a chapel program Monday, Jan. 17, to formally open King Week activities at EMU.

Speaking extemporaneously but with great feeling, Parsons reflected on King’s life and legacy and his view of reconciliation.

Derrick Parson reflects on the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., including giving excerpts from memory from the late civil rights worker’s memorable speeches.
Photo by Jim Bishop

Quoting the scripture, “to whom much is given, much will be required,” he said that King truly believed this and lived it out.

“Martin believed that unqualified love and forgiveness could change the world, turning enemies into friends,” Parsons said. “He prayed forgiveness on those who opposed him and his message.”

Noting that King wrote six books and scores of articles in his 13 years of public ministry after completing graduate school at age 26, Parsons encouraged his audience to read King’s writings “to see how he reflected the live and teachings of Christ’s reconciling love.”

Parsons closed by giving from memory the speech that King wrote for his own funeral in 1968, calling on his audience to “ask how you can make a difference in our world by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

The campus ministries department at EMU joined hands with the multicultural services office to plan a combined spring Spiritual Life/Martin Luther King Week. Activities on the program theme, “Worship and Walk Side by Side,” will continue through Friday, Jan. 21, and include a coffeehouse, panel discussions, an “agape” meal, film showing, a candlelight worship service and communion.

Reformation church leader Martin Luther reportedly said, “Even if I knew my life would end tomorrow, I would still plant a tree.”

A Southern magnolia was planted in front of EMU’s Hillside Suites residence May 27 as a living symbol of hope for peace in Iraq, a country devastated by war and destruction in the wake of the U.S. invasion.

Six Iraqi citizens who spent several weeks attending programs at EMU aimed at training persons to do peacebuilding, mediation work and trauma healing in areas of protracted conflict gave the tree to the university as an expression of thanks for their experiences.

The group, three men and three women, attended a weeklong STAR (Seminars on Trauma Awareness and Recovery), a program co-sponsored by EMU’s Conflict Transformation Program and Church World Service. STAR provides intensive training programs for religious leaders and caregivers to assist persons in areas affected by traumatic events.

They then participated in the first two sessions of the annual Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI), an annual CTP-sponsored event that offers intensive seven-day courses on conflict transformation, strategic nonviolence, trauma awareness and reconciliation, restorative justice and related themes.

“The workshops we attended were extremely valuable to our work in Iraq,” said one participant, speaking on behalf of his colleagues. “The mediation training will help us in resolving local and community conflicts, hopefully reaching out to a broader base and with more formal applications to human rights situations.

“Coming here (to EMU) gave us a new sense of hope,” he said. “The public media isn’t showing the progress being made in trying to bring stability and improved economic life. Violence will only lead to more violence. We want to take back and apply the values to help build up peace in our country.”

The delegation was sponsored by Church World Service and Mennonite Central Committee.

The SPI program continues through June 15.