The conference is hosted by the (PJSA), dedicated to bringing together academics, K-12 teachers, and grassroots activists to explore alternatives to violence and share visions and strategies for peacebuilding, social justice and social聽change.

“PJSA is an important bi-national alliance for peacebuilding research, scholarship, training and activism,鈥� says , executive director of 贰惭鲍鈥檚 . 鈥淚t is a great honor that so many CJP and EMU faculty, staff and graduates will be featured in prominent conference roles this year, and allows a rare opportunity to highlight our distinctive contributions to the peacebuilding field.”

Those 鈥渄istinctive contributions鈥� include both conceptual and practical dimensions to the fields of , , , peace and justice studies pedagogy and the pedagogy of practice within the field, experiential education, reflective pedagogy and the arts and peacebuilding.

Catherine Barnes offers keynote address

Dr. Catherine Barnes, affiliate professor at CJP, will share from more than 30 years of experience working with deliberative dialogue processes in places as varied as the UN General Assembly Hall to village gathering places. Her address is titled 鈥淓ngaging together: exploring deliberative dialogue as a path towards systemic transformation.鈥�

鈥淒eliberative dialogue鈥� is a process that can empower participants to foster collaborative relationships and perceive the underlying mental models that maintain the status quo with the goal of fostering new approaches to complex challenges.

For the past seven years, Barnes has been working in support of transitional processes in Burma/Myanmar. She has worked and lived in more than 30 countries as a teacher, trainer, researcher, policy advocate and consultant with the focus of helping civil society activists, diplomats and politicians, and armed groups to build their capacities for preventing violence and using conflict as an opportunity for addressing the underlying causes giving rise to grievance. Barnes has worked with numerous peacebuilding and human rights organizations, including Conciliation Resources and Minority Rights Group International.

Focusing on education

贰惭鲍鈥檚 on peace and justice guides its educators, many of whom are sharing their pedagogical practices and discussing ways to educate future peacebuilders in the 鈥渆ducator鈥檚 strand,鈥� designed for personal and professional development of K-12 teachers, undergraduate and community educators. Themes include pedagogy, curriculum development, building a culture of peace in your classroom or school, alternative education programs, and restorative聽practices.

On the undergraduate level, professor , who leads the in the department of applied social sciences, leads a roundtable discussion for faculty and administrators of peace and justice studies programs.

, the with CJP鈥檚 , joins professor and graduate students in a session on mentoring student peacebuilders and the importance of those mentors being experienced practitioners themselves.

Restorative practices are highlighted by professors and in a 鈥渞elational justice鈥� workshop on how mindful teachers can prepare and prime 鈥渢heir best selves鈥� in preparation for inviting students into models of restorative justice. Mullet also joins , professor of education at Bridgewater College, for a workshop on relational literacy in multicultural K-12 classrooms.

Cheree Hammond, professor of counseling, leads educators in a workshop on contemplative pedagogies and the cultivation of a just and peaceful self.

Restorative justice, trauma healing, playback theater featured

The conference offers an opportunity to highlight 贰惭鲍鈥檚 unique peacebuilding initiatives. The brings together practitioners from EMU and JMU, as well as local law enforcement. Collaborators in the initiative will speak: , co-director of the; education professor ; Harrisonburg Police Department lieutenant Kurt Boshart; , restorative justice coordinator at the ; and , director of JMU鈥檚 Office of Student Accountability and Restorative Practices.

Another definitive CJP program, (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience), will be introduced in a workshop by professor and program director .

troupe co-founders and lead a workshop on playback theater as qualitative research. Vogel is a professor of theater; Foster instructs in the applied social sciences department and with CJP. The applied theater method invites dialogue and healing through community-building, as audience members share stories and watch as they are 鈥減layed back鈥� on the stage. Among other settings, Inside Out has performed on campus with college students returning from cross-culturals, among international peacebuilders and in workshops for and research about trauma and sexual abuse survivors.

, professor of applied social sciences, speaks about social capital networks as forms of resistance among battered undocumented Latinas, sharing just one strand of a .

, assistant professor of restorative justice and peacebuilding, leads a discussion on the film 鈥淰ision is Our Power,鈥� a film about black youth ending violence in all its forms. The documentary was created by four young filmmakers participating in a multi-year arts and leadership Vision to Peace Project led by Turner; the film debuted in 2008 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

And more鈥�

, professor of English, presents on life narratives and identity issues in the Balkans with his wife Daria, a CJP graduate who teaches in the counseling department at JMU. The two lived and taught in the Balkans.

, professor of philosophy and theology, explores the recent work in philosophy and science on theory of emotion.

, a new faculty member coming to EMU next semester after concluding his PhD research at American University, participates several panels, with a diversity of topics including transnational solidarity and police brutality and racism in the contested areas of Palestine and Ferguson, Missouri. Seidel is a board member of PJSA.

Among the alumni presenting: Vesna Hart, Sue Praill and Tom Brenneman join a panel discussion on justice and the nature of human nature. Ted Swartz presents the satire with Tim Ruebke and JMU professor of theater Ingrid DeSanctis.

View the . Registration聽fees will be covered for attendees聽from the Shenandoah Valley who are affiliated with or sponsored by Bridgewater College, James Madison University, 草莓社区, or Mary Baldwin College. For more information, click .

鈥淭hat鈥檚 true in baseball, theater and comedy,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 generally listen when things come in threes.鈥�

The adage has served him well for more than 20 years, as Swartz 鈥�89, M.Div 鈥�92, has engaged with the unlikely trio of theology, comedy and issues of faith. First with Lee Eshleman 鈥�86 in Ted & Lee, and now with Ted & Company, he has written and produced more than a dozen plays, travelling extensively worldwide for performances.

And that鈥檚 why, when three similarly focused suggestions came to his drawing board, he took notice.

鈥淎bout two years ago,鈥� Swartz remembers, 鈥淚 was asked to consider writing something about same-sex issues and sexuality in the context of the church, and I was busy at the time. But then six months later, on two other occasions, people asked the same question, and I took it a bit more seriously.鈥�

This dialogue resulted in 鈥�,鈥� a play that invites the audience to listen just as Swartz did to the diverse voices speaking about the controversial, challenging topic of same-sex relationships.

草莓社区 will host a performance of the show, which is free and open to the public, Sunday, Nov. 2, at 7:30 p.m. in Lehman Auditorium. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis, with doors opening at 6:45 p.m. A talkback聽session will follow.

Characters share variety of perspectives

The main character of 鈥淟istening For Grace鈥� is Daryl, a widower who learns that his son is gay. During the 70-minute performance, Daryl shares the stories of five other characters, each of whom provide a different perspective on same-sex relationships and faith. One of those voices is that of his deceased wife, Grace.

鈥淭he audience is continuously listening throughout this play, for Grace as a character who speaks truth to the main character in a way he can鈥檛 hear otherwise,鈥� Swartz says. 鈥淭hey are listening for Grace, but they are also listening to hear themselves in someone else鈥檚 story.鈥�

In shaping the play as an extended dialogue, Swartz invites the audience to honor their own viewpoints and those of others, and then to re-engage in continued discussion with respect and empathy.

Campus community invited to conversation

Recent performances at Mennonite churches and other locations around the country have often sparked the scheduling of conversation circles and small-group discussion, 鈥渟ometimes even a few days later to allow people to process it, depending on how the community or congregation wants to handle it,鈥� Swartz says.

EMU is following this model, hosting a follow-up conversation for campus community members at the Discipleship Center on Monday, Nov. 3, at 7:30 p.m.

Pastor , director of , says the play offers an opportunity for continued dialogue.

鈥淚 expect that most people will find their voice, or voices, represented by one or more of the characters in this play such that continued reflection and conversation with others might be prompted,鈥� Burkholder said. 鈥淚deally, this performance will offer a shared experience that encourages ongoing dialogue.鈥�

Play, cast, have connections to campus

鈥淟istening For Grace鈥� has been performed at in Harrisonburg to a packed house of Swartz鈥檚 hometown fans.

Yet Swartz says he is delighted to be returning to EMU and to Lehman Auditorium, the stage 鈥渨here I learned to act鈥� while studying theology at .

And it鈥檚 fitting that the play returns to campus, where Swartz debuted an early script at a closed reading in the fall of 2013. Since that time, the play morphed dramatically, most notably from an ensemble to a solo cast, and from recorded music to on-stage accompaniment.

Music at the Nov. 3 performance will be provided by pianist Phillip Martin 鈥�13 and celloist Justin Yoder (when Justin is unavailable, EMU student Chris Yoder contributes in this role).

But executives at , the publishing branch of Harrisonburg-based Mennomedia, believe they’ve tapped into the next genre in Anabaptist literature: the memoir.

They’ve been on a mission to publish such novels, which is why they backed books such as Harrisonburg actor ‘ book, 2012 title “Laughter Is Sacred Space,” and Friendly City-based author ‘s 2013 memoir, titled “Blush,” last year. And that’s why the publisher has picked up ‘s latest book, “Bonnet Strings: An Amish Woman’s Ties to Two Worlds.”

“I’m thinking that the next phase or the next genre might be those of us who have lived the life or are living the life of Amish or Mennonite writing our own story,” Furlong said.

“There’s been so much out there about the Amish that’s just so false. I’m thinking it’s time for the true stories to come out.”

Saloma’s Story

Furlong, 56, left the security of her Amish community in Ohio at the age of 20. She headed for Burlington, a city she had only been introduced to in her history books, and secured her dream job as a waitress at a Pizza Hut.

“The first book [`Why I Left the Amish’] basically takes the reader to the point where I left the Amish for the first time,” Furlong explained. ” `Bonnet Strings’ picks up pretty much where that one left off.”

While she was in Burlington, Furlong made plans to enroll in college courses and met David, the man she would later marry, whom she began dating in the winter of 1978.

But it wasn’t long before a vanload of her family and friends showed up unannounced at her front door, with full intent of returning her to the Amish community.

“I basically did not want to find out what would happen if I resisted,” she said, explaining that she then returned to her hometown for almost three years before she left again.

“In the meantime, David did not give up wanting to communicate with me,” she added.

When she did leave the community again, it was David who picked her up in his truck. A year and a half later, the two married.

“The book is basically a story about being torn between my two worlds, but it contains a love story, as well,” Furlong said. “It basically leaves off when David and I got married.”

David wrote three of the book’s chapters and joins his wife during her presentations of the novel. The couple will return to 草莓社区 to discuss the book March 25; Furlong first came to the university to discuss “Why I Left The Amish” in March 2013.

This year, the event will take place at 4 p.m. in the Strite conference room, 105, in the Campus Center at EMU. , another author who has been published by Herald Press, will introduce Furlong.

A Speedy Process

Amy Gingerich, editorial director for Herald Press, was so convinced that “Bonnet Strings” would be the perfect installment in the publisher’s string of Anabaptist memoirs that she fast-tracked the process of buying Furlong’s book.

Last July, on a Friday evening, Showalter mentioned to Gingerich that Furlong was planning to self-publish the memoir; by Sunday, Gingerich had set up a time to talk with the now western Massachusetts-based author.

“Typically, we kind of dance around with an offer for a few weeks,” Gingerich explained. “But I was really excited about this book. I said to Saloma. … `I want to get this thing sewed up Monday.’ ”

However, there was a slight complicating factor.

Gingerich was nine months pregnant and expecting her baby that Thursday.

“By Thursday, which was my due date, [Furlong] signed,” Gingerich said, laughing. “I went into labor Thursday night.”

Furlong then wrote the second half of her novel during September.

“I saw a lot of beautiful autumn days go by my window,” she jokes now.

The book was released Feb. 3, the day before a documentary featuring Furlong aired on PBS American Experience, called “The Amish Shunned.” She also had a lead role in a film simply titled “The Amish,” produced by the same company in 2012.

Gingerich explained the new novel’s universal appeal this way: “Whether or not you grew up Amish, I think all of us have to deal with questions of belonging.”

For more information on Furlong and “Bonnet Strings,” visit or .

Courtesy of the Daily News Record, March 22, 2014

The theme of the conference is “Peace in practice: What does it look like when our theories become action?”

“Lisa’s example of聽field work with local, international, and systems-based conflicts is inspirational for college students,” says Christine Baer, a conference co-organizer and a senior and major.

Schirch and other speakers will focus on building peace at all levels, from local to international, and integrating this work into art and other forms of community engagement.

About Lisa Schirch

In her role at the Alliance for Peacebuildling, Schirch connects policymakers with global civil society networks, facilitates civil-military dialogue, and provides a conflict prevention and peacebuilding lens on current policy issues.

Schirch is also a research professor at .

She has conducted conflict assessments and participated in peacebuilding planning alongside local colleagues in more than 20 countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Kenya, Ghana, and Fiji.

Schirch works primarily with small local NGOs and civil society organizations. Schirch also has worked as a consultant on conflict assessment and peacebuilding planning for large entities, such as the , the World Bank, several branches of the U.S. government, the U.S. Foreign Service Institute, and many other international organizations.

She holds a BA in international relations from the University of Waterloo in Canada and an MS and a PhD in conflict analysis and resolution from George Mason University.

Drama that entertains and informs

“I’d Like to Buy an Enemy” will be performed by on Friday, Jan. 31, at 8 p.m., in the MainStage Theater in University Commons.

The play, starring Ted Swartz, MDiv ’92, and Tim Ruebke MA ’99 (), allows audiences to laugh at themselves while raising important questions about the place of the United States in the world, confronting the fear that is such a large part of contemporary culture, and exploring ways to honestly work for peace and justice in this country.

Tickets are $8 for general audience and $5 for EMU faculty and staff. EMU students and conference attendees are free, if they show their identifications.

Ted and Company will also host university chapel on Friday at 10 a.m.

Organizers

The Intercollegiate Peace Fellowship Conference is sponsored and organized by , a student organization that organizes campus-wide activities, regular space to share meals and discussions, and special speakers to spark meaningful dialogue. For more information about the conference or Peace Fellowship, contact the applied social sciences department.

Conference details

The program will open on Friday, Jan. 31, at 7 p.m., and end on Sunday, Feb. 2, at 1 p.m. Participating schools include Bluffton University in Ohio; Conrad Grebel College in Canada; Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania; Goshen College in Indiana; Hesston College in Kansas; and Messiah College in Pennsylvania.

Workshops will be offered on a wide range of topics, including 鈥淎 Subversive Shalom: Enacting Radical Peace” with and ; “Home Front: the Untold History of Radical Veteran Peacemaking” with ; and “: Promoting Personal Growth and Community Well-Being” with Philip Fisher Rhodes and Ron Copeland.

Other topics to be covered range from “The Relationship Between Islam and Peace” and “Restorative Justice in Our Schools” to “Arts, Theater, and Peacebuilding.”

Most sessions will be held in of the seminary building and seminary classrooms.

Creating connections

“We expect this conference to be a time of sharing stories and experiences at all levels, with many practical applications of peacebuilding,” said Krista Nyce, an EMU senior major and conference co-organizer. “We have heard a lot in the classroom about theories and have debated concepts; thus we hope this can be a time to build on those with realistic accounts of speakers鈥� varied involvements from local organizations to experiences of national organizing, from art to restorative justice to education.”

and a is available . is also available.

For more information on the conference visit or email: emupeacefellowship@gmail.com.

“I think it might have been on Youtube that I first saw `On the Good Ship Lollipop,’ ” Showalter admitted from the comfort of her Harrisonburg home last week, letting out an infectious chuckle.

With an easy smile and a certain strength in eloquence, Showalter is a woman who seems comfortable in her own skin.

Her mother wanted a Shirley Temple doll since she was very young and had always hoped for a sister, so when she became pregnant with Showalter, it only seemed natural to call her “Shirley.”

“I became both the doll she never had and the sister she always wanted,” Showalter said.

Now 65, Showalter grew up in a “plain” Mennonite community in Lancaster, Pa. 鈥� an upbringing that restricted her from what she calls the “glittery things of the world.”

Her first book, which was released Sept. 19, explains the first portion of the headpiece-wearing Mennonite girl’s journey from the family farm to becoming a college president and foundation executive.

Although Showalter has made strides over the years, the rosy-cheeked portrait of her younger self on the cover of “,” looks very familiar.

But that’s the point: Showalter’s message is not to run from “blush” 鈥� which she describes as the questioning naivety she developed in her uncomfortable position between the church and the world 鈥� but to embrace it.

“When we learn to embrace our blush and let go of our ego and not fight those things … but rather relax into them, then we can learn and grow and come home to ourselves,” she said.

The past as a child in Lancaster

If there’s a spectrum of religious stringency, Showalter grew up living somewhere along the middle of it.

She didn’t have to wear ankle-length dresses over black stockings, but her skirts couldn’t be too short, and jeans were absolutely out of the question.

Her hair had to be long enough to pin into a neat bun on the back of her head and then covered, although that gauzy headpiece wasn’t as conservative 鈥� read: large 鈥� as some of the ones spotted in local areas, such as Dayton, today.

“Until I went to bed that night, I [would] wear that all day long,” she explained.

She could listen to the radio at home, but she was forbidden from watching television. Dancing also fell into the forbidden category, as well as movies, although she did go with her parents to see “The Sound of Music” when she was 16.

“I happened to have been born at the edge of a great transformation that was taking place in the church, and these requirements … all have changed,” she added. “I wore a covering to public high school and my sister 鈥� who’s seven years younger 鈥� did not.”

Showalter was the first in her family in another regard. When she decided to attend then-Eastern Mennonite College, she was the first person to pursue higher education on both sides of her family, which have been in America for 10 generations.

Some of the reasoning behind that lies in the nature of the Mennonite culture in which she was raised, the near certainty that boys would become farmers and that girls would head straight for marriage, Showalter explained.”But there was also question marks and suspicion,” she said. “Would college alienate a young person from the church, from their family?”

Despite some skepticism, her parents didn’t stand in her way and quietly encouraged her in the form of financial aid and transport to and from Harrisonburg.

That’s where the book ends, but Showalter’s real story was only just beginning.

“I’ve left the book at a point where it could be picked up again, but I haven’t made any decisions yet about the next stage,” she said.

The past in the larger world

A sequel to “Blush” would likely include the story of Showalter’s journey to in Goshen, Ind., where she became the first female president of the institution.

The story goes like this: After majoring in at what is now 草莓社区, Showalter taught at from 1970-72.

She then moved to pursue her master’s degree at the University of Texas at Austin, along with her husband, , whom she met at her alma mater.

After emerging from Austin in 1980 with a PhD in American Civilization, Showalter taught English at Goshen College for several years. In 1996, she was named the 14th president of the college. Eight years later, she moved to Kalamazoo, Mich., to join the Fetzer Institute as the vice president of programs.

Showalter, who still considers herself a Mennonite, is now a full-time writer and blogger who also teaches an honors course about writing memoirs 鈥� a process she’s now intimately familiar with 鈥� at none other than EMU.

The future

On Sept. 19, Showalter started a three-week-long book tour at in Lititz, Pa.

At 7 p.m., Sept. 25, at EMU’s Martin Chapel, she will perform with local actor . The event will be a book launch for Showalter and a book re-launch for Swartz, whose memoir, “,” has gained a new cover.

The following afternoon, at 3:30 p.m., Sept. 26, Showalter will perform a short reading of “Blush” in an event sponsored by . It will be held at the university’s Campus Center.

Showalter will then head to Archbold, Ohio, then to Goshen and Kalamazoo for book signings.

“It’s actually like having eight weddings in five states over three weeks,” she joked.

If nothing else, she wants her readers to take home this message: “I learned that being naive was a great gift,” she said. “For a long time, I kind of fought it. … I feared my naivete, but I learned that it was actually a great gift. It meant that I was always starting over. I was always in beginner’s mind, and [that’s] a wonderful place to be.

“It’s a great learning place, and so what I thought was an obstacle sometimes growing up actually turned out to be a great gift.”

Article courtesy Daily News Record, Sept. 21, 2013, with minor edits by EMU’s editors.

This was the recurrent theme of the at , Jan. 21-23, which was titled 鈥淚magine Church as Healing Space.鈥� The event attracted over 270 participants and resource persons who sought to 鈥渉ear, hold, and hope鈥� amid mental health challenges. are online.

Hosted and planned by EMS, the event felt historic: multiple participants said this was the first time in a public church context they had felt part of the group, not in spite of but because of their depression, anxiety, bipolar diagnosis, schizophrenia, and more. This was the first time they had felt normalized, not stigmatized, with their journey held in love, not primarily met with silence or marginalization. We see that experience, so easy to report but so rarely experienced, as a key gift the 2013 SLT offered.

Hearing from those with mental and those who love them

A second gift was space to tell and hear the pain mental illness causes both its sufferers and those who love them. Earl and Pat Martin offered searingly moving glimpses of their journey through their son Hans Martin鈥檚 development of symptoms of schizo-affective disorder.

Earl shared journal entries he had written during the sleepless nights after Hans was first hospitalized. In these contemporary psalms of lament, Earl raged at a pitiless God who treats his creatures like vermin, snapping off their limbs, leaving them soaked in their own blood. Earl railed at this God as the sick one who should get treatment for insanity. He reported that after he stopped writing of his own volition, spent, his pen kept going and offered words from God, who said that God鈥檚 own son was in fact in treatment and was the roommate in a neighboring bed whom Earl had feared would hurt Hans.

Not a cheap hope

A third gift was hope. This was not a cheap hope. Many at SLT, from participants through resource persons, told of confronting the anguish caused by suicide. To name just one example, in a laughter-yet-tear-stirring blending of drama and storytelling, told of his journey through his comedy partner Lee Eshleman鈥檚 battle with depression and of how the suicide to which it drove Lee so shattered Ted鈥檚 own life and career that years have gone into rebuilding. Yet precisely in this heartrendingly open naming of the torment, Ted offered hope鈥攈ope for himself and hope for those still grieving the loss of their own loved ones.

Hope was also movingly offered through stories of persons seeking to live recovery-focused lives even amid the diagnosed illnesses once thought to be themselves virtual death or at least imprisonment-in-miserable-conditions sentences. John Otenasek, himself a 鈥渃onsumer,鈥� as he put it, in recovery, led a panel of men (including Hans Martin) and women who told of enduring addictions, joblessness, homelessness, and more. Yet they also spoke of finding hope鈥攐ften from peers confronting their own illnesses鈥攅nabling them to live meaningful and even joy-tinged lives while navigating ongoing bi-polar episodes or hearing voices.

And hope was offered when Tilda Norberg modeled what can happen when we attend to the 鈥淕od icons鈥� in our lives and dreams. She risked a live Gestalt pastoral counseling session with a courageous Sherill Hostetter. Drawing on insights from one of Sherill鈥檚 recent dreams, Norberg led Sherill in working through how her mother’s undiagnosed and untreated mental illness had affected her as a child and even now as a leader. 聽She more fully claimed her own empowered voice as a recently ordained minister and congregational consultant.

Recovery, love and acceptance

Fittingly enough, just days after the 2013 SLT concluded, the New York Times published on Jan. 27, 2013 by Elyn R. Saks, diagnosed with schizophrenia yet a successful law professor at the University of Southern California. As did many at SLT influenced by the recovery movement in mental health, Saks stressed, 鈥淎n approach that looks for individual strengths, in addition to considering symptoms, could help dispel the pessimism surrounding mental illness. Finding 鈥榯he wellness within the illness,鈥� as one person with schizophrenia said, should be a therapeutic goal.鈥�

In a conclusion that movingly echoes the convictions SLT participants took with them, Saks reported: 鈥溾�橢very person has a unique gift or unique self to bring to the world,鈥� said one of our study鈥檚 participants. She expressed the reality that those of us who have schizophrenia and other mental illnesses want what everyone wants: in the words of Sigmund Freud, to work and to love.鈥�

Claiming our stories

When we checked with the Martins to make sure our references to their stories were acceptable, Pat said, 鈥淥ne of the SLT statements that stuck with me, spoken by either Joan or Ijeoma Achara that first night, pulled us all into the common task of being human: 鈥楻ecovery is about claiming one’s story. The tools are the same for all of us whether struggling with mental illness or an overwhelming job.鈥欌�� At EMS we鈥檒l continue to ponder how, whatever the details of our stories may be, we help each other claim them.

聽鈥擩oan K. King is senior integration consultant, The National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, and owner of Joan K. King Consulting and Counseling LLC. is dean of Eastern Mennonite Seminary and a vice president of 草莓社区.

The one-night interactive event blends laughter and thoughtful dialogue and “peace pies.” The evening includes a hand-crafted pie auction where 100 percent of pie sales will go toward the support of local peace and reconciliation work.

Ticket prices are $12, $10 for students and seniors (60+), and children ages 6 and under are free. Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit the and the .

The tour kicked off in spring 2012 with six shows across eastern Pennsylvania and the Midwest, surpassing expectations of organizers. Volunteers donated almost 300 pies and the total amount raised for peace exceeded $30,000.

Peace, Pies and Prophets unpacks issues of justice and through humorous and poignant storytelling. It gives participants an opportunity to engage in the ongoing story of God鈥檚 restorative work in our world and our neighborhood – speaking across denominations, generations and backgrounds, for people who aim to be the change we seek, according to the Ted & Company website.

A and a is available on the Ted & Company website. Contact Center for Interfaith Engagement at 540-432-4674 or email gretchen.maust@emu.edu for more information.

Those three words will be the center of discussion for Ted Swartz ’89, MACL ’92 of , during Spiritual Life Week at 草莓社区 (EMU), Oct. 30-Nov. 2.

“Ted combines a love of the Bible with outrageous humor and fresh perspective,” says , EMU campus pastor. “Always relevant, always challenging, always engaging; you won鈥檛 want to miss it.”

In addition to leading university chapel on Wednesday, Oct. 31 and Friday, Nov. 2, Swartz will perform Didn鈥檛 You Get My Letter? Musings From the Apostle Paul on Wednesday at 7 p.m., in EMU’s MainStage Theater. Admission is free for EMU students with ID or $5 at the door for non-students.

For more information, call campus ministries at 540-432-4115 or visit emu.edu/spirituallifeweek.

Tuesday, October 30

12 p.m. 颅鈥� Mission & service lunch conversations in the dining hall

8 p.m. 鈥� Ted Swartz shares his spiritual journey in Common Grounds Coffeehouse

9 p.m. 鈥� Mission & service coffeehouse in Common Grounds Coffeehouse

Wednesday, October 31

10 a.m. 鈥� Chapel: 鈥淭oward Faith.Hope.Love鈥� with Ted Swartz in Lehman Auditorium

10:40 – 11:30 a.m. 鈥� After-chapel fellowship with lemonade and pretzels in the Campus Center Greeting Hall

7 p.m. 鈥� Ted & Company performance of 鈥淒idn鈥檛 You Get My Letter? Musings From the Apostle Paul鈥� in the MainStage Theater

Thursday, November 1

11 a.m. 鈥� Chapel gathering with Ted Swartz in Martin Chapel (Seminary)

Noon -1 p.m. 鈥� Talk with Ted lunch in Northlawn East Dining Room

8 p.m. 鈥� 鈥淔aith, Fear and Failure鈥� 鈥� Ted Swartz in Common Grounds Coffeehouse

Friday, November 2

10 a.m. 鈥� Chapel: 鈥淭oward Faith.Hope.Love鈥� with Ted Swartz in Lehman Auditorium

10:40 – 11:30 a.m. 鈥� After-chapel fellowship with hot chocolate in the Campus Center Greeting Hall

Since then, Swartz has avoided directly addressing the death of his friend in his productions, though he has addressed some of his emotions. His newest production, though, “Laughter is Sacred Space,” tackles the issue head-on.

“What we’re hoping that this show will do is open up discussions about mental illness and suicide,” he said.

The topic of depression and suicide – the “unforgivable sin” – isn’t often discussed in the church, says Swartz, a devout Mennonite who initially studied to become a pastor. Ted graduated from in 1992.

But the production is also a sort of “gift” for audience members who felt they got to know Eshleman during his two decades of acting, Swartz said.

“What you’re doing is, you’re revealing yourself from the stage to people and, if you do it well, they feel like they know you,” he said.

Show Complements Book

The show, set for 7:30 p.m. Sept. 14 and 15 at , comprises three parts.

The first covers “what it means to grow up Mennonite,” acting and how the two converged in Swartz’s own life.

The second part examines how he and Eshleman built their company using a humorous, but respectful, approach to the “Biblical story.” In the third part, Swartz delves into the response to his friend’s death, the “anger, grief and guilt.”

The production is a rewrite of an earlier show Swartz had written in 2008. “Laughter is Sacred Space” will debut the same weekend as his book, “Laughter is Sacred Space: The Not-So-Typical Journey of a Mennonite Actor,” is set to be released.

The book, to be published by , the book publishing arm of , will largely complement the show, which Swartz said he hopes to tour for several years.

“The show absolutely stands on its own, but I think, as a companion to the book, it’s really going to make the book fun to read,” Director Ingrid De Sanctis said. “Once you see the show and you read the book, you’re going to go, `Oh, I remember that moment.’ Moments in the book will really come right off the page because you heard Ted’s voice and you saw him perform it.”

While the one-man show covers some pretty sensitive material, it is Swartz’s openness about the topic that makes it such a “moving” production, she said.

“I think anybody’s honest journey is compelling. And what Ted does in this show is he’s really honest about who he is,” said De Sanctis. “And he’s … really, really funny. But I think this is all about … his journey. And he kind of pulls you in …”

Courtesy Daily News Record, August 30, 2012

For the past 30 years EMU alumni reunite to banter, share familial updates, and participate in an annual fantasy baseball league, 鈥淪henandoah鈥檚 Major Minor League.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 great to see guys come back and the continuity we鈥檝e had in the league has kept the energy up,鈥� said Clair Mellinger 鈥�64, professor emeritus of and one of the longest tenured members of the league.

Watching the box scores

Fantasy baseball is a predominantly online game where statistics accumulated by all Major League Baseball players are tracked. Points are awarded in one format of fantasy baseball, Rotisserie, while the other format, Head-to-Head, tallies the total number of statistics in any one category, with the highest or lowest number winning, depending upon the rules, according to .

鈥淗aving statistics available online makes it more efficient and keeps everyone involved on a daily basis, compared to when we had to snail mail everything and not receive updates for weeks,鈥� said Tom Baker 鈥�81, former EMU men鈥檚 basketball coach and current physical education teacher at Lacey Spring Elementary School.

The EMU alumni draft features an auction system where players are selected based on dollar figures. While no actual money is exchanged for rights to the player, the auction-style bidding lends itself to 鈥渉eckling on a price of a player and the possibilities to acquire a talented player,鈥� says Mellinger.

鈥淪henandoah鈥檚 Major Minor League鈥�

For Shenandoah鈥檚 Major Minor League, connections go deeper than a love of statistics. Eleven of the 12 鈥渙wners鈥� either attended, graduated or taught at EMU. Several members were students when the league began in 1982.

The composition of the league members changed from year to year until the early 90鈥檚 when a majority of the current group joined. Some teams have co-owners, while others are run by a single member.

鈥淲e鈥檙e a core group of guys who just love baseball,鈥� said Ted Swartz 鈥�89, MDiv 鈥�92, a professional comedian who is one of the leagues鈥� longest tenured members.

The league holds the annual draft on campus in April. Most members live around the Harrisonburg area. Brian Hill 鈥�92, MD, a urologist with Urology Specialists of Atlanta, LLC, has the farthest drive to attend the league draft, making an eight-hour commute.

In addition to Mellinger, Swartz, Baker and Hill, other league owners include: Ian Swartz (son of Ted); Mark Deavers 鈥�89; Phil Lehman 鈥�89; Lawson Yoder 鈥�91; Jeremy Nafziger 鈥�91; Rob Roeschley (former EMU baseball coach); Gary Messinger; Doug Friesen 鈥�91; and Mike Yoder 鈥�91.

Ron Vogt, the owner not personally connected to EMU, got connected when he worked with Doug Friesen at Philhaven Hospital in Mount Gretna, Pa.

Previous members of the league include John Horst, professor emeritus of physics, Jon Kauffman-Kennel, former manager of 贰惭鲍鈥檚 public radio station, and Bill Hawk, former academic dean.

鈥淕etting involved with the league renewed my interest in baseball, especially the National League,鈥� said Mellinger. 鈥淚 really enjoy the research involved in getting prepared for the annual auction.聽 I have read more baseball-related books and web articles than I should have in the past 20 years but it has been a very good source of entertainment and relaxation for me.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been great to keep connected and share a love for baseball.

Participants in the Anabaptist Communicator鈥檚 annual conference sat around tables in Martin Chapel at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, mesmerized by actor-playwright 鈥檚 reflections on what he believes makes a 鈥済ood Mennonite actor,鈥� while outside, snow began to cover the EMU campus.

It was Oct. 28, too early for frozen precipitation in the Shenandoah Valley, which was yet to have a killing frost.

Some persons departed for home after the evening program, as the forecast was snow continuing through midday Saturday 鈥� which it did, leaving about four inches of wet snow that brought down tree branches and created power outages.

But, the unforeseen weather change seemed an appropriate backdrop for conference attendees, many of whom regularly face unexpected situations, even crises, in their communications work.

鈥淎nabaptism in a Visual Age鈥� was the theme explored in the two-day meeting of some 65 writers, public relations practitioners, graphic artists, photographers or in other administrative roles, the majority in church-related agencies and organizations. 聽草莓社区 hosted the gathering.

Swartz, of based in Harrisonburg, reflected on his development as an actor, which started with sketches presented at a Franconia Mennonite Conference youth retreat in Pennsylvania in 1987 with an accomplice he had only met several days earlier, Lee Eshleman. That inauspicious beginning evolved into a 20-year creative partnership as 鈥淭ed & Lee,鈥� as the acting duo often combined askew humor and fresh insight in interpreting biblical narratives.

鈥淭heater is a marvelous metaphor for faith and perhaps the best metaphor for how relationships should happen . . . Much of what makes a human relationship real I learned while pretending to be other people,鈥� Swartz told the group. 鈥淎n actor is on a search for meaning, feeling, a way to express the longing for a life greater than oneself.

鈥淎 good actor is one who is actively present in the moment, to care more deeply, on more about that moment than anything else.鈥�

At the root of good acting, Swartz maintained, is 鈥渓istening 鈥� it鈥檚 where you start. Are you really listening to the other actors onstage? If a play isn鈥檛 effective, there鈥檚 a good chance it鈥檚 lack of listening between the actors.鈥�

The third prerequisite, he said, is 鈥渆mpathy, the ability to put oneself in the shoes, the clothes, the pain of another person,鈥� Swartz said. 鈥淲ithout empathy, an actor cannot find the heart and soul of a character.

鈥淭he very act of crawling inside a character is the same act of embracing the other, seeing the eyes of the other, loving your enemy, 鈥淪wartz declared. 聽鈥淭he very tenants of Anabaptist theology include taking the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount to be the root of a reconciling gospel.

鈥淲hen these three things happen onstage, it is just about the best feeling in the world,鈥� the actor-playwright said. 鈥淚t is a moment of transcendence, a deeply spiritual and mystical connection . . . Religious people call it 鈥榞race.鈥欌��

Swartz illustrated his points with sketches using his homeless character Zeus as well as a scene with EMU staffer from his favorite theatrical work from college days, 鈥淭he Lion in Winter.鈥� He shared excerpts from his autobiographical work in progress, 鈥淟aughter as Sacred Space: The Not-So-Typical Journey of a Mennonite Actor.鈥� The book, in three parts, is expected to be released the spring of 2012 by Herald Press.

, professor of digital and communication arts at EMU and an award-winning artist and videographer, gave the keynote address on the conference theme. Using numerous art pieces, photographs and advertisements to illustrate his talk, Holsopple asked, 鈥淲hat visuals might best represent the Anabaptist-Mennonite way of communicating the biblical message?鈥�

He showed the 鈥淢artyrs Mirror鈥� etching of Dutch Anabaptist Dirk Willems turning around and rescuing his pursuer who had fallen through the ice, only to be tortured and executed for his faith.

鈥淢ennonites tend to be people of the Word who worship the invisible God,鈥� Holsopple said. 鈥淪o can visuals help us in our journey in becoming more like Jesus?鈥�

He shared his experience of teaching and studying during the 2009-10 school year as a Fulbright scholar at in Lithuania, working with a Russian orthodox priest, Father Vladimir, in creating and painting religious icons.

鈥淲e all have icons in our lives,鈥� Holsopple said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important not to wind up thinking that they have special powers and wind up worshipping them. 鈥淥ur task, as Christians and as Anabaptist communicators, is to witness to the incarnational 鈥� the church as a physical and spiritual reality 鈥� the transformational 鈥� entering into what is happening around us; and the communal 鈥� creating space for dialog and changing ways that we see the larger world, other people and even ourselves.鈥�

The conference included break-out sessions on topics ranging from branding messages for 鈥渢he quiet in the land鈥� (Christian Perritt), 鈥渁rt for social change鈥� (), 鈥渟eeking shalom through a photographer鈥檚 lens () to 鈥淎nabaptist online engagement鈥� (Brian Gumm).聽 There were off-site visits to organizations with Anabaptist-Mennonite roots and guided affinity small group meetings on marketing, web and social media, graphic design and running a one-person shop.

The group viewed a new then interacted with its producer, Burton Buller. The film is being aired on ABC affiliate televisions across the country.

As the conference ended Saturday noon, Oct. 29, so did the snowfall, and participants departed with fresh resolve to communicate their stories through Anabaptist eyes of faith.

The conference theme is 鈥淎nabaptism in a Visual Age.鈥� Registration is open to the public and can be found at .

Holsopple, award-winning videographer, photographer and artist is professor Visual and Communication Arts at EMU. He was a recent Fulbright scholar at LCC International University in Lithuania, has led numerous cross-cultural photography experiences, and earned dozens of awards for his media productions.

Ted Swartz, Banquet speaker

Actor and comedian Ted Swartz will be the featured guest Friday, Oct. 28, as he discusses his book, “Laugher Is Sacred Space: The Not-so-typical Journey of a Mennonite Actor” (Herald Press, 2012). Swartz is the founder of “,” a production team of writers, actors and musicians that develop shows around everything from peace and justice to men and women in the Bible.

“Waging Peace: Muslim and Christian Alternatives,” a documentary by and Buller Films LLC, will be featured Saturday, Oct. 29, with a discussion to follow. More information about Waging Peace can be found at .

Breakout sessions include input from , a Harrisonburg-based marketing consultant group; visits to headquarters and and other options.

Registration, lodging and meals

and a is also available.

EMU recommends out-of-town guests book lodging in the Park View area (near campus) through the EMU guest house. For more information about the EMU guest house is available at 540-432-4280, guesthouse@emu.edu or visit

Hotels are available east of Harrisonburg, about a 15-minute drive from campus. Visit

Meals will be in the . Friday night鈥檚 banquet will be catered in the Eastern Mennonite Seminary Martin Chapel.

Planning committee members include Andrea Schrock Wenger (chair), Bonnie Price Lofton and Heidi Muller in addition to Holsopple. Off-campus committee members include Jon Trotter (Virginia Mennonite Conference and Anabaptist Communicators board member) and Sheri Hartzler from MennoMedia.

PARKING ALERT: Parking on campus will be extremely limited this night due to a local public high school graduation ceremony in the University Commons. Please find a spot in any lot on campus (you will not be ticketed for illegal parking). We trust your walk to the building will be well worth the effort!

The play, starring Ted Swartz and Tim Ruebke, allows audiences to laugh at themselves while raising important questions about the place of the U.S. in the world, confronting the fear that is such a large part of contemporary culture and exploring ways to honestly work for peace and justice in this country 鈥� and just maybe in the larger world!

Sketches include: “I’d Like to Buy an Enemy,” “Why Can’t I Get My Money Back?”, 鈥淭he Reptilian Brain Speaks: We鈥檙e late! We鈥檙e late 鈥� are we late?” and 鈥淵ou Started it! 鈥� a treatise on the cycles of violence.鈥�

Tim Ruebke will lead a discussion following the play.

Ted Swartz is a writer and actor who has been mucking around in the worlds of the sacred and profane for over 20 years. He is the creator or co-creator of over a dozen plays, including “FishEyes,” “Creation Chronicles,” “DoveTale,” “What Would Lloyd Do?” with Trent Wagler, “Tattered and Worn” and” Just Give 鈥楨m the News” with Jeff Raught, “I鈥檇 Like to Buy an Enemy,” “Excellent Trouble” with Ingrid de Sanctis, “Live at Jacob鈥檚 Ladder” and others. Ted is a theologian of a different sort. Both theater and seminary trained, he has found a unique, and entertaining, discovery: at the intersection of humor and biblical story is often a greater understanding of the text. Or, at the very least, a different understanding.

Tim Ruebke is executive director of the Fairfield Center in Harrisonburg. Since 1992, he has extensive experience mediating and facilitating general community, family, workplace, group/multi-party, and criminal circumstances. He is certified by the Supreme Court of Virginia as a mentor mediator and trainer and has been an adjunct faculty member for James Madison University and EMU. He earned a BA degree in social work and an MA degree in conflict transformation from EMU.

Admission is $10at the door.聽 For more information, contact the SPI office at 540-432-4653.

For more information on Ted & Company, contact: agent@tedandcompany.com or call 540-421-1716.

A small gallery at the theater entrance will showcase some of Lee鈥檚 art work and photos of him on stage.

Lee was the last student to graduate with a degree from 贰惭鲍鈥檚 art program in 1986. After graduating, he worked in the school print shop and as a graphic designer for EMU.

Former EMU art professor Jerry Lapp, MFA, recalls discussing the 鈥渒nowing line鈥� concept with Lee.

鈥淎 鈥榢nowing line鈥� was what Lee was good at,鈥� Jerry recalls. 鈥淗e captured particulars and peculiarities in animals, humans or objects rendered, that caused one to stop and gaze, ponder, chuckle. The 鈥榢nowing line鈥� Lee rendered created a two-dimensional reality which we, as viewer, could so easily imagine into our own realities, outer or inner.鈥�

鈥淟ee got at the invisible realities which are a part of our existence and brought them forth. Suddenly, we would be sitting as part of the audience, exposed to our self-thinking, having to admit to our silliness, smallness or, largess.鈥�

Lee also began his stage career at EMU.

鈥淟ee wasn鈥檛 afraid to take his fear and pain on stage with him,鈥� says Barbra Graber, MFA, former EMU theater professor and department chair. 鈥淏ut he also wasn鈥檛 afraid to let that Divine Comedian morph the pain into something else, something magnificent, poignant, deeply truthful, and so very funny.鈥�

Graber worked with Lee as a theater student, later as an EMU graphic designer (he produced all the theater posters and programs) and as an actor in Theater AKIMBO from 1991-1998. Theater AKIMBO was founded by Graber and Ted Swartz as a community-based professional theater company under the auspices of 贰惭鲍鈥檚 theater program.

Ted & Lee TheaterWorks

In the fall of 1987, after graduating from EMU and working on campus as a designer and printer, Lee teamed up with Ted Swartz, Eastern Mennonite Seminary graduate, for a humorous sketch at a church camp. That chance teaming became the springboard for a 20-year partnership 鈥� Ted & Lee TheaterWorks .

Lee鈥檚 humor, wit and passionate faith were shared with thousands through the work of Ted and Lee, while he continued his journey as an artist, sharing creative inspirational drawings with friends, the church and for the business. Lee captivated audiences with his hilarious renditions of everyone from the Archangel Gabriel to Julia Child.

鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to say how much Lee meant to me,鈥� reflected Swartz in November 2009. “He was my comedic and theatrical soul mate as well as a great friend. We grew as artists together and Lee taught me much about humor, about word choice, about clarity of objective. But he also made me laugh more than anyone before or since. It was a great gift, not a flippant or incidental thing, the ability to make another laugh, but rather an ultimate gift. He was also not shy about tackling and wrestling to the ground his own pain and struggle giving his work depth and color.鈥�

鈥淭he on- and off-stage chemistry between Ted and Lee was remarkable,鈥� remembers friend and long-time colleague Jim Bishop , EMU public information officer. 鈥淓ven more, their material was fresh, imaginative, often slightly askew. They pushed the envelope, but never resorted to denigrating people or employing off-color humor.”

EMU , and other major renovations to the University Commons, during a March 26, 2011 event.

Read more…