I RECENTLY HEARD

Maha was one of several panelists invited to a post-production discussion of the play “The Vagrant Trilogy,” performed by the Mosaic Theater Company of [Washington] D.C. She described the limited choices – few of them good – she and her family have had living under military occupation. But despite the overwhelming odds, Maha holds onto hope. And she continues to build relationships with Israelis to work for a future of justice, peace and security for both peoples.

Maha’s experience reminds me of another Middle Easterner – the Apostle Paul – who wrote that suffering gives birth to resilience. Resilience gives birth to character. And character gives birth to hope (Romans 5:3-4). Hope, we know, is also vision.

Many CJP students come to us from situations of suffering and trauma – political oppression, war, poverty and the legacy of enslavement. But theirs are not stories of defeat and despair. Rather, their stories are of resilience and hope. The hardships they have experienced have given birth to powerful visions for justice and healing. Indeed, the most compelling visions are birthed from the deepest, darkest struggles in life.

In this issue of Peacebuilder, you will read many stories of resilience and hope – as CJP alumni engage a broken world. Despite encountering racism in Anabaptist institutions, Iris de León-Hartshorn has “stuck it out” with her brothers and sisters in Christ because of her vision to be part of God’s reconciling mission in the world (pages 4-5). And Tecla Namachanja Wanjala’s “new-dawn” dream of healing for Kenya grows from the country’s massive trauma (p. 31).

Still, getting students to ��ݮ���� is not without challenges. Visas are not the only issue. Graduate education is expensive and many of those who want to study at CJP do not have adequate financial resources to cover the costs. We are launching a major endowment campaign to boost our scholarship offerings. Our goal is to raise an additional $5 million by 2020. Will you help us offer more peacebuilders the tools necessary to birth visions of healing and hope in their communities?

J. Daryl Byler
Executive Director

This is my 10th opening letter to Peacebuilder magazine since becoming executive director of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding in August 2007. The time has come for me to pass the torch to other leaders while I undertake a new assignment as North American representative for Mennonite World Conference.

As of July 1, 2013, the CJP leadership team will be headed by Daryl Byler, who will replace me as executive director. Most recently Daryl worked for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) as Middle East regional representative. He and his wife, Cindy, have lived in Amman, Jordan, for the past six years. In his role with MCC, Daryl worked with a number of CJP alumni. He has been inspired by the impact that CJP has had on the lives of alumni when he has seen how CJP “transformed the way they think about conflict and the way they are integrating the principles and experiences learned at EMU in the challenging Middle Eastern context.”

Daryl holds a law degree from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree from Eastern Mennonite Seminary. As an undergraduate at EMU, he majored in business administration. Prior to his Middle East assignment, Daryl served as director of MCC’s Washington Office from 1994 to 2007, meeting regularly with policymakers on Capitol Hill, in the State Department, and in the White House. Earlier, Daryl spent six years as a staff attorney in Meridian, Mississippi. He concurrently served as senior pastor for Jubilee Mennonite Church, an interracial congregation.

Daryl will give administrative leadership to CJP, with a primary focus on building external relationships, networking with key university and external stakeholders, and developing resources for CJP’s growth and success.

Long-time CJP professor Jayne Docherty has been named CJP’s program director, overseeing the development, integration, funding, service delivery and evaluation of all programs. This includes coordinating the academic and practice programs of CJP and giving leadership to curriculum development. Jayne brings extensive experience and leadership abilities to this position; she will help implement the strategic plans for further integration of the CJP programs internally and with the broader university.

It is exciting to anticipate Daryl and Jayne in these management roles, providing innovative leadership and vision to ensure that CJP remains on the leading edge of the peacebuilding field. This issue of Peacebuilder, focusing on trauma awareness and resilience, highlights a major contribution CJP has made to the process of peacebuilding.

I have felt honored to witness over the past six years the deep passion and sustained commitment that faculty, staff, students and alumni bring to their work of transformation and peacebuilding. I look forward to continuing to see the impact of CJP domestically and around the globe, as I maintain touch with EMU in my new role with Mennonite World Conference.

Lynn Roth
Executive Director

EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) has long enjoyed close ties to Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). In fact, it exists in large part because of MCC.

In the late ’80s MCC staff in its Akron offices began discussing the need to train more peacebuilders by combining practical experience in conflict resolution with the field’s growing academic side, preferably in a faith-based setting.

Before long, John Paul Lederach (fresh from MCC work) and other members of the faculty and administration at EMU were exploring the possibility. In 1994, the vision became reality with the establishment of CJP – then known as the Conflict Transformation Program. Most of the program’s early faculty and staff were former MCC volunteers themselves. Now, about half of CJP’s full-time employees have extensive MCC experience, including executive director Lynn Roth, who spent 30 years with MCC, most recently as director of its U.S. East Coast program.

As soon as CJP was up and running at the university, MCC began sending staff from its partner NGOs and church organizations in the Middle East to receive training at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI). To date, MCC has sponsored 60 representatives from its partner organizations in Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Israel to attend SPI.

“Sending trainees to SPI has been an integral part of MCC’s overall peacebuilding program in Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” says Alain Epp Weaver, a long-time MCC volunteer in the Middle East now serving as its director of strategic planning and learning.

A rehabilitation program at the East Jerusalem YMCA, as just one example, now uses conflict sensitivity principles in its work with Palestinians disabled by Israeli military attacks, after MCC sponsored its director to attend SPI, according to Epp Weaver. Several staffers from the Wi’am Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center in Bethlehem have also received training at SPI, during which they were able to gain broader background in peacebuilding theory and skills, as well as share insight with others on their experience using traditional Palestinian reconciliation processes.

And in Jordan, MCC has begun working with SPI-trained staff from a partner organization to sponsor peacebuilding workshops and training to Syrian refugees in Jordan, as well as to Jordanians living in communities that host a growing number of Syrians fleeing the war in their country. — AKJ

Grateful acknowledgement: In researching and reporting this issue of Peacebuilder, Sarah Adams, Daryl Byler (’79 EMU grad), Rachelle Friesen and Ed Nyce (’86 EMU grad) – MCC staff in Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and the U.S., respectively – were extremely helpful.