Monday, April 17, 2023

#EAD2023 Militarism Panel Will Feature OPW Partners

Please join us for Ecumenical Advocacy Days online 

Swords into Plowshares: Achieving Enough for all and Pursuing Peace

April 25-27, 2023

Virtual Event

Please join us online this year for Ecumenical Advocacy Days 2023, a virtual conference to worship, educate and advocate, co-sponsored by the Office of Public Witness. This year, we will focus on the courageous policies needed to realize the vision we hear from the prophet Micah: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." We will live out that vision by focusing on the interconnected issues of militarism and hunger. 

We are excited to announce that the militarism panel will include a couple friends of the Office of Public Witness. Carl Horton of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program will moderate the panel, and Dr. Aisha Jumaan, a public health expert and the Founder and President of the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation, will be a panelist. The panel will feature speakers from Yemen, Korea and the United States. Read more about the participants below!

Carl Horton leads the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program for the Presbyterian Church (USA). He is a lifelong Presbyterian and has served in installed and transitional pastorates in California, Nebraska and Kentucky. He spent a number of years doing leader development for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and most recently served for 3 years as the interim coordinator for the PCUSA’s Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP). Since 2011, Carl has served as the Coordinator of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program. He is highly committed to equipping peacemakers and strengthening the church at all levels for its engagement in peacemaking. In his free time he is a backyard farmer, piano student, and dog wrangler.

Dr. Aisha Jumaan has over 30 years of experience in public health, including viral vaccine preventable diseases, cervical and breast cancer research, surveillance, maternal, child health and nutrition, primary health care, and women in development. Currently, Dr. Jumaan is working as an Independent Consultant coordinating health-related projects in Yemen. After working in various positions at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for 13 years, she then became Director for HPV Vaccines: Evidence for Impact project at PATH.org, and later supported the CDC’s Field Epidemiology training Program. Dr. Jumaan has also served as an Assistant Professor at the Rollins School of Public Health, Epidemiology Department of Emory University. A native of Yemen, she has made an impact there, participating in health-related program development, evaluation, and training activities for Peace Corps. Dr. Jumaan was also an Assistant Professor on the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Sana’a University, and consulted on research projects for various ministries, USAID, Save the Children, and the Dutch Embassy. Dr. Jumaan earned a B.A. in Biology from Mills College, Oakland, Ca., a master’s in public health from Emory University, Atlanta, Ga., and a Ph.D in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C.

Song Kang Ho is a South Korean peace activist, author, theologian and founder of The Frontiers, a Christian peacemaker team that dispatches peace workers to refugee camps and provides services to conscientious objectors.Inspired by the Mennonites, Song Kang Ho deepened his understanding of the gospel of peace during the five years he lived with members of Bammental Mennonite Church in Germany. While there he preached, pursued a doctorate in theology at Heidelberg University, and committed his life to working for those victimized by war and the military. He also visited Rwanda and Bosnia and was surprised to witness Christians misleading people into carrying out genocide instead of championing peace. Song was sentenced, despite petitions and protests, following five previous arrests for non-violent resistance, when he cut through a naval base barbwire fence on Jeju Island, South Korea, on March 7, 2020 to pray for peace on Gureombi rock, a symbol of peace for the island’s people. This date marked the 8th anniversary since the blasting of Gureombi Rock to make way for a military base. Song was released in September 2020 after 181 days in prison. He recently published Peace, Journeying Into That Distant Hope: Song Kang Ho’s Peace Narrative from Rwanda to Gangjeong, sharing his path to pursuing peace.

Ordained as priest in 1976, Archbishop John C. Wester currently serves in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe New Mexico, of the Roman Catholic Church. Over his decades-long ministry, he was previously assigned to both pastoral and Catholic school faculty and staff roles at various locations throughout California, and served as a Bishop in Utah, before moving to New Mexico in 2015.   In a pastoral letter Archbishop Wester published in January 2021, he shares that “The Archdiocese of Santa Fe has a special role to play in advocating for nuclear disarmament given the presence of the Los Alamos and Sandia nuclear weapons laboratories and the nation’s largest repository of nuclear weapons at the Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.” He has lifted his concerns about this issue, along with a growing number of supporters in the faith community, globally. Archbishop Wester serves as a member of the Catholic Mutual Executive Board and the National Association of Catholic Chaplains Board, as Episcopal Moderator for National Association for Lay Ministry and as Episcopal Consultant for the U.S. Association of Catholic Priests. He was educated in California, earning a B.A. from St. Patrick College in Mountainview, an M.Div. from St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park, an M.A.S. from University of San Francisco and an M.A. from Holy Names College in Oakland.

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