PPF's Summer Is Full - Join In!

‌ A Summer of Plenty It was wonderful to see so many friends this spring in Kansas City, and it’s hard to believe that it was already two months ago. PPF has so much good news to share this summer it’s hard to know where to begin, but since it’s summer, I’ll start with some travel notes. I was in Puerto Rico last week with the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America for their annual “peace camp.” It was good to be reminded that we are not alone as followers of Jesus committed to nonviolence and the pursuit of justice. It was also fun to be with another vibrant group on the cusp of one of those big, round-number birthdays. BPFNA turns 40 next year while PPF turns 80. And, yes, we did have some conversations about a joint birthday celebration gathering. Stay tuned for more news there. Better yet, reply to this email expressing interest in being part of the dreaming for such an event. Next week I’ll be in North Carolina with several members of our gun violence prevention working group representing PPF at the Wild Goose festival. If you’re at the Goose, come by the Tent of Imagination and visit us. Scotty Utz will be beating guns into garden tools, and we’ll be sharing PPF stories with the festival. In between, I’ll be at Takoma Park Presbyterian Church preaching for peace and at Massanetta Springs talking about peacemaking at the Bible & Church Music Conference. You can take the pledge to join the Preach for Peace campaign here. What else is new at PPF? Presbyterians for Abolition, in cooperation with SURJ Faith, is holding a Zoom open house on Thursday, July 13, 8:00 p.m. Eastern / 5:00 p.m. Pacific. PFA will be building community and hearing a presentation from the Rev. Anne Dunlap about the Community Safety for All toolkits for congregations. Come and learn together!  PPF’s Peace Church working group is celebrating the commitment of conscientious objectors during Pentecost this year. In case you missed it, here’s a brief video from one of the COs who shared her story with us. PPF’s own season of transition continues to unfold. This month we welcome Sarah Prager back to our staff to guide our communications. Sarah has served in this role for PPF previously and we are so happy that she accepted the invitation to do so again. Drop her a line of welcome at sarah@presbypeacefellowship.org! The process of identifying PPF’s next staff leader is also taking a big step this month as the search team holds Activist Council townhall gatherings on Zoom. The team is hosting two opportunities this month to provide feedback and input on the job description and the search process. The first will be Sunday, July 16, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern; the second will be Tuesday, July 18, also at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Click the date on the one you want to attend and it will take you to the registration page. And all of that is only one mid-summer month of all that is happening in the PPF community of activists, organizers, and peacemakers! Obviously, all that work takes financial support, and I would be remiss if I failed to say “thank you!” for your generous support of the work. Our Pentecost campaign celebrating PPF’s history of support of conscientious objectors is more than 80% of the way to our $12,000 goal. Can you help put us over the top this week? Peace, David Ensign Interim Executive Director