Thank you!

2014: 

Gun violence in our schools, our streets, our homes,  people marching for racial justice, for climate justice, for ending our wars, renouncing  torture  & grounding our drones, for demilitarizing our police, for abolishing the death penalty, for upholding human rights as bottom-line of U.S. policy at home and abroad, for living wages, for religious tolerance that rejects fanaticism... for these and all the many conflicts that tear apart the one human family...

Give us renewed energy to wage peace relentlessly in 2015.

Dear friends,

The season of Advent is one of great hope as we await the historical birth of Jesus and the return of our Lord. For the peacemaker, hope is not a passive dispassionate awaiting, rather precisely because of the Incarnation, it is the active pursuit of the peace embodied in the life and teaching of Jesus. Peace is action; it is the doing of the Word and it is the being of the Word in the very world in which we live. For 75 years the Episcopal Peace Fellowship has been relentlessly persistent in waging the Gospel.

This year we celebrated our 75th anniversary with two conferences. One in Washington DC was focused on eliminating gun violence and the other in Los Angeles focused on the steps we now need to take to build a just and sustainable peace between Palestinians and Israelis. In addition to being charged with local actions that could be engaged, both conferences had action items and resolutions to be promoted at the Episcopal General Convention in 2015.

Throughout this calendar year EPF Chapters and Peace Partner Parishes have been marching, vigiling and taking other actions for justice and peace.  A sampling of these actions include ministering to men and women living on death row, participating in Moral Mondays for a just state budget, racial equality, trauma healing in Haiti, trauma healing for victims of domestic violence, leading a workshop in Oklahoma City at the national Reclaiming the Gospel of Peace conference, preparing for the international movement this Spring for the abolishment of nuclear weapons, distributing helpful curriculum guides on the Prevention of Gun Violence and Palestine and Israel as well as many other concerns. Young Adult EPFers went on urban pilgrimages in Texas and California and are planning their "presence" at General Convention next summer.

We have been busy. To remain "doers" of peace we need your financial support. EPF has been a very active voice because of the dedicated and incredible work of our  two staff members, Executive Director The Rev Allison Liles and our Membership Services Coordinator Shannon Berndt. Yet both Allison and Shannon are only employed on a very part time basis. We have tried austerity and can go no further on the expense side. We need our friends like you to step up on the revenue side.

As you think about giving this season, know that a significant way you can build the peace envisioned by the Prince of Peace is by making a generous year end donation to the Episcopal Peace Fellowship. The words we give to peace in our Christmas liturgies only have true meaning when they are acted upon. Make your action for peace be a financial investment in the work of EPF. Help us to further the long march for peace by providing the financial support EPF needs to continue agitating and organizing to make peace come alive in every heart and soul. Hope is not a wishful sentiment for a future vision. Hope begins now. A hope realized in your generous financial contribution for peace through EPF. Thank you for being a peacemaker.

Peace,

The Rev. Will Wauters TSSF

Chair of the National Executive Committee of EPF