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PEACE  
ON THE GO
                         April 29, 2015  

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Meet the new NEC Members!

Melanie Veizaga is a 22 year old College student who was born and raised in Miami Beach Florida. She is currently a South East Florida Episcopal Diocese Young Adult Ministry leader and is also the coordinator for the "AT Our Table" Young Adult Dinner Service in two parishes. She currently sits on the steering community for the EPF Urban Pilgrimage. Melanie is planning the first ever Miami Urban Pilgrimage that will focus on Humane Trafficking and Homelessness which will take place in August 2015. Melanie's drive to serve is her love for God and God's creation. She a person who believes that it is not enough to simply care from a distance but that we must peacefully fight for the helpless through education, advocacy and service work. 


 

Ellen Lindeen is a member of St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Barrington, IL, where she and her husband have raised their three children. She serves on the Peace & Justice Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago and her focus is the Black Lives Matter Campaign and the Palestine Israeli Conflict. She also serves on the Renk (South Sudan) Ministry Partnership at her parish. She taught in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd children's formation program for 15 years at St. Michael's Church. Along with teaching Composition and Shakespeare at Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove, IL, she teaches two interdisciplinary courses: Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution and Human Rights & Social Justice. She serves on the board of the Peace and Justice Studies Association and on the Advisory Board of the Truth-Telling Project. She holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master's degree from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, and Certificate in Peace Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.   


 



The EPF Reception at General Convention

Wednesday, June 24
5 p.m. MDT
Cathedral of St. Mark
Salt Lake City

Early Bird Special!
Tickets: $35.00 NOW
Click HERE

EPF's National Exec. Council 

Meets in Chicago, April 24-26


 

NEC began Friday afternoon hearing about all the actions EPF has sponsored and participated in over the past six months.  We heard inspiring reports about Urban Pilgrimage from Maryann Philbrook, our new Executive Site Director for Urban Pilgrimage, a position funded by a generous grant from the Episcopal Foundation of Texas. Michael Kurth, the EPF Young Adult Network convener, reported a full calendar of events for the YA Network over the coming months, including our General Convention YA Delegation, presence at Wild Goose Festival and an upcoming retreat EPF is planning with Episcopal Service Corps.    

 

Shannon M. Berndt and Bill Exner, our liasons to The Consultation, shared news from the most recent Urban Caucus and Consultation meeting in Connecticut.   Next year's Urban Caucus is in Wilmington, DE and Shannon is already planning on publicity actions to ensure all EPF east coast members are invited.  And finally, we celebrated the four events held in honor of EPF's 75th anniversary that took place in Denver, Los Angeles, Alexandria, VA and Columbus, OH.

Our primary foci during this spring meeting were he Sustainability of Episcopal Peace Fellowship and General Convention in Salt Lake City.  Shannon M. Berndt, EPF Membership Services Coordinator, provided a broad picture of EPF's financial end of year status for the past 7 years that more often than not included a deficit.  We examined the job descriptions of EPF's employee's Shannon who works 18 hours a week for EPF and 2 hours for PIN, and Allison Liles, EPF's Executive Director, who works 15 hours a week.  With these two part-time employees and streamlined, bare bones budget, EPF is actually doing more than ever before.  Gary Commins, the Director of EPF's Sustainability Task Force, charged NEC members with the task of recruiting two new EPF members, two new monthly EPF pledgers and two new Peace Partner Parishes over the next 30 days. These successful "asks" will put EPF in a far more comfortable financial position.  So, get ready, EPF members.  EPF NEC members will be in touch with you soon! 

Saturday afternoon we turned our attention toward Salt Lake City.  This year EPF and PIN will each have tables in the Consultation section of the exhibit hall.  The Consultation will once again offer Stump Speakers every day of Convention, sometimes even twice a day.  Maryann Philbrook and TJ Geiger will lead our Young Adult Delegation, which has already begun preparations through conference calls. The EPF Reception will take place at St Mark's Cathedral on Wednesday, June 24 from 5:00 - 6:30 pm. newland and cotton This year the John Nevin Sayre Award will be presented to EPF member Newland Smith for his life-long dedication working for peace and justice. This year's reception will feature a Wall of Injustice along with a litany naming the populations and individuals who continue to suffer oppression in our country and the world.   EPF will sponsor resolutions pertaining to gun violence prevention, death penalty abolition and justice for Palestine, and will also support all the resolutions of the Consultation Platform which may be read HERE   Shannon is creating a spread sheet for all EPF members who are traveling to General Convention and wish to volunteer at the EPF exhibit.  If you plain to join us in Salt Lake City, please email Shannon at [email protected]