PEACE AND JUSTICE COMMITTEE
Eastern District Conference / Franconia Mennonite Conference


Peace & Justice News

Read the July
2010 issue (PDF)

Urban-Suburban- Rural Dialog

Peace & Justice Fall Gathering
October 16, 2010
8:30am-1:00pm

New Resources for Trauma Healing
from Peace Retreat
at Spruce Lake

Immigration
resources

Homelessness
Affordable Housing

Colombia
Honduras and
Latin America

Health Care

Food/Hunger
Resources

Military Service
and Conscientious Objection
Resources

Peace & Justice
CALENDAR

[2011]
[2010]
[2009]
[2008]
[2007]

Contact Us

Eastern District Conference

Franconia Mennonite Conference

Mennonite Church USA

Earthkeeping
resources

Farm Bill
resources

Peace Resources

Thermostat:
Peacemaking 101

More Peace Resources
for Youth

"Alternative" Gifts

Energy Alternatives
Resources

Peace Sunday resources
November 4, 2007 "Faith in Action"
T-Shirt Project

Christian Citizenship Sunday resources
July 2, 2006

Labor Day Sunday
September 2, 2007

Immigration Reform workshop
Sept 15, 2007

Who we are -- What we do

We are a joint conference committee, with financial support from both Franconia Mennonite Conference and Eastern District Conference (member conferences of Mennonite Church USA). Our dual-conference relationship has emerged over a period of several years, beginning about 2000. Most of the churches of both Eastern District Conference and Franconia Mennonite Conference are located in the eastern half of Pennsylvania, and our two conferences share office facilities in Souderton, Pa.

The Peace and Justice committee has a speakers bureau - committee members and MCC staff are available for teaching, preaching, and for conversation about our work together. Please contact us if you would like help finding resources or a speaker for Sunday worship, a Sunday School class, or other church group. (See more details here)

Food Programs

The Peace and Justice Committee PJC provides general oversight for three food programs, each of which have their own coordinators and volunteer staff:
  • Grocery Bag Program: Collects grocery donations every winter for families in need in Philadelphia and New York City. In February 2007, 725 bags of groceries were collected for distribution to Brooklyn, Bronx, and Philadelphia under the leadership of Mary Keller and Judy Francis. This program changed in 2008 -- now individual congregations which would like to provide bags of groceries will be matched with specific urban churches or organizations in need of food.
    See Grocery Bag program or contact the MCC Material Resource Center in Ephrata at 717-733-2847 for more details.
  • MCC Meat Canner: Each spring we host the MCC meat canner usually for two or three days (last year canning only pork). In 2009, about 14,000 cans of pork were filled -- enough for about 140,000 meals, and some additional meat was donated to local outreach programs, including Graterford Prison Ministry. The MCC Meat Canner was at at Christopher Dock on March 30-April 1, 2009 (Mon.-Wed), but will not return to the area until spring 2011. The facilities at Christopher Dock are no longer adequate to host the canner, so the canning operation will be moving to the MCC Material Resource Center in Harleysville in the spring of 2011. (Volunteers may schedule work times through the Conference office, 267-932-6050.) For further information, contact us:
    Program coordinator: Abe Landes, 215-723-3140.
  • Vegetable Basket Program: Donated fruits and vegetables are collected from local farmers and gardners, each year in coordination with with the Food Trust, a Philadelphia based non-profit organization which sets up farmers markets and negotiates with grocery chains to serve low-income communities. The program has delivered an abundance of fresh produce to several agencies that serve low-income people: In years with a good growing season, volunteers have processed and distributed over 10,000 lbs. of donated produce.

    The Vegetable Basket Project collects fruit and vegetables (from mid-July until early October). Drop off your produce on Monday mornings before 9:00 a.m. at any of the designated pickup locations:

    • Care & Share Thrift Shoppe, 783 Route 113, Souderton, PA
      (drop off produce at the side door facing Route 113)
    • Deep Run East Mennonite Church, 350 Kellers Church Road, Perkasie, PA
    • Blooming Glen Creamery Apartments, Route 113, Blooming Glen, PA
    • Mennonite Conference Center, 529 Yoder Road, Harleysville, PA
    • Indian Valley Mennonite Church, 190 Maple Avenue, Harleysville, PA
    • Plains Mennonite Church, 50 Orvilla Road, Hatfield, PA 19440
    • Lamb Foundation (Cornucopia Cupboard), 114 N. Main Street, North Wales, PA

    The summer of 2009 brought us an abundant growing season, and we are pleased to be working with the Food Trust again this year. For more information, see www.nutritioncoalition.org or contact Moriah Zimmerman: 215-575-0444, or Bob Moyer 215-766-0825.

Peace and Justice Education

Winter Peace Retreat for adults, youth and children. This annual retreat has been planned and hosted for 40 years by the PJC. For several years this gathering has been held on the second weekend of February at Spruce Lake Retreat in the Pocono mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania. ( See announcement of the February 12-14, 2010 retreat, or the next retreat February 11-13, 2011.)

The PJC also has been represented on the Boards of the Montgomery County Mediation Center which provides mediation services and intensive mediation training and Crossroads Community Center in Philadelphia.

From time to time the PJC also plans or co-sponsors other projects and programs, including a Peace & Justice Fall Gathering for local church representatives (October 16, 2010 at Oxford Circle Mennonite Church), and the 51st annual Christmas Peace Pilgrimage from Nazareth to Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) on Dec. 11th, 2010.

We sometimes work directly with people in our local congregations to identify or provide peace resources, lead workshops, or arrange programs on current peace and justice topics. (See more information here).

Many of our congregations have given attention to youth and the military in response to the U.S. military buildup and intensive armed forces recruiting that began after 9/11/2001. We have periodically hosted workshops on on military, draft, and voluntary service options conscientious objection (such as "Why Object" , in March 2007; and "Was Jesus a Conscientous Objector?" in April 2009) for youth, parents, and youth leaders.

We have also sponsored pastor's workshops on "preaching peace" and "keeping the faith during election times" and "pastoral care for people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)".

Who we are

Current members of the Peace and Justice Committee are:
  • Carolynn Boyd
  • Becky Felton (Financial Secretary)
  • Jason Hedrick (Co-Chair)
  • Ellen Longacre
  • James C. Longacre
  • Bob Moyer (Secretary)
  • Mark Reiff
  • Bob Walden (Co-Chair)
  • Sarah Witter
  • Anne Yoder

  • Peace Resources

    Mennonite Peace Resources the website of the Peace and Justice Support Network includes resources for worship, reflection, and public policy advocacy on Peace and Justice issues. peace.mennolink.org
    (If you do not find what you are looking for, please contact the PJC).


    Community-Based Peace Resources in Pennsylvania:

    Peace Resource Centers Other Resources: Peace and Justice Calendars by Email
    • There is an Email calendar for Bucks and Montgomery counties which includes peace-related events. Contact Tom Ulrich, tomulrich@mybluelight.com.
    • In central Pennsylvania, there is an Email "Peace and Justice Calendar" for the Harrisburg, PA area which includes some events of regional interest: Contact Darrel & Kirsten Reinford, kirstendarrel@pa.net.

    Contact the Peace and Justice Committee

    For further information about the PJC or any of the activities listed here, please contact us.
    We welcome opportunities to work together with other Mennonite peace committees on issues of mutual concern.
    Also see the Peace Resource page for other Peace and Justice resources.



    Contact webmaster: efpjcweb@ppjr.org

    Location: http://efpjc.ppjr.org/index.htm
    Last Updated: 7/11/10
    Created: July 28, 2002