An event focused on peacemaking will take place on Monday, April 15, at 7 p.m. at Akron Mennonite Church, 1311 Diamond St., Akron. A panel of storytellers will share how faith has shaped their responses in times of conflict or crisis. The panelists will be Gerry Keener, Nancy Heisey, Ed Martin, and Tala Bautista.
Keener has sought to live out a life of reconciliation through his life commitment to Christian ministry. He was profoundly shaped while serving as hospital administrator in South Vietnam until the end of the American war. During 19 years as pastor of Seventh Avenue Mennonite Church and executive director of Heartsease Home in New York City, cross-cultural and cross-ethnic relationships developed in him a respect for all peoples along with practical ways of dealing with daily conflicts. He later served for more than 12 years with Eastern Mennonite Missions in Vietnam. He currently serves as president of Eastern Mennonite Missions in Salunga.
Heisey, who has taught biblical studies and church history for 20 years at Eastern Mennonite University, currently serves part-time as associate dean at Eastern Mennonite Seminary. Her life is shaped by a childhood among the Navajo people with Brethren in Christ missionary parents. She learned much from her years as a secondary school teacher under Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and by the two years she traveled with her husband, Paul Longacre, visiting Mennonite partners and friends around the world. She served as president of Mennonite World Conference from 2003 to 2009.
Martin served for six years as director of the Center for Interfaith Engagement at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va. Previously, he worked in Nepal and as the Central and Southern Asia area program director for MCC. He also worked as Quaker International Affairs Representative for Iran for the American Friends Service Committee. It was during these years that he developed an interest in Islam and in interfaith dialogue. Engagements with Iran have included collaboration with the Iranian Red Crescent Society on disaster and refugee relief, assisting in arranging meetings of American religious leaders with the president of Iran, and co-leading learning tours to Iran.
Bautista is a member of the Kalinga First Nation and a peacebuilding missionary. For a decade, she has worked with indigenous communities across the Philippines seeking to bridge faith-inspired peace frameworks with indigenous cultures and traditions. For the past eight years, Bautista has been a part of Peacebuilders Community Inc., a Mennonite missionary community motivated by nonviolence, love, and spirituality to transform land and people into communities committed to justice and peace. Her work includes economic regeneration through coffee, social enterprise, community-based capacity building on peace, and development of the School of Living Traditions.
This event is part of "Following Jesus, Living Out Peace," a series of events promoting past and contemporary peacemaking as an aspect of living as disciples of Jesus. The series is a partnership between the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society, Atlantic Coast Conference, Eastern Mennonite Missions, Lancaster Mennonite School, Landis Communities, and MCC.
This event is one of more than 40 Lancaster Roots 2019 events. Lancaster Roots combines the events of the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society, 1719 Herr House and Museum, and Mennonite Information Center.
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