MINUTES OF THE PEACE AND JUSTICE COMMITTEE MAY 13, 2010
Attendance: Nancy Conrad-Evans, Elaine Ehehardt, David Evans, Mary Gurley, Will Simmons, Cynthia Smyth, Bob Thacker
The meeting came to order at 7:35 p.m. in the St. Boniface Library.
We reviewed the activities of committee members over the past month as follows:
Human Trafficking Awareness Coalition(HTAC) - Cynthia reported she along with David, Nancy, Ginger Pavloff and Mary Gurley attended the May 1st meeting of HTAC-Sarasota.
The primary action taken was the election of officers as follows: Derek Thompson, youth pastor at Church of the Palms, Chairman;
Mary Gurley, Vice Chair; Joyce Raby, Secretary; Jane Blanchard, Treasurer; David Evans, Member-at-large. These will be terms of one year.
It was agreed that work would continue on the mission statement which Jane and others had begun. The next meeting will be June 21 and Nola Theiss will attend that meeting. David noted that both the Republican and Democratic parties have agreed to have a representative attend meetings of HTAC.
Several members of HTAC planned to attend the meeting of the State Task Force on Human Trafficking Awareness in St. Petersburg.
State-Wide task force on Human Trafficking May 6, 2010: Mary gave a brief account of this meeting chaired by the Secretary of Department of Children and Families, Gordan Sheldon. The speakers were interesting and Secretary Sheldon offered his office as a resource to the Sarasota HTAC. He said there have been 110 investigations over past year. Thirty-three counties are involved in these investigations. Florida is one of top three states in U.S. involved in human trafficking. He stated there are more humans enslaved globally than ever before in history. We were told there are 30 to 40,000 runaway children in Florida at any one time.
Child Marriages - Building Peace: Information regarding child marriages was distributed.
Military care packages: Will has gathered a great deal of material and information. He does not see the new regulations as an impediment to the project we have supported for several years. New boxes provided by USPS which have a logo for supporting the troops are available free and cost $12.50 to mail; thus are the box of choice to use. Boxes must have a name of a designated person to whom the box is addressed. At this time we do not know of a person stationed in Afghanistan from our parish; however, one can always go to the Military Officers website and obtain the name of a person receiving packages. It was decided that fall is the best time to encourage parish members to send boxes to military personnel. Lt. Col. Matthew Smith who received most of the boxes sent last year spoke in church May 9th and stated that the boxes sent by St. Boniface likely touched the lives of 1,000 military personnel in Afganistan. He expressed his appreciation of the generosity of St. Boniface.
CIW march to Lakeland PUBLIX : David and Nancy attended the march led by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Lakeland. The march was orderly and appeared to have up to a thousand people participating. David has talked with Jordan Buckley a couple times since then to determine if Publix is changing position on the purchase of tomatoes to a provider that has increased wages. To date there is not an indication that has happened. The press seems to have not covered the impressive march. The Secretary of Labor is going to be in Immokalee soon and hopefully the presence of a national figure will generate news items.
Trip to the Middle East: Bob passed out information about two groups he has researched that offer tours of Middle East. Journeys Unlimited Bible Land Pilgrimage is a company with whom he worked previously. This is a tour company that provides glossy materials with church name on it and he has in the past been able to add to tours his own special interests. FRIENDS OF SABEEL , international peace movement, is the second group which builds into its tour all the places Bob would want and more. Sabeel also offers to lead conferences which a bishop friend of Bob has attended. Bob needed the committee to decide on a time of year for such a trip in order to work with these two companies to determine which would give us the best price. The committee decided fall of 2011 is a preferable time.
Will passed out course schedules from Saint George's College, Jerusalem. Will attended The Bible and its Setting course for a month in 1987. He said they had many of the same opportunities as offered by other tour groups. He said it absolutely changed his life and how he experiences the Bible, church and life.
Speakers on Peace and Creating a Culture of Peace (CCP): David presented information he has gathered about CCP through contact with professor at Argosy University. The group presents 40 hour seminars and requires a commitment that pays speakers $600.00 honorariums as well as expenses. David does not think this would be a viable option for St. Boniface. WARREN CLARK, Executive Director of Churches for Middle East Peace was in Sarasota in March when David heard him speak. Warren Clark would be agreeable to speaking at St. Boniface and only need travel expenses covered. David will stay in contact with Warren Clark's office.
NEW BUSINESS:
Educational component of Peace Activities for coming year: Bob and David will look for curriculum on peace which our committee could offer the parish in the coming year. It was agreed to launch Peace Emphasis in the fall hopefully with a particular Sunday being set aside for peace. It was agreed we need to tie together local peace efforts with that in middle East and world.
David Evans noted the work of the committee over the past two years in the area of justice. He anticipates the committee will continue to follow justice issues. However, it seems to be time to focus on the peace aspect of our work. How can we bring peace into our own lives? It was noted we cannot have peace without justice.
David emphasized the need for us to stay in communication through e-mails over the summer months and then he thanked Mary for her work as chair of the
Peace and Justice Committee presenting her with a gift from those present.
We adjourned about 8:50 p.m.
The next meeting will be the third Thursday of October.
Mary Gurley
