WPMF has been involved in various ways in reaching out to the West Philadelphia community through friendships and projects.
These include intentional outreach to international students, supporting Habitat for Humanity, sponsoring a Meals on Wheels program, providing leadership and financial resources to Philadelphia Mennonite High School, being involved in Philadelphia Interfaith Action on city-wide lobbying efforts and projects, working on affordable housing with the Beaumount Initative, participating in Heeding God's Call (gun violence prevention), and other initiatives.
Current Efforts:
Powerlinks: Part of the city-wide P.O.W.E.R. Coalition (Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower and Rebuild)
Refugee Resettlement: with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
Mennonite Central Committee Benefit Festival: Saturday, October 29, 2011, West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship, 48th St. & Baltimore Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19143. Read more information here about MCC Benefit Sales.
Past Efforts:
WPMF PEACE GROUP:
Planting
and Watering the Seeds of Peace
The
WPMF Peace Group was started in April 2006, and went on hiatus in 2010, by church members who wanted
there to be an action group in the congregation for intentional and
faithful peace witness in the community, as a way to see the shalom
of the city (part of the WPMF Vision Prayer). We banded together
to speak out and act for peace and nonviolence, and against militarism
and war. The WPMF Peace Group met five to six times a year to discuss
issues related to our purpose and the kinds of action/s we wanted
to carry out as a group, as well as to encourage each other to be
peacemakers in our own homes, work situations, and other settings
of our lives. In this way, we hoped to plant and water the seeds of
peace.
The WPMF Peace Group welcomed collaboration with other peace groups
and organizations in West Philadelphia.
Projects Included:
- "Seeking
Direction After High School?" Directory of Alternatives to Military
Service for Philadelphia Youth [created 2006-2007]
- "Forum
on Gun Violence and Our City" [April 26, 2008]
Featured speakers were: Dorothy Johnson-Speight (Mothers in Charge), Bryan Miller (CeaseFireNJ), and Fred Kauffman (Mennonite Central Committee East Coast)
- Speaker Event with Military Counseling Network [July 23, 2006]
- Tabling at neighborhood community events
- Educating people about conscientious objection. Visit The GI Rights Hotline or Mennonite Central Committee for information on your rights and your options.
To find out more information about
peace efforts supported by Mennonite Church USA,
click on the logo below.
Historical Roots
The Mennonite Church grew out of the religious Reformation in Europe,
when the Anabaptists radically imitated the first century Christian
church, by stating their allegiance to Jesus Christ, their adherence
to the Scriptures as their guide, and their beliefs in baptism upon
confession of faith (instead of being born into the church), discipleship,
the priesthood of all believers, and nonresistance. They held to these
beliefs in spite of severe persecution and even martyrdom.
About nonresistance, an early Swiss leader, Conrad Grebel, stated
in 1524: “True Christians use neither worldly sword nor engage
in war, since among them taking human life has ceased entirely, for
we are no longer under the Old Covenant.... The Gospel and those who
accept it are not to be protected with the sword, neither should they
thus protect themselves.” The Dutchman, Menno Simons (upon whose
name the denomination is based) wrote in 1550: “The regenerated
do not go to war, nor engage in strife.... They are the children of
peace who have beaten their swords into plowshares and their spears
into pruning hooks, and know of no war.... Spears and swords of iron
we leave to those who, alas, consider human blood and swine's blood
of well-nigh equal value.”
This principle of nonresistance, or biblical pacifism, has been practiced
resolutely by the faith descendants of the Anabaptists, particularly
in a steadfast stance of conscientious objection to war, and in working
toward conflict resolution in troubled areas around the world. It
is this principle that Mennonites continue to uphold in their current
settings as they “seek peace and pursue it.”
updated: 8/1/11