Mennonite Church USA peace advocate finds hope for better
world in bitter rubble
by Laurie L. Oswald
Susan Mark Landis (middle), peace advocate
for Mennonite Church USA, leads worship in St. Jerome's
chapel in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, during
her visit to the Middle East on May 21 through June
6. Those joining her include Christian Peacemaker Teams
delegation leader Pieter Niemeyer (left ) and a Palestinian
guide. (Photo by Abigail Ozanne)
NEWTON, Kan. (MC USA) -- Susan Mark Landis, peace advocate
for Mennonite Church USA, discovered on a recent trip to Israel/Palestine
that hope for a better life can determinedly persist even
amidst the rubble of bitterness.
Landis returned June 6 from visiting Mennonite Central Committee
(MCC) ministries in Bethlehem and Jerusalem and participating
in a Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) delegation in those
two cities and Hebron. During her journey from May 21 through
June 6, she found people on both sides of Arab-Israeli issues
who are working for justice and security in their strife-torn
lands.
She met people from Jewish, Christian and Moslem backgrounds
who are joining together to work for peace. And now that she's
back home in her denominational office in Smithville, Ohio,
she wants to share these stories with Mennonite Church USA.
"I went to find how people continue to have hope, and
I found people of faith who cope in the face of unreasonable
odds," Landis said. "It's not a happy, smiley hope.
It has nothing to do with optimism. It's a dogged determination
to do what can be done; to find groceries even when it takes
hours to get through checkpoints; to school the kids even
during curfew."
Landis shares how she met a Moslem woman in Hebron who translates
for CPT. She created a nursery school for Palestinian children
to give them a place to play during curfew. "She wanted
to make a safe haven for the children in the midst of all
that's going on," Landis said. "She and other adults
are doing the best they can with what they have."
In another example, Landis described how a curfew in Hebron
a year ago -- the curfew is now lifted -- made it impossible
for children to use the streets to get to school. So they
found another way. "The kids jumped from rooftop to rooftop
until they got to the home of a woman who had a ladder leading
from her back door down to a street they were allowed to walk
on to school."
Along with these stories of hope, Landis wants to share the
desire of the people in the Middle East that North Americans
become informed about government's policies in that region
and to own and use their influence to promote peace.
"They told me to tell people back home what is happening
in their land and urged us to accept the power that we have
in our democracy to help change what's happening in other
parts of the world," she said. "It's hard for them
-- who see democracy as a type of government that empowers
ordinary people to have a voice -- to understand how we can
not use our voice to bring good for people of other countries."
They also have a passion to know whether U.S. citizens care,
she said. "Behind the question of whether we know what's
going on is a second question: 'Do you care about us?' They
really hunger to know if we care and want us to do something
tangible to show that care."
Landis strove to communicate Mennonite Church USA's care in
tangible ways during her trip, she said. She wanted to renew
her passion for peacemaking, and to have face-to-face fellowship
with those scarred by violence. She felt she met both objectives
in countless ways during her journey.
That journey included visits to MCC sites in Bethlehem and
Jerusalem, where she accompanied MCCers Alain Epp Weaver and
Ed Nyce to visit partner ministries. MCC began work in Palestine
in 1949. And then she joined the CPT delegation in Hebron
on May 26. CPT has been in Hebron since 1995 -- invited by
the mayor of Hebron -- to provide violence reduction, including
being a peaceful presence in the neighborhoods.
"People in the United States often ask if I side with
the Palestinians or Israelis, but there is a different division
that guides MCC and CPT's work," she said. "People
are trying to solve the problems of this region in two ways:
some turn toward violence and others toward peacemaking. We
side with the peacemakers.
"We want to be in solidarity with all those who are being
peacemakers, no matter what their background. ... I met with
Israelis and Palestinians, people of the Jewish, Moslem and
Christian faiths, men and women's groups -- all people who
work diligently to find hope and solutions. ... God cares
about all the people on both sides, but it's obvious that
the Palestinians are suffering more, and we have to take that
injustice into account. ... I want to side with anyone who
is working toward a just peace."
Susan Mark Landis (middle), peace advocate for Mennonite
Church USA, visits with Amira Siloni (right), a member
of the "Stop the Wall" campaign in Hebron,
and Salah Ayad. The wall has carved up his land, destroyed
his livelihood and limited his ability to visit family
and friends. (Photo by Ryan Beiler)
CPT arranged time with many groups working for peace in the
region. They included a group striving to stop the building
of a wall between Israel and Palestine; "Rabbis for Human
Rights"; "Israelis Campaign Against Home Demolition";
and "Bereaved Families." That group consists of
both Israelis and Palestinians who support each other in their
grief over losing loved ones through violence and in the decision
to seek reconciliation rather than revenge.
Besides the loss of lands and homes, both Israelis and Palestinians
have lost loved ones in the constant conflicts between the
two groups. "Bereaved Families" makes it possible
for Palestinians and Israelis to talk to each other, seeing
the other group as human and thus learning compassion rather
than revenge during the grieving process.
"Both sides have lost many loved ones," she said.
"The pair who talked with us was an Israeli man who lost
his 12-year-old daughter in a disco bombing and a Palestinian
woman who lost her grown sister. ... After spending time with
this couple, it's clear to me that the violence -- and the
solution to that violence -- includes justice and security
for everyone. Reaching this solution, however, requires giving
up revenge for compassion, a true reaching from the depth
of one's soul misery to another's."
Landis also believes that reducing violence is part of Mennonite
Church USA's ministry at home and around the world. But no
one person can tackle all the unjust and violence issues at
once -- it becomes overwhelming. She suggests that each constituent
in our denomination choose one issue that they can care about
over a long period, rather than juggle many issues all at
once.
"As human beings, we're only able to grab hold of one
issue at a time," Landis said. "If we think we have
to solve abortion, racism, the death penalty and Israel-Palestine
issues all at once, we'll get paralyzed.
"But if we stay with one issue over the long haul, we
can begin to see the breadth of possibilities and all the
people who are making a difference."
Laurie L. Oswald is news service
director for Mennonite Church USA.
Challenging the occupation -- one shopping bag at a
time
by Susan Mark Landis
In a land where simple daily chores make a political statement,
my Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) delegation to Palestine
invited neighbors to shop for justice.
Not until I personally experienced the unrelenting humiliation
and inconvenience of Palestinian life did the reality of occupation
sink in. MCCer Ed Nyce took me to visit Salah Ayad, whose
family and land are being divided by the Israeli wall/fence
system. Some refer to it as a security wall/fence, some a
separation barrier, and some an apartheid wall.
He tried to paint a picture of his community before the days
of wall construction, accompanied by huge clouds of dust,
new roads and soldiers taking over the top floor of his cousins'
hotel. No one is willing to stay in a hotel with the soldiers.
"This used to be a private community with good views
of the surrounding hills and valleys, full of gardens. Now
it is full of noisy trucks and children with lung problems
from the dust." His business -- which supplies construction
materials -- no longer functions because no one builds close
to the wall.
His freedom of movement is so limited that he can pretty much
walk everywhere he is allowed to go. I asked how he lives
with the stress. "I haven't felt that I lived normally
since 1967," he said. "The wall is just one part
of our suffering." His wife is headmaster of a private
school in his Jerusalem suburb of Abu Dis, but likely the
school will close next year after the wall is finished. Some
students can no longer reach school because the wall blocks
their way; others can't afford the tuition, since unemployment
in this area where people are divided from their fields and
places of business has reached 70 percent. "I don't want
money for my land," Ayad said. "I promised my grandfather
I would never sell land. Our family has sold no land, only
bought more, for over 100 years. I want to grow my roses,"
here, in peace.
Our CPT delegation lived in what used to be the thriving Old
City of Hebron. Shops on our road and many near-by streets
of the market resembled a ghost-town. As we North American
folks walked down the middle of the street to reach our apartment,
inaccessible by taxi because of roadblocks and cement barriers,
we commented that we felt like cowboys on a western movie
set. Shops were tightly closed and no one crossed our paths.
The silence was creepy. For the most part, shoppers are unwilling
to face the hassles of the military checkpoint and settler
animosity to buy groceries. A few shopkeepers open their doors
and set out their goods to maintain their self-respect.
A Hebron Palestinian group, "Library without Wheels for
Nonviolence and Peace," invited CPT to join them in creating
a festival day for shopping to help bring new life to the
Old City. Our delegation put up posters and passed out fliers
with information. On the shopping day, we helped count people
entering the Old City, and people carrying shopping bags as
they left. We also enjoyed the festive atmosphere as we selected
a few items to bring back home with us. A local shop owner
provided us with stools and traditional hot mint tea. Many
people stopped us and offered their thanks for bringing a
bit of normalcy back to their shopping and business lives.
The news in North American media about the conflict between
Israelis and Palestinians often dwells on suicide bombings
and home demolitions. Our delegation never confronted this
type of behavior from either side. Rather we observed the
insidious activity of a psychological war as the Israeli government
makes life unbearable for Palestinians, hoping they will leave
the land of their birth and the birth of their ancestors,
the only land they've known.
I wonder if the story of my trip would be more compelling
if I had stood in front of a bulldozer, or had given first
aid to a Palestinian shot while trying to walk through a checkpoint,
or ridden on an Israeli bus line after another bus on that
line was suicide-bombed, or if I at least had been tear-gassed.
Such hostility commands an audience. I found the violence
of not being able to shop where one has for years, of being
separated from one's land and livelihood, quieter and harder
to understand. Perhaps that is why the world community hasn't
much to say and despair haunts Palestinian daily tasks.
After helping to provide a simple witness of a pleasant shopping
day, the prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread"
will have new meaning for me. It will bring to mind the beaming
face of a Palestinian woman trying to explain to me in Arabic
her joy at returning to the Old City for just one normal day.
Susan Mark Landis is peace
advocate for Mennonite Church USA.
Words for the church from Whalerider
by Gay Brunt Miller
Gay Brunt Miller enjoys bonding with Siku, the whale,
at Sea World in San Antonia, Texas. (Photo: courtesy
of Sea World)
Last summer, a poignant and moving tale from New Zealand slipped
quietly onto some big screens amidst the competing thriller
blockbuster movies -- full of action, special effects and
often foul language and questionable content. Whalerider is
now available on video and DVD, and it is well worth seeing
if you have not yet seen it. In fact, if you've seen it once,
I'd challenge you to rent it again... and watch it with eyes
for the message it may have for the church. This is how my
eyes saw it; you may see it differently.
Set in a quiet village on the eastern shore of New Zealand,
Whalerider is the tale of an indigenous tribe. Steeped in
tradition, yet without a leader for the next generation, the
Maori people teeter on the brink of losing their soul amidst
modernization and the lure of distant and more exciting destinations
for their youth.
The aging chief, Koro, certain that the line of leadership
from the "Ancient Ones" must be a first-born male,
alienates his elder son, disregards his younger son and hopes
that the line will be passed along to the next generation.
When his daughter-in-law and twin grandson die in childbirth,
he is left only with the other twin -- a granddaughter. Against
the chief's clear protest, the father names his remaining
child after an ancient ancestor, Paikea -- the whalerider.
Leaving her in the care of her grandparents, the widowed father
flees the island for the next 11 years as he tries to pick
up the pieces of his life in Europe.
The story unfolds from there, as Paikea matures with the clear
gifting and calling to leadership while her grandfather refuses
to allow for this possibility in his world.
How does this story relate to the church? I can't help but
think how we often "know" how God will answer our
prayers. As we read the Bible through our cultural understandings,
we see only one possibility of God's will, one way that our
prayers could be properly answered, one interpretation of
how things are "meant to be." How often do we limit
our God who wants to "accomplish abundantly far more
than all we can ask or imagine" (Eph. 3:20) by not thinking
big enough?
In this movie I see the Maori people struggling to cling to
the Ancient ways. Modern society beckons and lures away some
of their brightest and most talented young people because
they cannot figure out how to make space in their ranks for
those that do not fit the long-held traditions. Those without
options to escape the diminishing opportunities within the
village turn to drugs and alcohol (more implied than dwelt
upon in the movie). Their own narrow definition of appropriate
leadership leaves them scattering, on a clear path toward
the demise of their entire culture.
Only through the courage of Paikea to repeatedly risk her
grandfather's wrath as she goes behind his back to learn the
traditions and embrace the core values of her culture ...
and a mass stranding of whales ... is Paikea afforded the
opportunity to own and use her God-given leadership abilities.
Leadership development has been named as one of our denominational
priorities. As we rally around this priority in an attempt
to stay the trend of aging pastoral leaders and many of our
best and our brightest lured into secular careers, do our
human expectations for what our pastoral leaders will look
like, act like, think like -- in any way limit God's answer
to our prayers? Are we at risk of (or already) losing our
youth to the wider American or world culture because we are
reluctant to embrace what leadership may look like for the
next generation? Are we locked into traditions and forms that
are not really part of our faith's core values?
Just as immersion in another culture sometimes frees us to
see our own culture more clearly, Whalerider also offers the
opportunity to ponder issues from a different perspective.
If you have not yet seen Whalerider, I encourage you to make
it part of your summer viewing list ... and to watch it with
the church and our collective future in mind. Photo available.
Gay Brunt Miller serves as
director of administration at Franconia Mennonite Conference
in Souderton, Pa. Her avocational passion is watching and
studying whales.
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so that God's healing and hope flow through us to the world
