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Veteran Peaceworker to Speak at EMU

The Common Grounds Coffeehouse at Eastern Mennonite University will host Peggy Gish, an Athens, Ohio, native who recently returned from her fourth trip to Iraq, working with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT).

She will speak about her experiences 8 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 8, in the Coffeehouse located on ground floor of the University Commons.

Gish, 63, has been in Iraq for a total of 13 months in the past two years. The CPT team in Iraq has worked to reduce violence, promote fair treatment of Iraqi detainees and to witness the conditions of life under the U.S. occupation.

Gish’s recent book, "Iraq: A journey of Hope and Peace"; chronicles her personal experiences and the work of CPT in Iraq, before, during and after the 2003 war. Gish makes real the horrors of war and her passionate vision for peace. Her book includes stories of sleeping in a tent during the bombing, villages surrounded by razor wire, being deported, working for justice for Iraqi prisoners, creating relationships with Iraqi citizens, and through it all, seeking the way of Christ's nonviolent suffering love.

Gish is a mother, grandmother, farmer, community mediator and former co-director of the Appalachian Peace and Justice Network in Southeastern Ohio. She is a member of New Covenant Fellowship, a communal church affiliated with the Church of the Brethren.

Christian Peacemaker Teams currently has violence reduction groups working in Hebron, in the West Bank, Columbia, Canada with Native American communities and the Arizona/Mexican boarder and is supported by the Church of the Brethren, Mennonite Church USA and Friends United Meeting.

A book signing will follow her presentation. Admission is free.

— article by: Jim Bishop; posted December 1, 2004