Emi Kawamura is the Children and Youth Formation Organizer at OEP and a first-year student at Oberlin College in Ohio as a prospective Psychology major. She is an alumna of the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange Program, a scholarship from the U.S. State Department, which gave her the opportunity to live in Sofia, Bulgaria as a citizen diplomat last year. With a passion for working with children and diversity education, she received a Community Engagement Grant from OEP for the Borderless Relations Committee (BRC), a project she founded with two of her peers in 2020. A project that originated based on a reflection of her experience as a Japanese-American who struggled with accepting her identity due to a lack of conversation about differences and belonging in classrooms growing up, BRC conducted workshops with students in 3rd through 5th grade about accepting and identifying differences, celebrating differences within themselves and others, and how to be respectfully curious. She is immensely grateful for the OEP community and her experience as an intern.

The Church of the Brethren Gun Violence Prevention Action Team (COB GVP AT), a project of On Earth Peace, hosted its first quarterly “COB GVP Organizing Meeting” on December 1, 2023. More than thirty Church of the Brethren members and friends from across the country gathered over Zoom to learn more about gun violence prevention and to begin to identify how Jesus might be calling them and their congregations to get involved.

Beginning in mid-January 2024, the COB GVP AT will begin sending newsletter updates roughly on a monthly basis. Each newsletter will contain a resource or simple idea for action that Brethren congregations nationwide can take together, that month, related to gun violence in our country. January’s newsletter will provide two worship resources that congregations may utilize for National Gun Violence Survivors Week (January 22-26, 2024).

If you would like to be on the list to receive the newsletter, please sign up on the On Earth Peace website, here. Indicate that you want email updates and check the “Gun Violence Prevention” box.

At On Earth Peace, we celebrate the contributions of past and present fellows and interns. Their ambitions and projects have a tangible, lasting impact on our organization’s progress toward our mission. These alumni inspire others with their work, encouraging their peers to pursue peace work as well. One such example of this is our vast number of interns and fellow alumni from Bridgewater College in Virginia, encouraged by OEP’s work in the area and peers who have contributed to OEP’s goals. These alumni have helped to grow the OEP community in Bridgewater, VA and continue to foster peace around the world. We call on readers to celebrate the accomplishments of these alumni and discover the impact OEP had on their careers.

We are approaching 200 of our "1000 Brethren" goal!

Pam Smith (standing) and Kimberly Koczan facilitate a 6-Hour Kingian Nonviolence training for the Mid-Atlantic District Conference, Manassas, VA, on October 6, 2023. (Photo by Stephen Niamke)

On Earth Peace began working with Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation in 2008, spurred by former board member David Jehnsen. Over the years, the values and skills of the KNV approach have become a core discipline in On Earth Peace's work to equip and empower leaders, congregations, and community groups. In 2021, On Earth Peace intern Clara West McGilly and staff Matt Guynn developed a vision to train 1000 Brethren in Kingian Nonviolence. In doing so, they focused and intensified work OEP had developed ever since partnering with Samuel Sarpiya in Rockford, Illinois, in 2009-2010, as he planted a church and catalyzed the community to address community issues of racism and inequity using a Kingian Nonviolence approach. 

We hope to help the Church of the Brethren revitalize and channel our New Testament faith heritage while re-imagining how to engage communities and issues. While training 1000 Brethren is the core goal, the intention is to lay the groundwork for longer-term congregational, district, and denominational teams using Kingian Nonviolence to address issues in their own communities or contexts. The training is personally and spiritually engaging, encouraging each participant's own walk as a disciple of Jesus. Since early 2023, Sara Haldeman-Scarr (recently retired from pastoring San Diego (CA) First Church of the Brethren) has been volunteering with On Earth Peace to help coordinate the initiative. As the initiative expands, our volunteer team continues to grow; Mandy Park, Rhonda Baker, and Katie Shaw Thompson have added their expertise to a working team created to assist with the details and demands of the Project.

Beth Gaver, On Earth Peace’s Written Communications Organizer, recently obtained her B.A. in Global Studies and History/Political Science from Bridgewater College in Virginia. She reflects on her internship and On Earth Peace’s impact on her life and aspirations.

Why did you apply to On Earth Peace? What drew you to the organization?

I was drawn to On Earth Peace because of my experience with my Global Studies major and my interest in nonviolence as applied to international relations. I learned about the organization from friends at Bridgewater College who invited me to a 2-Hour Kingian Nonviolence training with OEP. From there, I wanted to learn more about nonviolence and apply it to my work, and I felt OEP was the best place to build those skills.