LANCASTER, Pa. (Mennonite Mission Network) — Organizers of the 2009 Christian Peace Witness for Iraq hope thousands will offer nonviolent protest against the continuing war in Iraq in late April.

The Peace and Justice Support Network of Mennonite Church USA hopes Mennonites will be part of that group.

PJSN, a ministry of Mennonite Church USA Executive Board and Mennonite Mission Network, will hold a special gathering for Mennonites and others attending the April 29-30 protest. The gathering begins at 3 p.m. April 30 at Capital Hill United Methodist Church, 421 Seward Square SE, Washington, D.C. (An online map is available at http://chumc.net/map.)

Alain Epp Weaver will speak during the Mennonite gathering on “The eclipse of the two-state solution in Palestine-Israel and the prospects of peace.”.

While working with the Mennonite Central Committee relief, development, and peacebuilding programs in the Middle East, Epp Weaver lived in the Jenin district of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and Amman, Jordan, serving most recently as MCC’s representative for Palestine, Jordan, and Iraq. The author of States of Exile: Visions of Diaspora, Witness, and Return (Herald Press, 2008) and the editor of Under Vine and Fig Tree: Biblical Theologies of Land and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (Cascadia, 2007), Epp Weaver currently works with MCC’s international program department.

Featured speakers at the larger Christian Peace Witness for Iraq gathering will be Tony Campolo, author, social activist, and sociologist; the Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., minister, activist, president of Hip Hop Caucus; Dianna Ortiz, founder of Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International; Elizabeth McAlister, founder of Jonah House; and Daniel Berrigan, priest and peace activist. Other activities include a procession to Lafayette Park in front of the White House and a witness and nonviolent action at the Capital building.

About 3,000 people attended the 2007 Christian Peace Witness for Iraq gathering. More than 100 people were arrested during a planned, nonviolent protest on the White House lawn.

For further information, contact Leo Hartshorn, minister of peace and justice for Mennonite Mission Network, at LeoH [at] MennoniteMission.net or 717-399-8353. Additional information on the weekend-long gathering is available at christianpeacewitness.org.