Thursday, May 31, 2012


2012 Annual Report about 
COMMUNITY AND MIDDLE EAST                PEACE BUILDERS
“So then, whenever we have opportunity, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith” (Galatians 6:10)

Community & Middle East Peace Builders exists to build strategic connections between the Christians of the West and the Middle East. We do this first through our own domestic initiatives of education, advocacy and building relationships in the Northwest region considering issues of Multi-cultural and Inter-faith diversity; Nonviolence; Compassionate Listening; Veterans concerns. Secondly we support what we call the “Lamps of the Middle East”, i.e. indigenous M.E. churches and Christian organizations in their effort to be faithful witnesses to peace, justice and reconciliation amongst Christians, Muslims and Jews..  

We meet at 7pm on the last Tuesday of each month in Room 203 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lynnwood, WA. We feature films and guest speakers to facilitate deep conversation about such themes as:
  •  “The Living Stones” – Meeting the Christians of the Middle East. We facilitated a Northwest tour by Palestinian Lutheran Daoud Nassar of the “Tent Of Nations” ministry near Bethlehem, accompanied by his American Jewish cohort Mark Braverman; we also showed a talk by Bethlehem-based Lutheran pastor Mitri Raheb on “7 Keys to Middle East Peace”.
  • Compassionate Listening – As a follow up to earlier training in the principles and practices of compassionate listening, we showed the film “The Imam & The Pastor” documenting the work of Muslims and Christians in Nigeria who forged a fellowship that overcomes their deep differences -- and illustrates a way forward for all of us.
  • Nonviolence and Peaceful Conflict Resolution – we showed several films that reveal the efforts of peacemakers in troubling contexts to overcome hatred via nonviolent resistance to evil.
  • Interfaith Understanding – Commemorating 9-11, we heard our Lynnwood neighbor Jeff Siddiqui share about his Muslim faith, practice and advocacy work for justice and peacebuilding in our NW region.
  • Welcoming Home Vets – we showed “The Welcome” film documenting a reconciliation retreat offering a path to healing for vets who served in wars over the past 40 years, ranging from Vietnam to today’s Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts – and pointing a way forward for welcoming vets with honor and hope for transformation.
  • Co-sponsoring regional conferences, speaking tours and other special events – e.g. “Confronting Islamophobia” event in May 2011,

We will continue to address these and other urgent issues of concern to all members of the Northwest and global community.  We will also facilitate Holy Land delegations in 2013.

CMEPB works in collaboration with Churches for Middle East Peace; the ELCA “Peace Not Walls” campaign; Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding; Interfaith Peace Builders; Holy Land Trust; Tent of Nations; Breaking The Silence; and many others.

For further information contact the CMEPB Program Director:                                           
 John Berg: P.O. Box 359, Lynnwood, WA 98046-0359         Tel (425) 218-3682                      
Email: JohnTBerg@msn.com      On the WEB: http://middleeastpeacebuilders.blogspot.com