History and Priorities
Founded in 1941, LPF offers a wide range of resources, workshops, support, and encouragement. LPF's main priority is to support effective peace education and advocacy by its members and local chapters, networks, and congregations. Membership is open to any individual, chapter, or congregation who supports the mission statement and vision statement of LPF (see below).
LPF periodically plays a significant role in the most pressing issues of our time. In recent years, these have included world hunger, landmines, and Senate ratification of the Chemical Weapons Treaty. In 1999, LPF's national coordinator served as US delegate to meetings in India to help plan the UN Decade for Peace. LPF's top advocacy priority is to end hunger and extreme poverty through such efforts as the ONE campaign and the Millennium Development Goals. Other issues include federal budget priorities, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nuclear weapons.
Lutheran Peace Fellowship's national leaders facilitate an average of 100 workshops a year; local leaders an even larger number. Popular topics for LPF workshops include Current Advocacy Priorities, Biblical Peacemaking, Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, Nonviolence for a Violent World, Leadership Training in Peacemaking, and How to Be a Bridge in a World Full of Walls.
LPF is also well regarded for its many peace education and workshop resources. For example, it is currently updating a series of computer-based education activities, one of which was chosen to be part of the largest critical thinking project in US public education. LPF's "Peace Points" series for youth and adult leaders provides creative, easy-to-lead sessions that have worked well with groups around the country. It also offers a thought-provoking deck of Peace Cards illuminating peace and justice insights.
The international LPF headquarters are located in Seattle, Washington and there are local chapters and networks in many parts of the U.S.
Read more about this topic: Lutheran Peace Fellowship
Famous quotes containing the words history and/or priorities:
“I believe that history might be, and ought to be, taught in a new fashion so as to make the meaning of it as a process of evolution intelligible to the young.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“Work though we must, our jobs do not automatically determine our priorities concerning our marriages, our children, our social life, or even our health. It’s still life, constrained as it may be by limited disposable income or leisure time, and we’re still responsible for making it something we enjoy or endure.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)