CPTnet
March 2, 2017
CPT INTERNATIONAL: Train with CPT – Join CPT’s Peacemaker Corps 

Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) is currently accepting applications for its Peacemaker Corps.  Join us in building partnerships to transform violence and oppression!  

Applicants must be 21 years of age or older and have completed, or plan to complete, a short-term CPT Delegation or internship.  Qualified applicants may be invited to participate in CPT’s intensive, month-long training from 13 July – 13 August 2017 in Chicago, Illinois USA where membership in the Peacemaker Corps is discerned.  Trained Peacemaker Corps members are then eligible to apply for open positions on CPT teams.  

CPT builds partnerships to transform violence and oppression in situations of lethal conflict around the world.  We are committed to work and relationships that: 1) honor and reflect the presence of faith and spirituality, 2) strengthen grassroots initiatives, 3) transform structures of domination and oppression, and 4) embody creative nonviolence and liberating love. 

CPT understands violence to be rooted in systemic structures of oppression.  We are committed to undoing oppressions within our own lives and in the policies and practices of our organization.   

CPT is a Christian-identified organization with multi-faith/spiritually diverse membership.  We seek individuals who are capable, responsible and rooted in faith/spirituality to work for peace as members of violence-reduction teams trained in the disciplines of nonviolence.  We are committed to building a Peacemaker Corps that reflects the rich diversity of the human family in ability, age, class, ethnicity, gender identity, language, national origin, race and sexual orientation. 

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 15 March 2017; direct any questions and send complete application to personnel@cpt.org.

Prayers for Peacemakers 13 June 2018  Palestine

#GreatReturnMarch in Al-Khalil (Hebron) on May 14th, supporting Gaza's protests for the right to return.

Pray for the families, the friends, co-workers, and neighbours of the Palestinians killed during the March of Return.  Pray for the journalists and the medics who continue their work despite the uncertainty of safety and despite the sorrow over colleagues who were murdered. Pray for the human rights monitors who are beaten and threatened with death for exposing the crimes of the Israeli military. Pray for those who continue to march and continue to struggle for freedom and survival.

Pray for the world to see the atrocity of the occupation and demand justice. Pray for a free Palestine.

Prayers for Peacemakers 9 May 2018  Palestine

Pray for a time when Palestinian children in Hebron are free to spend more time learning, playing and enjoying activities with friends instead of contemplating ways to strike back at the oppression under which they live.

On Fridays when school is out and many people have a day off work, it is common in Al Khalil (Hebron) for clashes between Israeli occupying forces and local young men to occur.  The constant presence of such clashes normalizes the experience for the younger children who live amongst the conflict and observe it in action. The result is that boys, often preteen in age (as seen in the photo), also choose to participate in these clashes. 

Prayers for Peacemakers 4 April 2018  Palestine

Pray for the children of Al-Khalil/Hebron, Palestine.  Pray for them as they walk to school through checkpoints.  Pray for them as their backpacks are searched by Israeli border police.  Pray for them as they run in fear from soldiers. 

Pray that in the midst of this all-encompassing occupation of their lives and land that their sumud—steadfastness, perseverance, and resistance— is strengthened.  Pray that the tear gas and guns and checkpoints and soldiers disappear.  Pray that the children of Al-Khalil will one day walk freely to school.

Come to Palestine with Christian Peacemaker Teams to observe Nakba Day 2018!  Seventy years after Zionist forces drove out Palestinian inhabitants from their homes, the Israeli state—whose prime Minister is currently embroiled in multiple corruption scandals—continues to dispossess Palestinians of their lands and livelihoods in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.  Nevertheless, Palestinian and Israeli nonviolence activists remain steadfast, building a nonviolence movement of hope and resilience. CPT delegation members will gain a perspective on how ongoing issues affect daily life, and will experience the power of Palestinian and Israeli citizens overcoming what seem to many to be permanent obstacles.

Delegates will meet with Palestinian and Israeli human rights representatives and peace workers in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. They will visit Palestinian families whose homes and livelihoods are threatened by expanding Israeli settlements. They will travel to the city of Al Khalil (Hebron) and the village of At-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills and experience firsthand CPT's work alongside Israeli and Palestinian partners. They will challenge the structural violence of the Occupation through nonviolent public witness.

Prayers for Peacemakers 28 February 2018   Palestine

Pray for the people of Hebron who are remembering the mass shooting in the Il Ibrahimi mosque by settler Baruch Goldstein this week.  Twenty-four years after he sprayed men and boys at prayer with automatic weapons fire, the people of Hebron’s Old City, who had loved ones murdered on that day and family members permanently disabled, have seen their home increasingly turned into a prison by the Israeli authorities.  These apartheid restrictions show the children of Hebron’s Old City every day that settler lives are worthy of protection and Palestinian lives are disposable.

Check out CPT-Palestine’s school semester report August 2017-January 2018, for more insight into the lives of children in Hebron’s Old City.

Prayer for Peacemakers, 24 January 2017           Palestine

Pray for peace in this land, and for the people subject to violence in its many forms.  Pray for the same peace within those working to make Palestine a better place and within ourselves.

In Palestine, there is an endless cycle of violence since early December when the USA administration declared the undivided city of Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel. Adults and children are arrested or detained and subjected to punishment and torture by the forces of Israeli occupation.  The Israeli military breaks up peaceful demonstrations and protests with teargas, stun grenades, rubber bullets and live ammunition. Schools will soon reopen after the semester break, and children will once again face the fear and humiliation of going through checkpoints to get to school, uncertain whether soldiers will search their bags or close the checkpoints, making them late for classes. Bedouin communities in the South Hebron Hills are facing the demolition of their homes by the Israeli authorities.

We are invited to pray for Peace in this land, and for the people subject to violence in its many forms. We also remember to pray for this same peace within ourselves, keeping in mind what Deng Ming Dao said,

“Only when peace lives within each of us, will it live outside of us. We must be the wombs for a new harmony”

So we pray:

Dear God, we give thanks for places of simplicity and peace. Let us find such a place within ourselves. We give thanks for places of refuge and beauty. Let us find such a place within ourselves. We give thanks for places of nature’s truth and freedom, of joy inspiration and renewal, places where all creatures may find acceptance and belonging. Let us search for these places: in the world, in ourselves and in others. Let us restore them. Let us strengthen and protect them and let us create them.

May we mend this outer world according to the truth of our inner life and may our souls be shaped and nourished by nature’s eternal wisdom. Amen

-Michael Leunig