Every Church A Peace Church Hires National Director
Released on = December 28, 2006, 7:16 am
Press Release Author = John K. Stoner/Every Church A Peace Church
Industry = Non Profit
Press Release Summary = Every Church A Peace Church, a movement to restore the nonviolent peacemaking of Jesus as the practice of every church, has hired Diane Ford Jones of Cleveland to lead.
Press Release Body = RELEASE DATE: 12/27/06 CONTACT: John K. Stoner 717 859-1958
AKRON, PENNSYLVANIA. The Reverend Diane Ford Jones of Cleveland, Ohio has been named the new National Director of Every Church A Peace Church www.ecapc.org. She replaces John Stoner, cofounder and Coordinator of ECAPC for the past five years, who will continue with the organization in an advisory and support role.
Ford Jones comes to the task with a background in church-based peace and justice advocacy and communications. Since 2002 she has been the Minister for Communication and Education Mission of the United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries, in the national office of the United Church of Christ. Her spiritual pilgrimage includes formative years with the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC, founded by the Rev. Gordon Cosby, and an active life of personal prayer, study and inquiry. Ford Jones holds Masters degrees in Divinity and Journalism from Boston University. She is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.
Ford Jones will lead a strategic planning process, promote conferences in seven regions of the country in 2007, supervise production of a major peace study curriculum for churches, and expand TV and web-based communications.
The program of ECAPC was recently expanded through a major grant from the Shumaker Family Foundation of Lawrence, Kansas . The grant is designed to secure the financial viability of ECAPC through the development of expanded grassroots support.
Ford Jones will promote the National Registry of Peace Churches, a public record of the peacemaking commitment of individuals and congregations. ECAPC is a movement to restore gospel nonviolence as the practice of all churches. Peace churches promote the transformation of individuals and social structures by the power of forgiveness, compassion and love. They embrace the "overcome evil with good" tradition of Jesus and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Commenting on her appointment, Ford Jones says,
"Peace is within our grasp if we dare to seize this moment in history, trust God, and work toward it together. ECAPC has served God faithfully over time by sounding this clarion call. With God's help it will continue to do so until churches around the world welcome the corporate burden and joy of peacemaking in Jesus' name.
I believe the moral core of this nation is poised today on the brink of seeking new ways of peacemaking. There is an undercurrent of yearning for more spiritual approaches to peace. Mindful of this national longing, ECAPC will invite more churches into spiritual partnership. We will keep encouraging them to honor their commitment to Jesus Christ by following boldly in his footsteps as he leads the us all to universal peace with justice."
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