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CPTnet
2 September 2011
*CPT INTERNATIONAL: Doug Pritchard’s final words as Co-Director*

 /[Note: Effective 1 September 2011 Doug Pritchard stepped down as CPT
Co-Director.  Pritchard became involved with CPT when he attended a 1990 CPT
consultation with the Innu people regarding low level NATO flights over their
traditional lands and joined the CPT Southern Ontario support group for the
Innu.  In 1995, he joined the CPT Steering Committee as a representative of
the Mennonite Church and became CPT Canada Coordinator in 1997.  After
CPT’s first director, Gene Stoltzfus, retired, Pritchard, along with Carol
Rose, became a Co-director of CPT as well as assuming the position of CPT
Iraq Project Support coordinator.  Below is a message he wrote to the wider
CPT organization./]

 Dear friends,

I feel that I was called by God into my work with CPT, and God has often
spoken to me through the voice of Hedy Sawadsky.  So I want to thank her as
a holy provocateur and as a mentor. I was also freed and encouraged by my
wife Jane to pursue this call, despite the risks and my many absences, and I
thank her too.

 In CPT, I learned so much about real history, politics, and culture, and my
place in it.  I have met many courageous and inspiring peacemakers both in
CPT and among our partners, and I have learned much from them about
organizing for justice, peace, and the undoing of oppressions.  In CPT I
have had the opportunity to try to show a different face of Christ than that
claimed by Emperor Constantine and the Crusaders, both ancient and modern.

 There have been difficult times in our work as CPTers and CPT partners have
been beaten, kidnapped, or killed.  The worldwide financial crises in recent
years have limited our resources.  But we have created a more open,
transparent, diverse, professional, and international organization.  We have
learned more about the oppressions of which we are a part and made a stronger
commitment and strategic plans for undoing these oppressions in ourselves, in
our organization, and in the way we work in partnership globally.  The
current CPT-wide re-visioning process is preparing us for the next leap
forward in our work.

 It has been a particular pleasure to share the co-directorship with Carol
Rose.  We both came to it new, with complementary gifts and experiences, and
we have grown into the job together.  Her wisdom, her deep listening, her
passion for undoing oppressions, and her infectious enthusiasm are continuing
blessings for CPT. And now a new Co-Director has answered God’s call to
bring his manifold gifts into CPT. I am confident that with their leadership
and with your support, CPT will thrive and continue to be a part of God’s
desire for peace on earth as it is in heaven. 

 My children have challenged me with their concerns about global climate
change, which is already affecting vulnerable populations and will soon
engulf us all.  So I now want to spend time learning more about this threat
to God’s good creation and to join those working to address this imminent
crisis.  But I will also continue as a CPT reservist.  Blessings on you
all!

 

Doug Pritchard


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CPT's MISSION: What would happen if Christians devoted the same discipline
and sacrifice to nonviolent peacemaking that armies devote to war? Christian
Peacemaker Teams (CPT) seeks to enlist the whole church in organized,
nonviolent alternatives to war and places teams of trained peacemakers in
regions of lethal conflict.

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