Steps toward a more peaceful year

What are your hopes for peace in 2017? Are they for a specific issue, country, or group of people? Most of us have certain "hot buttons" that drive us to do more and work harder. I have ideas on what peace topics perhaps should take priority over others, and so do you. But after a […]

Peace Circles seminar encourages active peacemaking

PJSN is excited to partner with Jane Roeschly of Normal Mennonite Church to offer Peace Circles. Peace Circles are a 6-week experience for groups of 6–10 designed to empower participants for acts of peacemaking in their hearts, homes, community and the world while being supported with prayer and spiritual community. This is a new way […]

PJSN vision

The vision of the Peace and Justice Support Network (PJSN) is to keep peace and justice central to the mission of the church in the world. PJSN was created during the spring of 2002. This inclusive group is open to anyone who wants to support in a special way Mennonite Church USA’s work of peace and […]

Peace Circles—seminar overview

Peace Circles are a 6-week experience for groups of 6–10 designed to empower participants for acts of peacemaking in their hearts, homes, community and the world while being supported with prayer and spiritual community. Peace Circles works to empower active peacemakers through congregational resources, and small group sessions. Congregational Experience Hosted 6-week circles; could be monthly […]

White Awake

Daniel Hill will never forget the day he heard these words:"Daniel, you may be white, but don’t let that lull you into thinking you have no culture. White culture is very real. In fact, when white culture comes in contact with other cultures, it almost always wins. So it would be a really good idea […]

Centering Prayer: Be still and know that I am God

Rooted in the prayer tradition of the Psalms where we are reminded, “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10), centering prayer is a simple, wordless way of praying that makes space for simply being with God and becoming more deeply aware of God’s presence.  Just as two people who are truly close […]

Extending hospitality to refugees

​The Bible is an account of God’s project in history. Embedded in the text are human sagas filled with despair, courage, desperation, fear, failure and frailty. In and through it all, the divine intent is to uncover the true nature of God and to give us a glimpse of the purposes of God. The overarching […]

Caring for those who couldn’t escape

By Kelsey Hochstetler Many of the people who have stayed behind in Ukraine’s militarized areas are those who cannot run away: the elderly, children, and people with disabilities.  "Certain pastors and their families have made the conscious (and potentially dangerous) decision to remain in the region to serve," said Mary Raber, a worker with Mennonite […]

Returning to our roots

God at work in spite of the Doctrine of Discovery November is mission month. Help us celebrate what God is doing in the world and how God calls us to share the good news with others. Here are some tools to plan a Mission Sunday celebration. We hope you’ll find them helpful.  What is the […]

Student aid for nonregistrants

​This special non-budget fund was established in 1983. The purpose is to help replace potential government grants and loans lost by students who for reasons of Christian conscience choose not to register with the U.S. Selective Service System.

Be still and know that I am God

There’s always more to do—another committee to serve on, another book to read, another project to complete. Jesus calls us to follow Him on an active, vigorous journey.  But what if in the midst of our activity, we miss a critical part of following Jesus? What if in our eagerness to serve, we neglect the things […]

Harvesting peace in Burkina Faso

​By Lynda Hollinger-Janzen When they planted last year’s crop, Mennonites in Burkina Faso didn’t know the crop would be peace. During planting season in June 2015, members of the Mennonite Church in Sidi, Burkina Faso, discerned that God was calling them to renounce the annual sacrifices to the ancestors that are believed to ensure a […]