Spirit in Action

5 students from Scattergood Friends School are headed down the Mississippi for Paddle for the Planet , a 1-month educational journey of environmental discovery. Colby, Sophia, Sam, Jamiah & Mary have studied renewable energy, river fish, the Gulf's dead zone, phenology & useful plants in preparation.

Jonathan Chamberlain is the author of a powerful and informative critique of cancer cures, orthodox and alternative. Dispassionate and rigorous, he exposes the facts about an ineffectual system and offers great hope for our health, both curative and preventative.

Dr. Ken Stone of Chicago Theological Seminary leads workshops on Eco-Justice & The Hebrew Bible and he's written and edited several books including Practicing Safer Texts: Food, Sex and Bible in Queer Perspective . His analysis is spiritual fuel for lives of justice.  

Garrett Fitzgerald is one of the anarchist & anti-authoritarian RNC 8, on trial for activities leading up to protests in the Twin Cities of Minnesota during the 2008 Republican National Convention. John Bachman was a legal observer at the demonstrations and is 1 of the 11 lawyers for the defense of the RNC 8.

John McCutcheon has a long history as a dedicated musician with a powerful social conscience. Unions, the environment, war, Central America, national unity - these and many more concerns are woven into his music.

Andy Murray was a founder of the Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies of Juniata College in Pennsylvania. He's also ordained in the Church of the Brethren and he’s a singer/songwriter. He'll likely change your conceptions of what Peace Studies is and what best supports such work.

Melanie G. Snyder is author of Grace Goes To Prison which tells the story of Grace Marie Hamilton's growing and deepening work in Pennsylvania prisons, covering a wide variety of initiatives and programs aimed at reforming, improving and humanizing the lives of prisoners. Melanie also interacts with the legal system in her work as a restorative justice mediator.

A brief visit with Michael L. Robins, author of Awakening: 13 Steps to Love, Freedom, and Power, entered in the Next Top Spiritual Author Contest, and with Jon Nelson, author of Quetico: Near to Nature's Heart about Quetico Provincial Park.

Father Ismael (Melo) Moreno, Jesuit priest & director of Radio Progreso, brings news of Honduras since the coup and Atty JE McNeil talks about CO's like Dr. Timothy Watson, the Military and the Center on Conscience & War.

Kim Denmark has been walking across America for 68 months now, witnessing for the homeless, the poor and for God, ever since being called from her deathbed by God. She's an inspiring person on an amazing journey.

Renee Wurzer is a leading force behind WhisperedHopes.org, a group whose mission is to extend friendship and acceptance to women ostracized by their work in strip clubs. The approach is directly in the path of Jesus who provided welcome to prostitutes, tax collectors and others reviled by society.

Michele (C.M.) Harris has written a probing and powerful novel involving issues of sexual identity, pacifism and toxicity in the environment over the past 100 years. With multiple protagonists facing a world that is judgmental to gay/lesbian/trans/pacifist people, Michele takes us for a walk in the shoes of the "other", helping us to understand the issues from many directions.

Alaine is an acupuncturist, a Quaker and a peaceworker who has found her "divine enough". Through Crossings Healingworks she does healing work with soldiers and their healers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and a Veterans Administration Hospital in her area.

A visit with 3 folks with the ENPH program - Environmental Public Health - at UW-EC, a training ground for professionals working with the intersection of public health and the environment. Crispin Pierce is the director of the program and Caleb Johnson and Patrick Bloecher are seniors in the program. At the same time they do the public work with ENPH, they are transformed personally by the experie...

David Abazs is a moving force behind Paddle for the Planet, a 500-mile canoe trip from the headwaters of the Mississippi River to the Twin Cities where it concludes with River Rally between St Cloud and St Paul, MN, May 20-23, 2010 when everyone is invited to join in.

Steve Chase originated and serves now as the director of the Environmental Advocacy and Organizing Program in the Dept of Environmental Studies of Antioch University New England, training future generations of change-makers of all sorts. Steve's early inspiration was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, but a transforming moment is when he got kicked out his Boy Scout troop and welcomed in by Quakers - at...

John Stedman is a community organizer for JONAH - Joining Our Neighbors Advancing Hope, which is a grandchild of the national organization called Gamaliel, an effort to promote activism from a congregational base. John's journey to activism started with a father working for the UN, life and study in Kenya, alcoholism & fishing, and a daughter who got him back to church.

Charlie King has been performing music since he was four, eventually finding a home with folk music. A lifelong Roman (or roaming) Catholic, he morphed from a Goldwater supporter in 1964 to an anti-war protester by 1967, and he's been an outspoken voice for peace and justice ever since.

David Thomas has a passion for discerning God's will, and he's shared that drive with the Friends Church in Rwanda. Ending up in Rwanda is a result of his practical encounter with discernment as he and his wife, Debby, sought clearness on where they were called in mission - could they really be called to genocide-torn Rwanda?

Elliott Adams, a past president of the Veterans for Peace, was part of a Thanksgiving fast for peace in Syracuse, NY, protesting the USA's use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (aka drones). Elliott was an enthusiastic volunteer during the Vietnam War, so he speaks powerfully of his journey from war and into peace work.

Rita Nakashima Brock is co-author of Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire, tracing how the radically pacifist Christianity of the first centuries was corrupted to support violence and empire.

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, assistant professor of Justice & Peace Studies at the University of St Thomas, spoke at the 2009 Ways of Peace conference sponsored by Friends for a Non-violent World. He's got an insightful and practical theology of transformation for our world which fueled his run for the Democratic nomination for the US Senate.

Eileen Flanagan shares insights & stories of lives heading toward serenity, empowerment and wisdom. A writer, mother and former Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana, Eileen draws on deep spirit and wide ranging vision to help us make decisions leading to a better world.

Anne Morrison Welsh was left with 3 kids when Norman Morrison self-immolated in protest of the Vietnam War on 11/2/1965. Anne has written "Held in the Light: Norman Morrison's Sacrifice for Peace and His Family's Journey of Healing" about her experience. It has included continued peace work, a visit to Vietnam, and continued growth and insight.

Andrew Harvey's latest book is The Hope and it speaks of the need to connect deep spiritual roots to an outward life of witness and action. His call for Sacred Activism draws on his powerful experiences in Buddhist, Hindu, Sufi and Christian spirituality.