"Peace rooted in justice" Celebrating 40 years of commitment and growth.
We gather in 2024 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of BPFNA-Baptists for Peace. For four decades, we have witnessed how our roots have grown and strengthened, establishing a solid trunk that sustains our commitment to building peace rooted in justice anywhere in the world or on our Continent. In the story of the parable of the Sower in Mark 4:1-9, we find a source of inspiration to continue our work for peace with renewed vigor and dedication.
"Peace Rooted in Justice," inspired by the parable of the sower in Mark 4:1-9, invites us to a deep reflection on the essential connection between peace, justice and care for our environment, fundamental pillars in our effort to achieve reconciliation and harmony. Through this parable, Jesus teaches us how the act of sowing resembles sharing the message of the kingdom of God, where the sower symbolizes those committed to spreading the Good News and working to establish peace and justice in our society, our world. The seeds, which have different fates depending on where they fall, represent the variety of human responses and the diverse social circumstances we face.
During this week, we will take a journey through our history, examining the challenges that we as BPFNA have overcome and that have marked our path to the present. However, our gaze will not stop at the past; we will also analyze the current context, equipping us with essential tools that strengthen our roots and solidify our trunk, allowing us to move firmly into the future.
Evening Preachers
Meet our Summer Camp preaching leaders.
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Nancy Hastings Sehested is a retired pastor and prison chaplain. Ordained in 1981, she pastored churches in Atlanta, Memphis and Asheville. She served as a state prison chaplain in North Carolina in high-security prisons for men for over a decade. She is a graduate of City University of New York and Union Theological Seminary in New York City. She is married to Ken. They have two daughters, four grandchildren and one friendly mutt.
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Rev. LeDayne McLeese Polaski has been the Executive Director of MeckMIN (Mecklenburg County's Metropolitan Interfaith Network) since October 2019. She previously served on the staff of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America ~ Bautistas por la Paz for 21 years, ending as Executive Director, and she began her career as the Minister of Youth at Myers Park Baptist Church.
LeDayne and her husband Tom are active members of Park Road Baptist Church. Their daughter Kate is a recent graduate of Meredith College and is teaching high school in Wake County, NC. LeDayne loves “being outside and moving” so she loves walking, hiking, swimming, kayaking and more. She’s an avid reader, a crossword enthusiast, a podcast addict and an obsessive fan of Jeopardy.
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Javier Ulloa Castellanos is a pastor with an uninterrupted ministerial career in various churches in Mexico, including the founding and continued leadership of Shalom Baptist Church in Mexico City. For 30 years he served as General Director and professor of the Baptist Seminary of Mexico. He has collaborated as a teacher in multiple theological institutions and in universities as a professor of philosophy. His commitment to peace and human rights has led him to participate in various national and international movements and organizations committed to peace building and conflict transformation. He has a solid academic and pastoral background.
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Rev. Cliff Matthews is pastor of St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church in Charlotte, NC. He is also a therapist in private practice and in the Mecklenburg County jail. A U.S. Air Force veteran, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, FL, and the Master of Divinity degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. Cliff did additional studies at the McColl School of Business, Charlotte, NC; the Gardner Webb Divinity School, Boiling Springs, NC; and the Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, MA.
Plenary Sessions
The purpose of these plenary sessions is to offer participants an intimate and enriching view of the experiences, challenges and successes of BPFNA (Bautistas por la Paz) members over the years of their commitment to the organization. These personal narratives will serve as a source of inspiration, guidance and encouragement to all participants, highlighting the relevance of an ongoing commitment to building peace and justice. However, we will not limit ourselves to recalling the past; we will also explore the current context we are living, and equip ourselves with the tools to continue transforming our surroundings into spaces of peace with justice for everybody.
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The Reverend Allison J. Tanner, Ph.D., is a pastor, educator and organizer working for justice and healing in her community. She works for the American Friends Service Committee as the National Organizer of the Apartheid-Free Communities initiative, as the Pastor of Public Witness at BPFNA partner congregation Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church in Oakland, California, and she serves as the Alliance of Baptist’s Palestine Advocacy Representative.
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Ken Sehested is the founding director of the BPFNA, opening its first office in September 1984. He later was the founding co-pastor of Circle of Mercy Congregation in Asheville, NC. He is the author of several books, most recently "In the Land of the Willing: Litanies, Prayers, Poems, and Benedictions." He continues writing at prayerandpolitiks.org.
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Rev. Ray Schellinger is a Global Servant with International Ministries of the American Baptist Churches, serving now as the Global Consultant for Refugees, Immigrants and Displaced people. In that role he coordinates with partner organizations and IM colleagues around the world to provide shelter, trauma care, legal support and other resources for some of our world's most marginalized people. After many years outside the US, he and Adalia are now adapting to life in Norristown, PA. Their proudest contributions to this world are their two adult children, Michelle and Melissa, who are both, in their own unique ways, investing their whole hearts into bringing healing and restoration to their fellow human beings and to the planet we all share.
Our Artwork
IThe artwork developed for the BPFNA-Bautistas por la Paz Summer Conference 2024 is inspired by its identity represented in a living heart, rooted in justice, based on the parable of the sower narrated in Mark 4:1-9, intrinsically connecting peace, justice and care for creation, central aspects in the work of peacemaking and reconciliation. The heart is composed of seeds in movement, branches, leaves and flowers of diverse colors that have expanded around the world and beyond borders, where the seeds of love, compassion and solidarity sown 40 years ago find a favorable environment to flourish and bear fruits of reconciliation and transformation.
Made by Gustavo Casadiego, from Barranquilla, Colombia.
VOLUNTEERS SUMMER CONFERENCE 2024
Join the volunteer team at the BPFNA-Baptists for Peace 2024 Summer Conference! We are looking for people to attend and care for infants during the evening worship services and also people to volunteer as interpreters or translators during the small group workshops. Make a difference and be part of this experience of peace and community! Contact us for more details.
WORKSHOPS
We're looking for workshop proposals. Join us in equipping peacemakers to seek peace rooted in justice. Share your expertise and stories of how you're making peace in your community.
Day pass
$30.00 USD (Program, Lunch & Dinner for the day)
Week pass
$120.00 USD (Program, Lunch & Dinner - from Monday evening to Friday night)
Night Program (Evening worship)
$10.00 USD
(We are offering Free registration for local people from this counties, but if you are able to pay your registration fee to support others to come, you are welcome to do it)
Day Pass / Week pass for local people (Madison & Buncombe County)
We also invite you to become a 40th Anniversary Conference sponsoring partner. Conference sponsors will help make sure our conference is a success. Associated recognition spreads the word about the work you are doing, connecting you with peacemakers around the world. If you are interested in sponsoring this year's Peace Camp, Peace Rooted in Justice, please email Erica Saunders at erica@bpfna.org
* Costs to the left of the slash represent prices for organizations & individuals in the United States and Canada. Costs to the right represent prices for those in Latin America.
SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Location
Mars Hill University
100 Athletic St
Mars Hill, NC 28754
Mars Hill University is located in one of the most beautiful regions of the Eastern United States, the mountains of Western North Carolina. The town of Mars Hill, which derives its name from the university, has a population of about 2,200. It is approximately 20 minutes north of Asheville, NC and approximately 45 minutes southwest of Johnson City, TN.