Interfaith Panel on Peacemaking

On Sunday, November 3, the Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Farmington Friends Meeting and the 1816 Farmington Quaker Meetinghouse are cosponsoring an interfaith forum on how the peace positions of the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian faiths are influenced or grounded in their beliefs. Soup, bread and cheese will be served after meeting for worship with the program beginning at 1 pm. The speakers are Tricia Pethic, Curtis Book, and Karen Elam.

Tricia Pethic has an MA in Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations from Hartford Seminary. She served as a prison chaplain to women before moving to her current role in a local organ donation organization where she provides support to organ donor families in hospitals all over the Finger Lakes region. 

Curtis Book is the Mennonite Central Committee East Coast Peace and Justice Coordinator, having served in that position since 2008.  As a Christian, Curtis seeks to connect current peace and justice issues with faith, Anabaptism and service.  Before working with MCC, he worked internationally doing theological education and leadership development with the Brethren in Christ in England, Zimbabwe, Nicaragua and Colombia. Curtis lives with his wife in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They have three grown daughters. 

Karen Elam is the director of the Levine Center to End Hate, an initiative of the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester to unite the diverse communities of greater Rochester in an amplified effort to challenge intolerance through education, dialogue, and action. They partner with local and national organizations to develop programming that explores differences, develops skills for dialogue, and activates cooperative and collaborative responses to hate in all its forms. They are the parent of triplet teenagers.

The forum will be moderated by Trish Eckert.

Trish is presently pastor at Farmington Friends.  Before coming to Farmington, Trish was employed by Earlham Collage in Campus Ministry as a Higher Education Administrator, Student Advisor of Quaker House, Spiritual Counselor for Quaker Fellows Scholarship program, taught Friends Colloquium (Quaker course), and was a liaison for Quaker organizations and institutions.