‘Peacemaking In Palestine’ At CWU Fall Gathering

Two members of the Bethel/Danbury unit of Church Women United, Linda Manganaro and Darlene Jackson, both of Newtown, attended the Fall Gathering of the CWU of Connecticut October 19 at the United Congregational Church in Bridgeport.

The Rev Mary Lawrence spoke on “Peacemaking in Palestine.” She is an ordained Methodist minister (elder), who has served churches in Massachusetts for the past 13 years as well as working with the Christian Peacemaker Teams. She was born in England shortly before the outbreak of World War II and came to the United States in 1974. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Boston College, a master’s in pastoral counseling from Emmanuel College, Boston, and a master’s in divinity from the Boston University School of Theology.

 In 1985 her interest in peacemaking took her to the Soviet Union on a Christian Leaders’ delegation with the Bridges for Peace. She has been a participant in various peace groups and peace studies over the last 20 years and has been an Amnesty International Partner of Conscience for the past 18 years.

In 1996, as a recipient of the United Methodist Stowell Scholarship, she made a study tour of the Holy Land. She visited Israel/Palestine again in 1998. In 2000 she traveled to Hebron in the Occupied West Bank as a delegate with Christian peacemaker teams and experienced firsthand the difficulties of living under Israeli military occupation. She completed her training with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in 2001. In June 2001, she was appointed to the peacemaking mission of the United Methodist Church, becoming a member of the Peacemaker Team. Until December 2003, Rev Lawrence spent 15 months working with the CPT in Hebron and surrounding areas in the Occupied West Bank and another 15 months preaching and teaching in the New England area. She returned to Hebron in March of 2004 to continue her work there.

 She brought slides that she used in the afternoon to illustrate the desolation and poverty of the Palestinian people. She illustrated peaceful moves to eradicate some of the terror that exists there — ways of helping people overcome the physical and emotional barriers of living in an occupied country with few civil liberties.

She also spoke with admiration of the spirit of the people of Palestine and also some of the Israelis, who also want peace.

Rev Lawrence and her retired engineer husband now live in Lunenburg, Mass. They have four adult children and two grandsons.  

The dining area was surrounded by displays of the various projects of the Church Women United, an ecumenical movement to encourage peace and justice for the women and children of the world. There were projects for Hurricane Relief, SERV articles from third-world countries for sale, Fellowship of the Least Coin projects, and Church World Service projects.