The "BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS"
AWARD
has been granted to
San Antonio PeaceCENTER
on December 11, 2004



 St. Mary’s - Mennonite Church

This organization was selected for its incredible non-violent witness in the community. One of its first major efforts about ten years ago was arranging a gang summit, a major feat as the city political leaders were very apprehensive. Not only would local gang leaders be invited to the table but also leaders from other states working with gang and ex-gang members. Despite the fears, the summit was held and found successful. Over the succeeding years the homicide rate dropped and key leaders found other ways of achieving recognition and status in their community. Since that first summit the city holds an annual Peace Week each fall about the same time that is filled with a variety of events all over the community.


As the PeaceCENTER began to be noticed in the community, it was not surprising that local institutions wanted to find ways to help their efforts. For example, a proposal to let teens design their own talk show for use in high school classrooms was met with interest and eventually assistance. The local TV station made their studio available for free and the students created three programs: one on racism, one on gender bias that featured an historical account of young women workers who jumped to their deaths when the factory building in which they worked as seamtresses caught fire leaving them without a safe exit, and finally, one program on environmental concerns. These programs eventually
became a video that has been used widely by youth groups in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Other resources, such as one on the violence in the media and a four session adult education resource about Jesus and Nonviolence, have been produced for national distribution.

The PeaceCENTER is the major organizer for the annual Martin Luther King holiday in January, said to be the largest program/march in the country outside of WDC. Although African Americans are a very small minority in this city, it clear the civil rights leader is remembered and respected by Latinos and Whites who show up in major numbers each year for this major observance.

A Peace Café is held at least once a month and sometimes more often; it features local musicians and artists, good tea and sweets, and a place to gather, socialize and enjoy the gifts of local and visiting people.

The PeaceCENTER co-sponsors religious dialogues and educational programs and was part of an interfaith team that built a Habitat for Humanity home in the city. Within the past two years it has gone with members of a Muslim organization to Palestine. There it took part in a major international witness of thousands of people (an event barely covered in the US press) at the Wall that separates Israelis from Palestinians and Palestinians from their own fields, families and places of work.

Nominated by
Jean Martensen. I met the Rev. Ann Helmke, its animating director, at a national peace conference on Global Peace Services at the United Nations in 1994. As Peace Education Director of the ELCA at the time, I have depended on her work for use in the wider church. Ann has since that time become a trusted colleague and friend. If it weren’t for the fact that the PeaceCENTER which is at the heart of her ministy is truly a communal effort (modeled after the community in ACTS which shares all it has and makes a public corporate witness), I would be nominating Ann herself. But she would not wish the award to be given to her if the PeaceCENTER were to be the main instrument for the accomplishments that were cited for the award.