Really Mr. Obama? Rick WARREN? (An Open Letter)

Dear President-Elect Obama,

As a student at Chicago Theological Seminary in Hyde Park, I am deeply saddened by your choice of Rick Warren as part of the Inaugural ceremony. Have you abandoned all you learned in your years in a United Church of Christ congregation?

Warren is an anti-gay pastor who was instrumental in the passage of Proposition 8, and who equated your pro-choice positions with the Holocaust, and gave McCain a significant boost in their appearance at the "faith forum." He may be popular, but popularity does not make right. This seems to be a cheap and tasteless political stunt on the part of the transition team. I am willing to delay my personal political agenda for the purpose of "change," but I won't stand by quietly for any politician -- even Barack Obama-- that scores political points by harming my community.

Le Anne Clausen, Director
Center for Faith and Peacemaking
Co-Founder, GlobalServe Communities
(a 45-member interfaith residential community of volunteer service in Hyde Park and Woodlawn, which welcomes and loves all our LGBTQ members)

===========

Yes, I know. He's just playing the game in order to unite the country. But surely he could have done better on this one. Many thanks to my dear friend Richard Lindsay, who wrote in and encouraged others to write, and provided helpful language which I have adapted and used here.

Now, if you would like to write in to the Transition Team, please visit:

http://change.gov/page/content/contact/.

peace,

Le Anne

Global Wedding Wear Musings...

So, I've made some changes, not too last-minute, though others might think so. For the most part, this planning stuff has been a nice diversion to the rest of life this past semester, and not too stressful in itself.

A dear friend in Afghanistan (and her father a tailor, who is blind) made for me while I was there a beautiful white suit, called a 'Hindustandi' in the local language (Dari, a dialect of Persian). This is because it is based on the two-piece women's dress in 'Hindustan,' or India, but is much looserto suit Afghan cultural norms. The knee-length tunic had light pinstripes, and the loose trousers were solid white. I had a white shawl to match, and I was hoping to honor her gift by using it as my wedding dress.

Unfortunately, it needs more alterations than it can handle. I must confess, as many of you know, that I have an 'American' clothing size, and an 'International' clothing size which is one smaller. I loved my CPT work because I always lost so much weight. Now, for the suit, true to Afghan practicality, it can be altered for pregnancy; but there isn't quite enough seam allowance under the arms to allow for my American graduate student 'expansion'--which is a different kind of proportion change. I really need to get out of school, and probably out of the country, to work this particular twenty off :)

But I digress. Other plans needed to be made. Were we to have gotten married in summer, I also had a white 'hippie' dress from the souk in Jerusalem, and more shawls, and some pretty beaded sandals from Baghdad. These fit fine, but they would be odd enough in January in Iowa. That isn't a deal-breaker either, but my gut isn't going that direction. Jorge does have embroidered shirts from back home that he could wear that would match these as well, though, so....I'm still considering it. And Jorge does prefer to wear a suit, anyway. The cold must be getting to him too.

There is something in me absolutely allergic to the traditional' U.S. white fluffy wedding dresses. Perhaps it is their inability to be used again, at least by the same wearer. Perhaps it is the cost. Perhaps it is the evil undergarments, and that whole industry behind it. Still, my friends have all looked beautiful and I support their right to wear whatever they choose in their weddings. But I knew I wouldn't be wearing one for our ceremony. Jorge hasn't complained, and really has no one in my family, either.

Sarah and I went off to the stores last weekend (after the maniacal mobs had passed) and let ourselves open to creativity. The result? I may actually be wearing black and white, and pants. I found a fun shirt that has little black ribbons crisscrossing it and a sash around the middle; and I have swoopy earrings Kris and Hector brought me from Mexico, and I have the black pants and shoes to go with anyway already. Now that could be fun.

Gee. Look at all this. Since when did I care about clothes? Weddings make people nuts.

Finding a Solution in the Hyphenate-Debate

We've finally figured out what we're going to do about our names after the wedding. We've both lived and worked long enough with our own names that we don't want to lose that part of how people know us. But we also both want to take each others' names. (This might be helpful, too, given how many people I'm still finding that didn't realize we were getting married). And there are other factors, too, like racial justice, that go into names. Jorge, for example, would like an Anglo name, which may help to alleiviate some of the discrimination he faces.

I've come to really like the Salvadorean method of taking a husband's name, which may happen in other countries also. I could be 'Le Anne Clausen de Montes,' which sounds nicer than a simple hyphenated 'Clausen-Montes.' And it allows for Jorge to be a Montes Clausen, with his name first. We haven't figured out the children's names yet, though I think Montes Clausen would work well.

Incidentally, we have worked through our earlier dilemma, that we will probably solve the age difficulty by having our first sooner, and our second later, and foster or adopt any others.This past weekend at the SOA rally and vigil, I heard a lot of beautiful first names, like Dominga and Salvadore'. And something like Susanna Theresa would cover three parental names in one.

So--the search for stable incomes (hopefully continuing meaningful work) proceeds full force for us both; and we'll probably start working on a family as soon as we can afford it.

That's all for now. Back to the books.

A Month of My Life in Facebook: November, 2008

If I can be accused of not writing enough in my blog these days, Facebook is probably to blame.

It is too easy to condense all that is going on in my life to a one-line, hopefully witty, headline.

This could be the ‘CNN-ization’ of our world, in which all we see or expect anymore are the headlines, without time to stop for details. (Of course, for this reason, be grateful I am not on Twitter. That blips by even more quickly. I don’t think I could handle it).

So I thought I’d go back over this month to see if my life could be reasonably constructed from my Facebook updates. Here’s about a month’s worth of posts. You tell me if the pieces come together. Help me fill in the blanks, if you like. I might try doing this every now and then:

(From November 19 backwards to October 17)

LeAnne takes moment to breathe between ordination paperwork and her chapter on 'Sin and Evil'.
LeAnne is finding that watching 'Supernanny' is a curiously good way to learn to interact better with co-op mates.
LeAnne is rockin’ the candidacy paperwork and constructive theology...
LeAnne feels bad she will need to be a workaholic for the next few days...
LeAnne is typing up notes from jail for the next book. Who knew it could take so long?
LeAnne splurged on books at AAR; scrimped on wedding stationery; thought it was a good trade. :)
LeAnne is fighting hard against the instinct to hibernate. Jorge has already succumbed.
LeAnne would like to shave her head again, but the wedding's six weeks away.
LeAnne is prepping CTS photos for the Ministerial Institute brochure
LeAnne is considering quitting any organization that requires more than one three-hour evening meeting per year.
LeAnne is addressing envelopes and realizes how out of date her snail-mail address book is.
LeAnne and Jorge are using Babelfish to make their wedding invitations bilingual/ están utilizando Babelfish para hacer a su invitaciones: http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_txt.
LeAnne is working on (paper) wedding invites and wanting to nap on a gray day.
LeAnne woke up this morning to the kitties fighting, like teenagers, over the litterbox.
LeAnne is planning her literary career and wondering if she should take seriously the advice to get an agent.
LeAnne had a good time at AAR, she forgot to say earlier. Decent presentation, met lots of fun publishers, and temporarily irritated some famous people.
LeAnne feels a little conflicted, but mostly good, about ripping into a rather arrogant self-professed radical um, jerk, today.
LeAnne feels like it's Christmas, Easter, and Halloween combined [November 4].
LeAnne is so beyond happy right now after a contagiously joyful evening in downtown Chicago!
LeAnne is home from one big happy seminary party--and preparing like mad for the AAR (American Academy of Religion) conference!
LeAnne is writing in between cleaning. Or cleaning in between writing...
LeAnne is playing beauty parlor at the co-op. One cat washed and one to go; one fiance shorn, perhaps a little too short...
LeAnne is sad things have been so difficult lately at the GlobalServe Motherhouse. When her friends hurt, she hurts.
LeAnne and Jorge are going to see Archbishop Desmond Tutu tomorrow...soooo....coooool.....
LeAnne is happy it's 'Reading Week,' though more like writing week for her!
LeAnne is astounded at how affectionate the cat has become...Jorge says he's almost jealous...
LeAnne is writing her Ph.D. essays today. Really. Not procrastinating at all in any way I can find...
LeAnne fell down some stairs at school, while carrying three trays of dessert. The desserts all landed upright and didn't spill; and I'm self-medicating :).
(Oct 17)

On Sabbatical

I think it's well past official by now, that I am on a sabbatical of sorts. The Chicago Seminarian newspaper, the SeminaryAction project, and the Interfaith Peace Teams are all on hold for at least a semester. At GlobalServe, we're taking time to get settled--all 45 of us--and continually get to know each other.

Personally, it's been a time of much transition. Jorge and I are merging households to prepare for the marriage, and each weekend we get a little more done on simplifying and reducing our material possessions. We also try to spend 'Preacher's Sabbaths' (Fridays and Mondays) together, since we often work or have other commitments on the weekends. We've also been trying not to schedule meetings before 10am, so that we can spend a little time with each other before the busy days.

I just passed my last written ordination exams, and will turn in my preparatory paperwork for the final ordination interviews with my committee next week. I need to prepare a worship service, sermon, and sermon exegesis; along with an updated statement of faith. I'm less worried about preparing the statement of faith, than the sermon and exegesis. Usually I like to speak to current events, but this is going to be turned in a month ahead of time. But if all goes well, I'll be able to begin searching for calls just before Christmas. I still hope to do new church development, church transformation, or a combined parish/non-profit leadership call.

I turned in my Ph.D. application to CTS, and we'll simply see what happens. I finish my constructive theology in January; I would start the doctorate, if allowed, in February. There's a question as to whether I can start if my oral defense of the theology won't be until March. It's just half an hour I've been told, but some of the faculty could insist I not start until the fall. Hopefully the MA I already have lends weight to my being able to start sooner. I have also thought of going over to CTU, for their Doctor of Ministry in interfaith peacebuilding, and also for spiritual direction. It all depends on which doors open.

As for the writing projects, they continue on. After giving a presentation on the results of the Center for Faith and Peacemaking these past few years at the AAR (American Academy of Religion) conference, I also got the opportunity to meet some new prospective publishers. I will post a list of my projects soon. As one editor said, "well, we know you'll be prolific."

Save the Date for Le Anne and Jorge's Wedding!

Greetings everyone!

Please mark your calendars for the weekend of January 4, 2009 (known in some circles as Epiphany)--when Jorge and Le Anne will celebrate our wedding in Mason City, IA.

If all goes well in the planning, it will be during the regular Sunday service--something that used to be quite common, but is not often seen these days. It is our joy to be surrounded by the congregation and local community as well as our family and friends from places further afield.

We are still figuring out how to do a low-key, non-materialist wedding, but know that no one will have to rent a tux or buy a polyester bridesmaid dress :) We are looking forward to a potluck reception, so that we may include everyone as honored guests and turn no one away.

For those of our friends who are unable to travel to Le Anne's hometown, we will also hold a potluck celebration in Hyde Park, Chicago, over Valentine's Day weekend.

Plenty of preparation remains to be done, but we do hope that you will be able to join us in the celebrations!

peace,

Le Anne and Jorge

September Update

It's been a while since I've written, which always means I've been busy. This time, it's been welcoming in the next batch of new folks to our GlobalServe Interfaith Volunteer Community, which is about to expand to five buildings and fifty people if all goes as it is currently. Thirty are moved in, with another twenty to arrive in the coming month. There will be challenges--there always are--but it's also very exciting.

We're getting an office for the Peace Center, which will be in a little-used downstairs living room in our 'Motherhouse,' the preferred name among the community as a whole for our original building on Harper Avenue in Hyde Park. I'm relieved, since it's not been the easiest for me to have my office in my bedroom; I neither sleep nor work well under that arrangement. And now there's a little space in order to have interns and volunteers.

We've welcomed a cat, and may have more soon. She's adept at hiding, and we only really know she's still here by her litterbox and food plate. But on the day we sat in the back stairwell for twenty minutes, I speaking softly and scratching behind her ears, I did even finally get a purr from her. So gratifying it was!

I've become a foundress, and I'm having trouble with the term, just like I chafe at the term 'Executive Director' or even 'boss.' I don't like to be in charge; I prefer to support people in being the good that they hope to be. And, for example, in a cooperative community you simply can't have one founder; there's only co-founders. But sometimes the terms are passed around. Perhaps I should accept them as compliments, which I understand is their intent. Neither would I want to get too smug.

But, 'foundress.' The Order of St. Elizabeth, for which I sent out an invitation letter about eight weeks ago, has found a recruiter among the Catholic religious orders. I have nearly twenty applications in my box to be answered. I did not know that you had to be under a certain age, out of debt, in very good health, and with healthy parents in order to join many religious orders. Although, I suppose the Peace Corps has most of the same requirements. I think I would be happy with nearly everyone I've been sent. And if their parents are not healthy, why not send them home to care for them a while? We will see. If people want to give their lives in service to others, I think no one should stand in their way.

peace,

Le Anne

Another Unlikely Monastic

My last post was a little bit from my side about making the move from a solo monasticism to becoming a monastic co-journer; by way of getting engaged. Since then, my partner, Jorge, has written the following reflection on his own journey. He has kindly allowed me to share it below:

Dear brothers and sisters, please read the following message that I want to share with all of you:


I was born in a place known as Juayua, that I propounce (JUAJUA), in the little country of El Salvador in Central America. Being from there, of course I love pupusas, chilate, atol shuco, atol de helote, loroco, nisperos, jocotes, pacaya, manzanas pedorras and tenquiques, foods which we have a lot in our country town, which is also a semi-rural coffee plantation area, where I worked as a youth.


I am also a survivor of the Salvadoran Genocide perpetrated in the 1980's. Bishop Oscar Romero, Ita Ford and three other American nuns were martyred there during this time. My interfaith and ecumenical connections helped me to understand more about who I am and what I need to accomplish for life to be more enjoyable and looking for happiness and love. Being part of efforts to humanize myself and this world let me have more passion for hope and to believe in social change, peace, harmony, the need to build common ground and journeys for appreciation and personal care.


Spirituality plays a great role in my life, where I found myself, my inner peace, my weakness and strength. I love Native American culture, music, poetry, drumming, and meditative walks. I believe my interest in learning about other cultures and faith traditions has grown in the past few years, after my graduation from McCormick Theological Seminary and later becoming a Christian minister. Being able to be in touch with people that believe in social change, peacemaking and human rights has helped me to have more sensitivity and understanding of who am I and my personal response to social and worldwide issues. My interest in multicultural efforts to 'cross-culture' myself it is something that I am still learning and I hope myself to strength and develop more and more.


This past Sunday (August 3rd), I went to Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC) with Le Anne Clausen, who is now my fiancee. It was a blessing and powerful experience both of us. To be at TUCC church, gave me a good sense of what church is and means, a powerful journey for God's service and loving Gospel songs of this unique Afro-centric and moreso, an inclusive Christian community on the South Side of Chicago. My presence on this occasion was because I wanted to express my personal solidarity with the TUCC community after they have been overwhelmed from intensive media harassment and other prejudices following Rev. Jeremiah Wright's theological speeches and his prophetic view on race, politics and social disparities. Le Anne is a person who not only has a natural and original smiling face, but her charismatic personality is extremely contagious. As a woman, she is for me not only a great match for a loving relationship but also a perfect complement for practical ministry and community life. We both have a clear vision and focus on worldview issues such as peacemaking, social justice, social change and community life that respect diversity, gender orientation, interfaith relations and inclusiveness. And in addressing the continuing struggles of Central America, Le Anne herself has been part of this journey for social justice and peace.



And for this reason I am glad to officially announce to you this wonderful news.
Rev. Jorge Montes

Surprise? I'm engaged!

My my my my my! It has been an enormously busy spring.

What with bus accidents and jail terms and church conferences and ordination paperwork and life with the Co-op, many of you may not yet even know that I have been seeing someone. Jorge is an old friend from McCormick seminary whom I first met through Christian Peacemaker Teams; we've been friends for about five years, and things began to move in more serious directions in late spring/early summer.

He is a pastor in the Church of the Brethren and in the midst of a transfer to the United Church of Christ, where he consults on Latina/o church development. He also serves as a chaplain at University of Chicago hospitals, and is a fellow activist, particularly around the SOA, torture, HIV/AIDS, and developing urban bike trails. We happened to both serve as interns at United Church of Hyde Park, but during different years. He lives in the second house of our GlobalServe Co-op.

You might say that we realized, having both committed our lives to a ministry of peacemaking, that we would be good co-journers on that path. A trip home to introduce him to the family went extraordinarily well--even though this included him sharing a bunk with our loudest-snoring relative, being jumped on by the family pets, and being surrounded by several young (and occasionally screaming :) children. Let alone several days' scrutiny by all my parents and siblings and current in-laws! But, it did go well. My mom said last night, "Well, I thought he was a good fit for you, but I didn't want to meddle," and curiously enough, "now I don't have to worry about you anymore, since there will be someone else to look out for you in the world."

Or as my little niece Gracie said last night on getting the news, "Whoo! Yeah! Yes!"

But, I still have a mountain of ordination paperwork and an interfaith presentation and a half-dozen folks moving into the Co-op tomorrow, so I better send this on to you all. We're looking at perhaps sometime next summer, after I complete said ordination work and finish my M.Div. and he completes some additional schooling planned for this year.

peace,

Le Anne

Introducing the New Cornerstones Project: healing from ordination discrimination/rejection--please share

Greetings friends,

 

I would like to introduce you to a new initiative of the Center for Faith and Peacemaking, the New Cornerstones Project.  Our title refers to the Biblical passage, "the stone which the builders once rejected, has now become the cornerstone" (originally in Ps. 118, and repeated frequently in the New Testament).  New Cornerstones is an ecumenical effort to identify persons who have been denied ordination in their denominations due to age, gender, orientation, race, disability, experience of being abused/reporting abuse, or activism. 

 

While there are many people who are committed to their current denomination or have sufficient geographical restrictions that they are not able to consider leaving, other people are willing to try another faith community in order to continue discerning their call.  However, transferring affiliations can be a difficult and painful task, and resources to help are not always readily available. 

 

Our program includes the option of a residential 're-discernment' year, where participants may come to live in the GlobalServe Co-op here in Hyde Park, and be connected to spiritual directors, counselors, seminary admissions offices, and a network of other seminary students and alumni who have themselves had to make the difficult decision to change congregations, seminaries, or denominations in order to continue pursuing their call to ordained ministry.  Other resources are available to those who cannot physically re-locate for the residential year, including the safeseminaries.org website.  Additional resources are being developed and will be made available through the New Cornerstones website (currently under construction).  New Cornerstones also offers a testimony collection project, towards hope of future publication and research.

 

While discernment resources will be freely available via web, participants in the residential program will complete an application process including criminal background check to prevent seminarians or clergy who have been removed for abusive acts from returning to ministry.

 

Please help to spread the word wherever it would be helpful.  We will also be continually accepting inquiries from persons willing to serve as volunteers, interns, spiritual directors, pastoral caregivers, discernment partners, mentors, etc.

 

The following is our invitation to future program participants, and can be found on our blog, http://newcornerstones.blogspot.com.

 

Many thanks and peace,

 

Le Anne

 

Are You (still) Called to Ministry?

Are you called to ministry?

Even if others have already said no:

because of your race?
your gender?
your health or disability?
your status as an LGBTQ person?
your age?
your history as an abused child/partner?
your call to less than traditional ministries?

Did you ask too many questions?
Did you think outside the box?
Did you report abuse?

We've heard it all before.
We've heard it all too often.

If you have been rejected for ordained ministry with your church for any of the reasons above, yet still feel the call to ministry strongly, we want to hear from you.

Today's church needs strong, compassionate, visionary leaders to meet the needs of this hurting world. Even broken vessels can become whole, and even wounded leaders can become healers.

If you would like another chance to explore your call to ministry within a supportive discerning community, please contact us. We have resources to help you find a new seminary, candidacy committee, or denomination. We can help you start again, and connect you to spiritual direction and other services to prepare you for the way forward.

Join us. Become a cornerstone.

Call for Expressions of Interest: Ecumenical Women's Religious Order

Greetings to everyone who may receive this letter; and to those who do receive it, please share this with a friend;

 

It has long been on my soul to write this letter, to invite a response from women of all backgrounds who may have discerned a similar call, and to begin to put prayer into action.

 

I am a thirty-year old, female, white, U.S. born, seminary student in process to be ordained as a pastor in the Presbyterian church.  I was raised Lutheran; I have studied among Catholics, Evangelicals, and Unitarians; I have worked alongside Muslims and Jews; I have founded a growing interfaith community of service and peacebuilding among young people in Chicago.  I have sought to dedicate all my life to peacebuilding among different religious expressions and in loving service to my neighbor, even when this work may put me in harm's way.  I have sought to be accountable to communities of faith and peacebuilding; I have sought to listen humbly and carefully for God's leading in my life.

 

Throughout my life, I have also been blessed by the presence, counsel, friendship, and guidance of women monastics, or nuns; these sisters are extraordinary women.  I have been blessed to know many male religious also; but I am myself a woman and feel called foremost to working among women in this task.  Perhaps in the future I could find the assistance from a male who would become my counterpart in such work among men.

 

For most of my life, I too, have felt a strong calling to become a woman monastic.  At the time I started kindergarten, this seemed both unconventional and inappropriate; I was advised that only Catholics had nuns and I was a protestant.  A few years later, I discerned my call to ordained ministry, but the call to monasticism never really went away.  Since then I have met monastics in many religious traditions and have learned much from them.  Several years of my life, I have even remained celibate, in order to devote my full attention to religious study and service.  It is only recently that I have accepted a relationship, and then only one that would permit for the continued growth of the ministries in which I serve now and hope to serve in the future.

 

I know I could 'oblate' to any order, but it doesn't quite seem to be the call. There are orders I would have loved to join as a full sister, but they do not yet accept non-Catholics, and I am called to be Presbyterian. There are orders that would accept me in my own tradition, but they are far away from the places I am so far called to be, set apart from the world and from people. I am called to be with the poor and oppressed. I believe strongly the South Side of Chicago is calling me for at least several more years.

It has occurred to me that I might be 'crazy.' I could be. Protestants especially would think that anyone who chooses chastity or poverty is a little nuts, let alone divine obedience. I have worried myself that it's too self-grandiose to start an order. I do not wish to be a 'rock star' or cult figure. But St. Theresa wasn't a rock star or cult figure; and neither was St. Francis really, nor Catherine MacAuley of the Sisters of Mercy. I asked one sister friend last year how orders were founded, and she said, "Someone got up one day and started them." My friends and classmates have encouraged me to consider doing just that.  But I do not yet know women who would like to join one.

So, in this modern era, using modern means, I extend my invitation to you who are women and who will join me in founding this new religious community.

 

The gifts (charisms) that this community will seek to offer:

 

+We will be open to women, ordained and lay, who seek to join a community of dedicated women, in order to practice and perfect their ministry as called by God;
+We will practice material simplicity, working for our pay, sharing resources as we are able, and seeking to gain no status over others;

+We will dedicate our lives to peacebuilding and nonviolent resistance to violence of all kinds;

+We will uphold and affirm the dignity and humanity of all people;

+We will engage in voluntary service to others, especially the poor and oppressed
+We will practice and perfect our obedience to God and accountability to one another;
+We will offer spiritual support for those who choose to remain single; as well as those who choose to marry; and those who do not yet know to which they are called;
+We will live out a spirit of cooperation and friendship with all other religious orders and groups striving to live out similar values
+We will offer extraordinary welcome to women of all faith traditions who seek to join us in whole or in part, until such time as creating an additional interfaith order may be wise;

+We will develop a daily office and order our lives in a manner inspired by the Rule of St. Benedict;

+We will learn from all that previously-established religious orders have to teach us;
+We will establish a residential 'motherhouse' in Chicago, in the midst of the seminaries, to serve as a place of discernment, formation, rest and renewal; and seek to create communities around the world as our sisters are called to serve.

 

+Until such time as another name might fit better, this community shall be known as the Ecumenical Order of St. Elizabeth (EOSE).  St. Elizabeth demonstrates that women are called from many backgrounds and paths into many forms of service, changing even over one's lifetime.

 

With God's help.

 

peace to you,

 

Le Anne Clausen

 

-------

Le Anne Clausen
Director, Center for Faith and Peacemaking
773-656-4745
leanne@seminaryaction.org
www.seminaryaction.org
young-activist.blogspot.com
picasaweb.google.com/leanneclausen

'Do It Yourself' Diplomacy Heroes

Greetings friends, this is a neat story about 'Do It Yourself' diplomacy heroes, which features the Fellowship of Reconciliation delegations to Iran in which I took part, and has a not too bad picture of myself and some of my traveling companions.  Enjoy!

This article appears in YES! magazine - http://www.yesmagazine.org.

Summer 2008: A Just Foreign Policy Fellowship of Reconciliation Citizen Ambassadors "Our experience of Iranian society, the warm welcome of the people, and the hope for real dialogue, breaks down all the stereotypes that have been promulgated over the last 27 years," says David Robinson, a U.S. "citizen ambassador" to Iran through a series of dialogues organized by the Fellowship of Reconciliation. The ambassadors have met with religious leaders, the media, and ordinary citizens-and, in 2006, Iran's vice-president-to promote dialogue and peace. Pictured is the December 2007 delegation. Fellowship of Reconciliation 5 of 12 Valentines for Liberian Debt New Palestinian Citizen Sweet Mother Tour Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Fellowship of Reconciliation Jehane Noujaim Reality Tours in Venezuela Peace Corps Seed Bankers Base Closure Movements Kumeyaay Nation Students Against Sweatshops Scholar of Peace The DIY Foreign Policy Heroes are part of A Just Foreign Policy, the Summer 2008 issue of YES! Magazine. YES! Magazine encourages you to make free use of this article by taking these easy steps. http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=2667