(submitted by Mimi Copp)
As I took the stand last May to testify in court as to why I refused to leave a gun store which sold guns to straw purchasers, I said “Good afternoon, your Honor. My name is Miriam Copp. I am a Christian Peacemaker by vocation.” That was the first time I said out loud that I had a vocation and it was that of a peacemaker. Thinking back on that moment, I’m asking myself now, “Did I really say that? And, so matter-of-factly? Where did that clarity come from?”
Vocation is about calling. It’s about your life’s work that God calls you to. It’s your passion. How did I get to the moment on the stand stating that I have a vocation and it is peacemaking? I had to think back and trace the series of experiences that God used to call me to my vocation.
In college I studied to be a high school history teacher and after graduation I joined a volunteer service. First, I lived and worked at Su Casa Catholic Worker House in Chicago. I lived with families from Latin American who had come to the U.S. escaping the aftermath of wars, economic poverty, or political persecution. Then I lived in Nigeria for three years where I was a secondary school teacher. There I learned first-hand the effects of colonization & neocolonialism, the curse of being an oil-rich nation, and the violence committed in the name of Christianity and Islam. I started to understand at an elementary level the many complex factors that lead to conflict and the violence that ensues. I also began to learn of people and groups who recognized the realities of this world but also believed in another way of transforming conflict in their local communities and the world without destroying each other. I felt despair but also saw rays of hope. I felt this desire to be a part of such efforts.
Then on the heels of my return from Nigeria, the U.S. suffered the attacks on September 11, 2001. As my country violently and vengefully responded, I started to act because I so vehemently disagreed. There were specific things to do that addressed the immediate crisis. I began contacting my elected officials. I attended vigils and demonstrations against the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. I wrote my statement of Conscientious Objection to War. The intensity of my reaction to the violent responses pouring out of the U.S. was calling me to pay close attention to God.
I was working full-time at a non-profit in Philadelphia and using my free time to concentrate of these actions. But I was disturbed and restless. I realized that to quiet the storm inside me, I needed to make nonviolent peacemaking the central focus of my life and work. Now, I would describe that realization as part of a larger calling from God and not just something I wanted to do.
So I decided to take my convictions and passion for nonviolent resolution of conflict to a professional level. I went to graduate school to study Peace, Conflict and Development Studies at a University in Spain with students from all over the world. Nearing the end of the program, I emailed by friend, Mary Ward Bucher, back in Philadelphia to ask if anything had become of the Shalom House idea, which had been brewing in Circle of Hope for some years. She wasn’t sure so she emailed Rod White. The next thing I know, I’m reading an email sent to a group of people from Rod saying that, “Mimi’s returning to Philadelphia to help start Shalom House.” I wasn’t there yet, but I was certainly starting to see how God was showing me how I could practically live out my calling. Within a year, I was back in Philly helping to start Shalom House. It would be another 2 years though before I would take the stand and say, “I’m a Christian peacemaker by vocation.”
This is a little of my story of vocation. Others will be telling their stories on Monday at the Shalom House festival. Please come and hear! Click here for our facebook invite and details about the event!
