Mennonite Central Committee News Service
March 24, 1964
EUROPEAN MENNONITES INVITE ATLANTA PEACE SECTION
REPRESENTATIVE
Akron, Pa. (MCC)--Vincent Harding,
director of the Mennonite Central Committee program in Atlanta,
Georgia is scheduled to be in Europe from June 26 to July 31
at the invitation of the European Mennonites.
Many European Mennonites first heard
Harding at the Seventh Mennonite World Conference in 1962 at
Kitchener, Ontario, when he addressed the assembly on "The
Christian and the Race Question."
At their meeting on December 30,
1963, the Peace Section reviewed the invitation to Harding from
Europe to spend a month speaking at the conference of European
Mennonite mission agencies and at other appointments arranged
by peace committees in Europe. A motion was passed releasing
him from his assignment in the South for the month of July so
that he would be free to accept the European invitation.
His travel costs will be financed
mainly by the European organization sponsoring the visit. Upon
his arrival in Germany, he will immediately go to Prague, Czechoslovakia,
together with several other Mennonites from Europe and America,
to attend the six-day Christian Peace Conference.
At his meetings in congregations in
Holland, Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg,
Harding will discuss the topic, "Experiences in Race Relations:
Is There a Solution?" At the European Mennonites Missions
Committees (EMEK) Conference to be held July 23-26 at Bienenberg,
he will speak on "Peace With God and Man."
His itinerary is as follows: arrive
Frankfurt, June 26; travel to Prague, June 27; attend Prague
Peace Conference, June 28-July 3; travel to Holland, July 4;
Holland, July 5-12; Germany, July 13-19; Switzerland, July 20-22;
EMEK conference at Bienenberg, July 23-26; France. July 26-28;
Belgium, July 29; Luxembourg, July 30; and return to New York,
July 31.
Vincent and Rosemarie Harding have
been stationed in Atlanta, Georgia, since October, 1961, as peace
and service workers. One part of their task has been to develop
a Voluntary Service program in Atlanta and Nashville, Tennessee.
The overarching purpose of their life
in the South has been to search for ways in which the peace witness
might come alive in the midst of Americats racial conflict and
to be ministers of reconciliation at the forefront of a frightening
warfare.
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