Living Peace Church of the Brethren- Peace Conference Speakers


Peace Conference
Peace Conference Speakers

Conference Speaker John-Michael Pickens

John-Michael Pickens is currently a B.V.S. volunteer working with On Earth Peace in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He will be the Peace retreat coordinator for On Earth Peace for the upcoming year. He was previously on the Youth Peace Travel Team during the summer of 08 and recently graduated from Messiah College with a degree in theology and peace and conflict studies.

John-Michael now calls Pennsylvania home, but he spent the first ten years of his life in Ivory Coast and Kenya and then moved to Kentucky and lived there for the next nine years. His upbringing in Kenya continues to shape how he looks at the world and what peacemaking looks like on a global scale. While in college, John-Michael also studied abroad in Thailand for a semester where he studied the Thai culture and language and he also taught English to Buddhist monks while interning at a Buddhist University.

Mechanicsburg Church of the Brethren is John-Michael’s home church where he has sung in the choir and has also been a Sunday school teacher.

Conference Speakers

John-Michael Pickens		Rick Polhamus
His Audio Comments		His Audio Comments

Rev. Lucinda Douglas		Marge Smalley
Douglas is pastor of the Living Peace Church of the Brethren.		Marge is moderator of the Northern Plains District Church of the Brethren.
Her Audio Comments		Her Audio Comments

Peace Conference Speaker Background

The two session Peace Conference Friday night, October 16 and all day Saturday, October 17 will be led by John-Michael Pickens and Rick Polhamus. Click on each picture to read their background.

(712) 252-9630

1319 West 5th Street

Sioux City, Iowa

Conference Speaker Rick Polhamus

Rick Polhamus is a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) and has worked in the Middle East over much of the past 9 years. He has training and experience in violence reduction, conflict resolution and transformation, negotiation, and mediation.

Polhamus has lived and worked in many places with CPT including extended stays in South Dakota, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Palestine/Israel, and Iraq. He has served on CPT's steering committee and has been the CPT representative to the World Council of Churches. He coordinated CPT-Iraq's "Adopt-A-Detainee' campaign dealing with abuses of Iraqi detainees. He has also worked with CPT's "Violence Is Not Child's Play" campaign and participated in many other CPT activities. In addition to being part of CPT in Palestine/Israel, he has led many international delegations that were exploring the issues of the conflict there.

When home in the U.S., he is often traveling to speak at conferences, universities, churches, synagogues and mosques about his experiences in addition to topics such as: Theology of Nonviolence and Peacemaking; Living in a Global Community; Humor in Peacemaking; Living a Theology of Love; Conflict Transformation and Resolution, Undoing Racism.

In his home community, he is church board chair of the Pleasant Hill (Ohio) Church of the Brethren and also serves as a deacon and youth leader. He has served as witness commission chair, Annual Conference delegate and in many other capacities.

He also works for the Church of the Brethren on a national level as a member of the Youth Peace Retreat Leadership Team of On Earth Peace and leads conflict transformation trainings and mediates congregational conflict for the Ministry of Reconciliation. He has represented CPT at many Church of the Brethren events including leading several insight sessions and being a featured speaker at their Annual Conference. He has also worked ecumenically with many other denominations and has led interfaith dialogues. He has participated in many Disaster Response projects and worked on Habitat For Humanity homes.

While working for peace and justice and doing community service have always been an important part of Polhamus’ life, he has also earned income training and racing harness horses; as a cabinet builder, and as a general rehabilitation practitioner in a traumatic brain injury unit.

He is 55 years old but has been known to read at a 59 year old level.

Rick lives with his wife, Margie, on a small farm in Miami County, Ohio.