(l to r): Bobbie Paul, Jane Fonda, Amanda Hendler-Voss, Jo Roberson Edwards, Krista Brewer, Tanya Wallace, Susan Shaer, Sen. Nan Grogan Orrock

Showing her support for the new Faith Seeking Peace curriculum created by WAND, Women’s Action for New Directions, Jane Fonda invited 60 religious, business and political leaders, including Congressman John Lewis, State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, and Chief Justice Carol Hunstein, to her home to discuss the national distribution of the curriculum.

State Senator Nan Grogan Orrock co-sponsored the event with Ms Fonda. Susan Shaer, national executive director of WAND from headquarters in Boston, greeted the guests who were briefed by curriculum author Rev. Amanda Hendler-Voss and WAND national field director Tanya Wallace. Activists Krista Brewer and Bobbie Paul represented the local Atlanta WAND chapter.

Faith Seeking Peace is a program of WAND, Women’s Action for New Directions, a national women’s peace and security organization working to bring issues of nuclear disarmament, war and peace, and federal budget priorities to new audiences including women of faith. “It’s time to bring faith and feminism together with hard issues like war and peace. We have ignored the many whose politics are informed by their faith, and we have left them to the religious right. There is a hunger for this curriculum and WAND has the respect and capability to reach women of faith. All they need is the financial capacity,” Fonda said.

Rev. Hendler-Voss, who began her career with WAND as the coordinator of the Atlanta chapter and received her master of divinity from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, commented, “This study is a breath of fresh air for women who are seeking an opportunity to include their faith in conversations about the war in Iraq and the unseemly tilt toward solving international conflict with militarism. Everywhere we have trained faith leaders to teach this curriculum, they say ‘thank you’.”

“WAND is a secular group that has enormous respect for people of faith and the application of their beliefs to modern public policy issues. We know from experience that there is a longing for progressive religious dialogue about war, peace, and security. This curriculum should be everywhere, and Atlanta philanthropists understand how important it is for our country to include more liberal dialogue amongst the people of many faiths,” commented Susan Shaer, executive director of WAND.

“Jane Fonda is a friend of women everywhere and a tireless supporter of empowering women in many ways. She supports women candidates like me, efforts to keep young women out of poverty, in school, and involved in politics, and she particularly understands the absolute necessity of challenging women of faith to address the issues of war and peace and national security,” said Sen. Nan Grogan Orrock.

Tanya Wallace, national field director of WAND, related stories from trainings that WAND has facilitated in Georgia, Nebraska, Oregon, Michigan, Ohio, and Minnesota. She relayed one story that was particularly powerful, that of a clergywoman from Nebraska whose son is serving in Iraq. Though clergy, this woman explained that she had not been able to grapple with the ethics of the war in Iraq, because all she wanted was her son to come home safely. Now that he is due home soon, she acknowledged that she must begin to explore her understanding of this war. Is it a just war? Is it an unjust war? Her words at the training’s closing ritual were, “Who knows? Maybe I’ll become an activist. Then again, maybe not.”

Regardless of political persuasion or denominational background, those trained to use the Faith Seeking Peace curriculum agree that it succeeds in bringing dialogue about important values issues—such as war and peace, federal budget priorities, terrorism, and nuclear weapons—back into churches. And that’s something that Jane Fonda can support.