Dear Friends,
Please celebrate with us the news that the Fellowship of Reconciliation's Lucas Johnson has been named International Coordinator of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR)!
 "I am thrilled to work with Lucas Johnson in this new capacity," says Rev. Kristin Stoneking, executive director of the U.S. Fellowship of Reconciliation. "Lucas enthusiastically welcomed me to FOR's staff last August, and we have enjoyed a strong and enriching relationship. As he assumes this important role on behalf of the global movement, we will all tremendously benefit from Lucas' creative, consultative, and grassroots-based leadership. A strong IFOR is essential to the efficacy of our new U.S.-based regional strategy, and I look forward to our full engagement and support of the work of IFOR through Lucas' leadership."
Reverend Lucas Johnson, an ordained Baptist minister, has held several key positions in FOR-USA and IFOR. Prior to joining FOR-USA's staff in late 2012 as regional coordinator/organizer for the U.S. Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, he served on FOR's National Council. Until his appointment as IFOR International Coordinator, Lucas was one of seven elected members of IFOR's International Committee, the executive leadership body for the worldwide FOR network.
 "It has been a privilege these past four years to stand alongside courageous members of the worldwide Fellowship," says Lucas Johnson. "Through this service I have witnessed more intimately the cruel and multilayered violence of war-torn countries, the persistent degradation of our planet, and the unrelenting violence dealt daily in thousands of U.S. cities.
"But I have also witnessed the most beautiful resistance, the most persistent courage, and the most remarkable determination. In my new role as IFOR International Coordinator, it will be an honor to be at the service of those who have been my teachers in faithfulness, in love, and in hope -- from central Africa to central Europe, from the avenidas of Colombia to the streets of the District of Columbia, from the sacred Andes mountains to the holy hills in Palestine/Israel. I remain inspired by so many and I am humbled by this chance to offer my gifts to our collective task of changing the world."
On behalf of IFOR, Lucas warmly invites all FOR members and supporters to join Nobel Peace Laureates and other global peace leaders at IFOR's Centennial celebration this August 1-3 in Konstanz, Germany.
 Himself born in Germany to a U.S. military family that resisted racism and structural oppression within and beyond the armed forces, Lucas Johnson is a student of the U.S. civil rights movement and he continues to be mentored by veterans of the black-led freedom struggle. Recently, the award-winning national radio program On Being featured Lucas alongside civil rights veteran Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons in conversation with host Krista Tippett. [On-demand podcast of "Deromanticizing the Civil Rights Movement and Rediscovering Its Humanity."]
 Another movement elder, Dr. Vincent Harding, writes, "My mind is filled with memories of such FOR stalwarts as Barbara Deming, Martin Luther King, Jr., James Lawson, Glenn Smiley, and Howard Thurman, each of whom I was/am privileged to count as friends and co-workers. From my perspective Lucas shares the extraordinary double-gift of fitting firmly into the company of such a historical 'cloud of witnesses' as I have just named, understanding and embodying many of their best gifts for creative visioning, community-building, and courageous servant-leadership across lines of class, race, religion, and sexual orientation; and at the same moment carrying in his own life the gift of active connections with the younger, diverse generations that FOR now needs and hopes to engage more fully than ever before."
Lucas speaks German, French, and Spanish as well as his native English. Please share your congratulations with Lucas in your native language through FOR's Facebook page!
Photos: (1) Courtesy of Lucas Johnson. (2) In Congo-Brazzaville with members of Mouvement International de Reconciliation-Congo, October 2013. (3) In Guatemala City with Isaac Beachy (left), vice-chair of FOR-USA's National Council, and three members of the Sweden Fellowship of Reconciliation, March 2013. (4) In Washington, D.C. with On Being host Krista Tippett (left) and Gwendolyn Zoharah Zimmons, December 2013.
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