Our community calls a 6-bedroom house in the neighborhood of West Philadelphia home. Over the 3-year life of Shalom House, the community has included 2 to 6, single, 20 & 30 something-year olds living together at any one time.
Current Community Members:
Mimi Copp
I was born a Hoosier in the state of Indiana, but I primarily grew up in the Church of the Brethren, in southeastern Pennsylvania in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Over the last decade or so, I’ve lived in a Catholic Worker House in Chicago, spent 3 years living life in Nigeria, found my way closer to God by being a part of my church Circle of Hope, and studied in Spain getting my Master’s degree in Peace and Development Studies. All of these things had a part in leading me Shalom House. I have been a part of the community for 3 years now. During this time, I’ve learned a thing or two and I’m really grateful for all the easy and hard lessons this time has provided.
For me, proactive peacemaking has been about being in disturbed waters, going into disturbed waters and sometimes disturbing the waters. In these disturbed places of violence, injustice, conflict, worry, anxiety, abuse, Jesus will meet us. He will be the source of an internal peace that will be there in the midst of the raging waters. This is the inner peace we seek so that we can continue to seek the Shalom of the City. Desiring a peace that is the absence or avoidance of conflict is dangerously close to maintaining a violent status quo and perpetuating complicity and complacency. So we must go into those disturbed waters and Jesus will not let us down. He will meet us in those places, be in those places with us and walk with us through them to another place.
Community has been a dance between many things for me; between solitude and togetherness; between submission and resistance; between the person and the group; and between the seasons of the life and work of the community. I see living in community as one, powerful remedy to the loneliness and disconnectedness that comes along with life in the post-modern times of the individual. Community provides a valuable experience in sorting out, the practice and discipline of making a commitment to other people in times when it feels like commitments are so easy to break. And while this kind of living seems so new to me, I’ve come to learn how ancient of a practice living in Christian community is. There is an immense cloud of witnesses to draw inspiration and practical ideas from.
Emily Kephart
I was born and raised in rural Pennsylvania; I moved to “the city” in June 2006. I’d traveled to and lived in a lot of places, but somehow Center City seemed like the furthest I’d ever been from home. Several years later, and quite unexpectedly, I am happy to call this place home. I drink a lot of coffee, enjoy folk music, like backpacking, and travel.
My decision to join the community at Shalom House came at a time when I was looking for renewed purpose and direction in life. I had finished grad school, worked as a community organizer for a neighborhood non-profit in north Philadelphia, taken some time to work on electoral issues in the fall of 2008, and there I was in what Dr. Seuss calls “the waiting place”. Life experiences and lessons learned have defined the “more” i was looking for.
Through my experiences as a student of social work, a child welfare caseworker, a community organizer, a peace & justice intern, and resident of the world, I have seen the injustices we inflict upon each other, the perpetually imperfect systems we have to address the world’s needs, and the tremendous possibility and potential of people to care for each other.
And then there’s Jesus. My belief that this kind of reconciliation is possible comes from the belief that Christ can, and wants to, make all things new. Circle of Hope has become my family and my community here. I am continually trying to work out my faith and what it means in my life with the folks here. I am learning a lot about what peace is from my relationships and interactions here. I am working to understand what healthy conflict looks like, and why it is necessary for healthy communities.
My understanding of justice, and sometimes peace, has been decidedly secular for much of my life. I am excited to learn what my faith has to say about peace and justice. I am convinced that it is my faith, and understanding of the love God has for us as people, that has informed my views on human rights, justice, and responsibility. I hope to see many of you on that journey.
Elizabeth Wotring
8/16/1985
I’m not a liberal activist (yet). I don’t have a background sprinkled with peace marches, non-violent protests, or recognitions of great events of peace. I consider myself normal. I come from a tight family unit in a small town working hard to make things better for the next generation. I’m like you. I know God has called me to follow Him and I want to take His calling seriously. I was just like you, but now I have made a decision that changes things. I have committed myself to making peace; I am trying to understand what that means and am challenging my indifference.
Why?
For me God is real. I believe he has called us to live in peace with our fellow man. I want to be obedient and live a life of submission to His love. I’m not so idealistic to think that we could transform this world into a utopian Garden of Eden, or even eradicate war or hunger. I know I’m capable of doing a lot of harm and wrong. What if I tried to do good and peaceful things instead?
Former Community Members:
Brian Baughan
Like many others, I have faced two big wake-up calls in recent years: the devastation wreaked by U.S.-led wars and our society’s desensitization to violence. What are compassionate and effective responses to these present crises? We can pray, process the facts, protest negative policies, support positive ones. . . . These are good things, but more seems necessary. I want to be renewed, transformed by the Gospel of Peace. I don’t think I’m alone.
It is a struggle for us to live in a world that seems so inured to violence, destruction, and death. That’s why I look toward community. I’ve picked one integrated with the church to which I belong, Circle of Hope. As a searcher and a convert to nonviolence, Shalom House seems like the right fit.
I have never done anything like this, and so I regularly find myself asking, What are we doing, exactly? Uncovering the answers on how to live nonviolently is an ongoing—often frustrating—process. It’s great we have a loyal guidance team, a responsive church community, and dedicated partners.
I wish many things for Philadelphia: fewer handguns, prison cells, abandoned buildings, and casino plans; more green-powered buildings, urban farms, mediation centers, and pretzel factories.
Tandi Book
My name says a lot about my history. Tandi means love in Ndebele, a dialect of Zulu. My parents were missionaries and I was born in Zimbabwe, where they worked with the Ndebele people. They wanted to give me a name that was common in my place of birth and I am grateful that they did. My cross-cultural upbringing has shaped me immensely and I am glad to have a tangible marker, like my name, that points to my background. Aside from Zimbabwe, I lived in Nicaragua and was raised primarily in Colombia.
Growing up abroad has made me who I am, complete with cultural and identity issues that I will continue to work through. I have been fortunate to grow up oblivious to the many stereotypes about ‘other’ people that permeate U.S. culture, but North America’s role in the countries I have lived in has always been evident to me. I was also raised in the Brethren in Christ tradition, and pacifism and social justice were modeled by my parents since I was little. As I matured and reflected on my life experiences and the beliefs of my Anabaptist ancestors, respect for life and promoting peace became an intricate part of my identity and passion.
Some steps on my peace journey have been: volunteering in Washington, D.C., exposing privileged people to the reality of life for underprivileged people; helping to strengthen the literacy skills of children in North Philadelphia; and working with war refugees at Jubilee Partners, an intentional Christian community. Shalom House seemed like an appropriate next step to further align my life with my values. A few of my peacemaking interests are in the areas of food and simple living and their relation to justice, international peacemaking efforts, and refugee-related work.
Adam Malliet
In the lead up to the Iraq War things stopped making sense. I grew up in an evangelical conservative church, and while I appreciate the foundation of faith I received, some important teachings of Jesus were left unaddressed. I asked myself how we could participate in war if Jesus asked us to love our enemies and to do good to those who harm us.
Without a community to encourage me in this direction and with little understanding of the rich history of non-violent peacemaking that exists in the church, I decided that if my enemies wanted to kill me, my faith required me to let them. I felt very alone. I believe now that this was the Holy Spirit leading me; which isn’t easy for me to say because the mystery of the Holy Spirit is so overwhelming to me that I am often uncomfortable invoking that language.
I began to fill in the “blanks” with the help of a few friends and by studying the prophetic theology of Richard Hays and Stanley Hauerwas. I also started attending (quite accidentally?) Circle of Hope where I was surrounded by a community of believers who connected me to the Anabaptist tradition of nonviolent peacemaking and created a safe place for me to explore and deepen my faith. Shalom House presented itself as a very incarnational way to begin living out what I had learned, and so I put one foot in front of the other, trusting God’s promises. Blessed are the peacemakers.
Brian Shingledecker
I spent my childhood in Nairobi, Kenya. Later, during high school, my family moved to Michigan. Since, I’ve attended college in Indiana, worked with foster kids in Guatemala, and assisted in Katrina recovery in Mississippi. A year and a half ago, I moved to Philadelphia and, soon after, I found Circle of Hope and first heard about the vision of Shalom House.? My journey as a peacemaker started at an early age. I grew up in a family that followed Jesus and I took his teachings to heart from the beginning. During my time in Nairobi, I remember folks dancing in the streets, celebrating the election of Nelson Mandela as president of S. Africa and the triumph over apartheid; my first exposure to nonviolent resistance. This early impression is one of several that led to a conviction to live out the Gospel of Peace.
When I moved to Philadelphia, I was already doing some work on my own. Still, something was missing. I realized that without the support of others, it would be difficult to continue deepening this sense of calling. The opportunity came at the perfect time and I have enjoyed the challenges of forming our community and beginning to discern the practicalities of our mission.