Almost every Saturday during the summer months I walk one block to the farmer’s market at the county courthouse. And every Saturday I walk past four war memorials. One is a small stone monument with the words: Dedicated to All Veterans – Past – Present - Future. Another is a tank in commemoration of the veterans of World War 2 and the Korean Conflict, the third is a 10 foot statue of a Doughboy in honor of World War One veterans. The fourth is the second largest war memorial in Indiana and it dominates the courthouse square. It is a 60 foot monument to those who fought in the Civil War. I see this monument every day from the upstairs window of my home.

James Moorman, a member of the Society of Friends, a single man and a banker, was already into his 60’s when the Civil War began. Like many (but not all) Quakers he was conscientiously opposed to war. Yet he recognized the great value and sacrifice of those who served in the Civil War for the country and for the cause of human liberty and left $2,000 in his will for the erection of this monument. In today’s value, that amounts to about $50,000.

A month ago I had Glenn Lapp and his family on my mind and in my heart. Glenn was a Mennonite Central Committee aid worker who along with 9 other medical and aid workers were killed in Afghanistan by insurgents in August. As I walked by those monuments one Saturday, I couldn’t help but wonder why it is that we don’t have monuments to pacifists or those who give their lives trying to provide humanitarian aid in the midst of war.

Actually, after World War 1, some towns in France did set up pacifist war memorials that depicted orphans pointing to the inscription “cursed be war” or grieving widows with small children. These memorials provoked such anger among veterans in France that soldiers were ordered to turn their heads when they walked by the monuments. I’m sure such a monument in Winchester, Indiana would meet with the same reaction.

James Moorman also gave a corner property, a block from the Civil War monument, to a small group of Quakers. At that time there were 20 plus monthly meetings in Randolph County, but not a meeting in the county seat. In 1873 it was unusual for Quakers to have pastors, but Moorman and other prominent Quakers in the area knew of a couple in their early 40’s who just returned from India. They asked Elkanah and Irena Beard to help start this Quaker meeting in the city of Winchester, a block from the courthouse.

Elkanah and Irena moved into the house where I currently live and for the next three decades heavily influenced Quakers in Randolph County. Elkanah and Irena were good friends of James Moorman and Elkanah officiated his funeral in 1888. I think about Elkanah and Irena a lot. Sometimes I think it is because we sleep and live in their house. In reality, our lives are connected in many ways even though we never heard their names until we came to live in Winchester in 1998. We are co-pastors as they were, we have no children, and they had no children, we were refugee workers as they were, and we both came to Winchester at the same age after living overseas.

Much attention has been given these past weeks to the 9th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I honestly don’t know the most appropriate way to honor those who died, or to keep this event in proper perspective in a world were war, violence, hunger, injustice, and discrimination confront us on a daily basis. I do know I have a choice about how I live my life in the midst of this world of pain and suffering.

Next month there will be a lot of activity around our meetinghouse as the Indiana Historical Bureau installs a Historical Marker in recognition of Randolph County Quakers. It will list the contributions of many Quakers in this county for humanitarian work, temperance work, women’s suffrage, the education of American Indians and blacks, and Quaker work against slavery. These contributions came at a very dark hour in our nation’s history when civil war, violence, hunger, injustice and discrimination were an everyday part of life for the citizens of this country. In the midst of this reality, a group of Quakers arose to do what they could to change the world and to make their relationship with Christ visible.

Elkanah and Irena Beard will not be named on the historical marker in front of the meetinghouse, but their lives were exemplary of the contributions named on the marker. Their conscious objection to war moved them in the middle of a war to the south to feed and care for freed slaves, their concern over prejudice and injustice lead them to start an orphanage, a teachers college for freed slaves, and schools for American Indians. Their love for Christ pushed them to India where they worked to spread the gospel, brought them to Winchester to nurture this monthly meeting, and to preach the gospel all across the United States and England. Their work together as recorded ministers gave credibility and equality to the place of women in ministry. Elkanah and Irena lived with integrity, they believed their relationship with Christ should make a difference in the world and they gave the all of their lives to that purpose.

The marker in front of our meetinghouse is not glamorous or as grand as the war memorials a block away, but in my heart it is a memorial to those who chose to give and live their lives for the purpose of ending war, violence, hunger, injustice, and discrimination. I pray God will empower me to follow in their footsteps and I pray for God to raise up another generation of Quakers to continue this work in our world.