I don't have an exact date when the committee was formed, but it was in the late '70s.   It was appointed by the Christian Education Cabinet and my recollection is that Bernard Showalter was very much involved in the decision to create a Peace and Social Concerns committee. Minutes of that Christian Ed. Cabinet are probably in the conference archives.

1)  Members of that first committee included, in addition to me as chair; Shirley Yoder and Marcus Smucker.  Others who have served on the committee in subsequent years include Ken Kauffman, Bill Conwell, Becky Schenck, Don Nisly, Paul Martin, Esther Lanting, Byron Gingrich,  Jeff Hackman (chair for some years), Ed Peachey, John Hess-Yoder, Ruth Nisly, Joy Garber, Lee Lower, John Miller, Lance and Frances Loberg, and Lucy Arredondo.  I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting.

I was chair for many years (probably too many), then followed by Mike Baker and later by Jeff Hackman.  I continued on the committee and served as secretary.  When Mike Baker was conference youth secretary he worked closely with the committee.

Interesting components of those years: 1) close relationship with MCC West Coast.  When they had resource persons on the West Coast, we were able to arrange for such persons to appear in a variety of settings.  For instance, Howard Zehr's visits resulted then in the establishment of VORP work in several counties.

2)  Ruth Buxman who lived in Dallas was on the General Conference Mennonite peace committee which met rarely because of distance.  We co-opted her to meet with our committee. Later Ann Marchand represented that committee in working with us.

3)  New Call to Peacemaking:  Beginning in 1977 We worked closely with Friends, both programed and unprogramed, and the Church of the Brethren in New Call to Peacemaking NW, planning numerous weekend conferences and educational events.  I'm not certain when that committee disbanded.

4)  Inadequate representation from WA and Idaho:  In New Call work we were more successful in that further outreach.  Leonard Nolt from Boise was our Idaho contact person, but rarely met with the committee.  Because most of us lived in the Valley we were able to meet frequently -- at least every two months, and sometimes more often.

5)  Passmore Ministries:  We provided a "board of directors" for Cathy Passmore in her work on abortion.  Cathy did considerable travel throughout the US, with her slide presentation.

6)  Ongoing work had to do with issues of the draft, concern for 3rd world, war taxes, etc.

7)  Guest speakers:  any time I knew of someone with an interesting message coming to Oregon I tried to schedule them.  For instance, we had John Howard Yoder speak several times, as I recall.

Important change:  Originally the Peace and Social Concerns committee, we changed our name to Peace & Justice committee some years ago. My recollection is that happened when there was a denominational study report on Peace and Justice.  I can't find my copy of that but I would guess it was sometime in the late 1990's.