IPWG Mission
The Interfaith Peace Working Group (IPWG) is made up of advocates from communities of faith and conscience committed to the struggle for justice, peace and the care of creation.
The specific purposes of the IPWG are to:
Educate the public about the theory and practice of nonviolence and advocate for its use in the struggle for peace, justice and the care of creation.
Work for the demilitarization of our society by educating people about the negative effects of spending more than half of the nation’s discretionary funds on the military and advocating that a significant percentage of these military expenditures be used instead to fund projects addressing urgent human and environmental needs.
IPWG works in coalition with other groups on peace, justice and environmental issues, all of which we understand to be interrelated.
IPWG History
The Interfaith Peace Working Group (IPWG) was founded in 2017 by a small group of people from several different faith traditions and communities of conscience who cared deeply about peace at home and in the world. They realized that many churches had been addressing racism, economic injustice and environmental issues. But few were focusing on the theory and practice of nonviolence as practiced by Gandhi and MLK Jr. and the effectiveness of nonviolent campaigns in promoting human rights, democracy, social and economic equality and protection of the environment around the world.
A related concern of IPWG was that few faith communities were addressing the increasing militarization of U.S. society. Massive defense spending on military equipment deployed by local police departments, the deployment of military forces on the U.S. border with Mexico, the maintenance of 800 U.S. military installations around the world, new nuclear and other weapon systems and the funding of armed conflicts all over the world has been a threat to world peace. It has also deprived the U.S. of the resources needed to address urgent human and environmental needs at home.
Our Team
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Jerry Folk
Executive Committee President
Jerry Folk is a retired Lutheran clergyman. He has taught theology and peace studies courses in colleges and seminaries in several states and is the author of three books, including Doing Theology, Doing Justice (1991).
Paula Rogge
Executive Committee Secretary
Paula Rogge is a family physician, a member of Friends Meeting of Madison and a member of the Steering Committee of Physicians for Social Responsibility–WI. She has been a long-time war tax resister, redirecting war taxes to organizations that meet basic human needs and work for non-violent social change.
Jane Kavaloski
Executive Committee Vice President
Jane Kavaloski has been involved in peace and justice issues for over 50 years. She was a co-director, with her deceased husband Vincent, of the Ecumenical Partnership for Peace and Justice for the Wisconsin Council of Churches. She studied and experienced nonviolent resistance in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Central America. In addition, she developed peace and justice educational programs for the Madison Metropolitan School District.
Dennis Collier
Executive Committee Treasurer
Dennis Collier, a member of Pax Christi Madison, is a retired fiscal
policy analyst and former newspaper reporter and editor. He has also been active in Call To Action - Madison Area, Dane County United and the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. He has degrees in journalism and English, public policy and administration, and religious studies.
TEAM MEMBERS
Tracy Abler
Tracy Abler is the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Coordinator for the Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes (CSA) in Fond du Lac, WI. She is also an Associate of the community. Tracy’s home church is Pilgrim United Church of Christ. She is an active member of groups in her local community, such as United for Diversity and Ebony Vision. A strength Tracy brings to IPWG is her organizing and collaborative spirit, especially with interfaith groups.
Tom Boswell
Tom Boswell is a long-time community organizer who has worked with many faith-based and other organizations in Wisconsin and Iowa. He is also a freelance journalist, photographer, poet, and peace activist.
Jim Murphy
Jim Murphy is a Catholic priest that has been inspired by the Catholic Worker movement for peace and justice. U.S. nuclear weapons that could annihilate life on earth is first on his list of passions. There is much to do considering the U.S. spends $600 billion on military but affordable health care for all isn’t feasible. Activism includes opposition to military drone training at Volk Field, Camp Douglas, WI, nuclear war coordination at Offutt AFB near Omaha, NE, and militarism at our southern border.
Frederick Trost
Frederick Trost retired, after 20 years, as Conference Minister (President) of the Wisconsin Conference of the United Church of Christ in 2001. Prior to that, he was a parish pastor in Chicago for 19 years, where his congregation was active in the challenges presented by peace-making, social justice, study of the holy scriptures, and faith. He participated in tax resistance during the Vietnam War, and resistance to nuclear weapons, and was arrested in non-violent protests against U.S. foreign policy in South Africa and in the Contra war against Nicaragua. He continues to be a student of the relationship of our words and our deeds.
Steve Watrous
Steve Watrous is president of the United Nations Association—Greater Milwaukee chapter, a member of the Friends Committee on National Legislation Milwaukee advocacy team, and a retired sociology professor. He has been active on: peace issues, intensively during the 1980s regarding Central America; fair trade, including a trip to jail; the environment, attending the COP27 climate change conference in Egypt; and labor issues. Steve is a delegate to the Milwaukee Area Labor Council.
Duane Beachey
Duane Beachey is a retired Mennonite pastor, most recently retired from pastoring two Presbyterian churches in the Appalachian region of Kentucky. He is the author of two books: Faith in a Nuclear Age, Herald press, 1983 and Reading the Bible As If Jesus Mattered, Cascadia Publishing, 2014.
Jim Carpenter
Jim Carpenter is a dedicated peace activist based in Milwaukee, actively involved with Peace Action WI and the End Wars Working Committee of Progressive Democrats of America. A conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, he has long been committed to promoting peace and social justice. Jim retired after a career teaching Ecological Economics.
Pamela Richard
Pamela Richard is currently working as an Office Manager for Peace Action WI, advocating for peace, non-violence, nuclear disarmament, and justice in our community. She is on the board of the United Nations Association of Milwaukee, the Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment, the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, and Welfare Warriors. Pamela is a member of the Milwaukee Veterans for Peace and of the Disarm Committee of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, focused on the abolition of nuclear weapons, the UN Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and passing the "Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act" in congress. She is on the Milwaukee Advocacy Team of the Friend’s Committee on National Legislation, working on repealing the Authorization for Use of Military Force, to return war powers to Congress.
AJ Ward
A Quaker for many decades, Ann’s background includes 30+ years as an Alternatives to Violence facilitator, volunteering in schools, prisons, universities, refugee camps, and many diverse community settings around the world. She is currently Co-Clerk for Friends Peace Teams Europe and Middle East Region. Professionally she was trained as an anthropologist and public health education and conflict specialist. She worked as a cancer researcher/educator with Penn State University in Appalachia, and an emergency and peacebuilding specialist in the Middle East and Afghanistan, where she spent nearly 20 years working with the UN, MCC, Medair, and many local non-profits. Ann recently finished two conflict analysis consultancies in Iraq exploring the effects of historical and current conflicts on community power dynamics, the environment, agricultural livelihoods, and family trauma. She speaks Arabic, and has studied Farsi, Kurdish, Spanish, and French. She currently teaches English for two local Literacy Councils in Wisconsin and works as Executive Director of the Stateline Literacy Council in Beloit.
Jeff Wild
Jeff Wild is a retired Lutheran (ELCA) pastor living in Madison. His calling to engage communities in gun violence is a convergence of factors. Jeff worked summers in a foundry in his hometown, Beaver Dam, during his college years. As a parish pastor, Jeff was deeply impacted by presiding at twelve funerals where suicide, most by firearms, was the cause of death. Jeff embraces the conviction that faith communities have a vital role in discussing social issues and shaping values and ethics through the lens of a biblical and theological engagement.