Collection X/004 - Mennonite Central Peace Committee Meeting Minutes

Mennonite Central Peace Committee (MCPC), the forerunner of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Peace Section, was organized on 30 September 1939, to represent the peace committees of seven Mennonite bodies in the United States in preparing for threatening war. Officers were P. C. Hiebert (Mennonite Brethren) chairman, E. L. Harshbarger (General Conference Mennonite) vice-chairman and treasurer, and H. S. Bender (Mennonite Church) secretary. A preliminary organization had already been formed on 10 March 1939, with the same officers. The MCPC adopted a "Plan of Action for Mennonites in Case of War," which outlined a course of united action which was later followed. It also commissioned the MCC to assume the administration of the Civilian Public Service program, which it did on 21 December 1940. On 3 January 1942, as a result of an overture by the MCPC, the MCC created the Peace Section to take over the MCPC functions, and on 13 January 1942, the Peace Section was set up, and the MCPC dissolved.