Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) will be visiting the Orlando as part of our ongoing Pilgrimage to Peace (P2P) tour from March 6-7th! We’re excited to engage with you about peacebuilding and advocacy related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These conversations are especially relevant in the wake of ongoing violence and instability in the region.
Please find our confirmed public events below. If you are interested in hosting your own event, please reach out to destiny@cmep.org
St. Luke’s United Methodist Church
“Bewilderment to Empowerment: Peacebuilding for the Middle East”
Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon is the executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace and an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). Cannon formerly served as the senior director of Advocacy and Outreach for World Vision U.S. on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC; as a consultant to the Middle East for child advocacy issues for Compassion International in Jerusalem; as the executive pastor of Hillside Covenant Church located in Walnut Creek, California; and as director of development and transformation for extension ministries at Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Illinois. Cannon holds an MDiv from North Park Theological Seminary, an MBA from North Park University’s School of Business and Nonprofit Management, and an MA in bioethics from Trinity International University. She received her first doctorate in American History with a minor in Middle Eastern studies at the University of California (Davis) focusing on the history of the American Protestant church in Israel and Palestine and her second doctorate in Ministry in Spiritual Formation from Northern Theological Seminary. Her work has been highlighted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Chicago Tribune, Christianity Today, Leadership Magazine, The Christian Post, Jerusalem Post, EU Parliament Magazine, Huffington Post, and other international media outlets.
Destiny Magnett is the Programs and Outreach Manager at Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) where she serves as the primary liaison for church partners, leads much of CMEP’s online and in-person programming, and co-leads the regional coordinator program. Destiny holds a Master of Theological Studies Degree and Religion & Public Life Certificate from Harvard Divinity School, where her work focused on decoloniality, religious ethics, peacebuilding, and religion in the public sphere. She also holds a B.A. in Religious Studies from Grinnell College. Prior to joining CMEP, Destiny has experience working at the intersection of religion and peacebuilding in a variety of spheres, including the Office of International Religious Freedom at the U.S. Department of State, Search for Common Ground– Jordan, Harvard’s Office of Religion and Public Life, and on the digital humanities project Mapping Islamophobia. While born and raised in Kansas, she is now based in the Boston area.