Senior Josué Coy Dick comes from a family of peacemakers and peacebuilders.
He recently became the third generation in his family to place at the top of a contest that requires researching and then writing and speaking about a contemporary peace topic.
He is the winner of the binational C. Henry Smith Peace Oratorical Contest, held annually on the campuses of Anabaptist colleges in the United States and Canada.
Coy Dick’s grandmother, Kirsten Zerger, Bethel Class of 1973, won the 1973 contest (then called the Intercollegiate Peace Oration Contest, before it was endowed by the family of Mennonite historian C. Henry Smith). Coy Dick’s uncle, Jesse Nathan (Bethel 2005), won in 2005.
At Bethel, the Kansas Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (KIPCOR) organizes the contest, which is administered overall by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).
The first-place winners from each campus presented their speeches (via video) to an international panel of MCC judges. Coy Dick competed against winning orations from Bluffton (Ohio) University, Canadian Mennonite University (Winnipeg, Manitoba), Conrad Grebel University College (Waterloo, Ontario), Goshen (Ind.) College, Hesston (Kan.) College and Tabor College (Hillsboro, Kan.).
Coy Dick’s speech was entitled “Jesus and the Wounded.” The intent, he stated, was “to make the case that confronting and healing the wounds of trauma is inseparable from and essential to Christian peacebuilding.”
He continued, “Political and systemic change are essential for peacebuilding. They are necessary for interrupting and preventing violence, and even facilitating recovery.
“Alone, however, they cannot take us to shalom. Political change does not address the spiritual needs of any of us.”
Coy Dick goes on to look at a story about Jesus in the biblical book of Luke (18:35-43), in which Jesus heals a man of blindness, through the lenses of Black, womanist and liberation theologies, citing authors such as Howard Thurman, James Cone, Shawn Copeland and Gustavo Gutierrez.
“If we seek to follow Jesus,” Coy Dick concludes, “we should go where he went – among the wounded and marginalized – listening, as he did, to their stories and affirming, as he did, the power of redemption and liberation contained within them.”
Coy Dick will receive a $500 cash award and a $500 scholarship to attend a peace conference of his choice.
He is a fourth-year student from North Newton, majoring in music performance (violin), peace, justice and conflict studies, and social work.
The second-place speech was by Micah Peters Unrau from CMU, while third place went to Kalkidan Ararso of Conrad Grebel.
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Bethel was the only Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center, in 2021. For more information, see www.bethelks.edu
