Brent Maher
Brent first became involved with reconciliation ministry in May 2007 when he attended a seminar in Los Angeles, CA that sought to transform the conflict concerning human sexuality in the Episcopal Church. He participated in a similar seminar in May 2008 dealing with the church’s response to the Middle East conflict. He is anxious to bring the moral vision of faith-based reconciliation to Marion and to college students. He attends Gethsemane Episcopal Church where he serves on the Vestry and conducts the choir. He is recently earned a Master’s degree in Higher Education and Student Development from Taylor University where he serves as the Coordinator of Assessment and Quality Improvement. He also has a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Taylor University and loves to sing classical music.
Anne Warnock
Anne Warnock was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, the first of two children in her somewhat neurotic but essentially loving family. She has lived all over the western United States before moving to Boston where she currently attends college and serves as the lead female vocalist for the alternative band Pray for Polanski. Anne got her start in reconciliation when she worked with the Hands in Healing project in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. She has been involved with Reconcilers.net for two years. She intends a career in mediation.
Jim Warnock
Jim Warnock (MSC Regent College 1984, PhD University of Washington 1989) is the rector of Gethsemane Episcopal Church in Marion, Indiana. He has been an Episcopal priest since 1999. Before that, he earned a Ph.D. in American history and taught at the college level for several years. He has been the rector of Gethsemane in Marion since December of 2002. He is married to Kresha and has two grown children, Anne and David.
He became involved in reconciliation work with Reconcilers.net in 2003. He has served on several teams in the United States, working with the Episcopal Church, and is involved with the peace initiative in the Middle East. He has had the privilege of attending two reconciliation trainings involving Muslims and Christians.
Michael Witmer
Michael Witmer (JD/MBA, UCLA 1983) has been a trial lawyer for 26 years. He is a trained mediator and a deputy attorney general for the State of California.
In his ministry, Michael helped to found Reconcilers.net, a group of Episcopalians who provide training in the principles, skills and disciplines of faith-based reconciliation. Reconcilers.net works across all national, cultural and religious boundaries. Under the auspices of the International Center for Religion & Diplomacy, a nondenominational NGO in Washington DC, leaders of Reconcilers.net have been building peace initiatives in Kashmir and the Middle East for several years. Its conferences and consultations with Muslims and Jews have confirmed that the principles of faith-based reconciliation capture the core teachings of Islam and Judaism.
Michael was an ordained minister of the Sikh Dharma from 1970-84, and has been an active Christian for the last 16 years. Since 1999, he has studied and taught faith-based reconciliation around the US and in the Middle East. Michael lives in Pomona, California with his spouse of 16 years, the Rev. Canon Warren S. Nyback.
