July 31 is Johnny Zokovitch’s final day on staff with Pax Christi USA, after five years as executive director and many more years prior on the communications and organizing teams (including a few years as communications officer for Pax Christi International.) It is hard to imagine Pax Christi USA’s national staff without Johnny, but we know we will stay connected. Below is Johnny’s final letter to our members and supporters.
If you received our most recent newsletter, you’ll read in my column on page 2 how it was that I first came to Pax Christi USA 33 years ago. It has been an experience of unmitigated grace to be part of this extraordinary community, especially working for the movement these last 25+ years in one capacity or another. I could not have imagined back in 1991 at that first Pax Christi Florida retreat as I listened to retreat leader Dan Berrigan that one day I’d get to serve as your executive director. Today, as I mark my last day in this position, I’d like to share a few final words (and a few photos from over the years) with you.
One of the hardest things about letting go is looking back at the last five years and realizing all of the things we never got to, all of the hopes and plans that didn’t get off the ground. I’ve always been a bit glass half-empty kind of person, and so what has grieved me the most these past few months as the end of my tenure drew near was how much we didn’t get to. There’s so much that we wanted to do and there’s so much that always needs doing! And yet when I look back over the last five years (see the years-in-review reports here), I couldn’t be prouder of all the good starts we made together in so many different ways. My hope is that these “good starts” will yield so much more over the coming years of what I had hoped and dreamed about doing that we just never got to. I feel confident about this because of each of you. We have everything we need: a dedicated and incredibly gifted staff, the visionary leadership of Bishop Stowe and our national council, the on-the-ground expertise of so many state coordinators and local group leaders, and the persistent lived witness of every one of our members, embodying “pax Christi,” the peace of Christ, everywhere they live.
When I came back as executive director in 2019, a big reason I wanted the job was because I knew our 50th anniversary was coming up in 2022. I wanted to do everything I could to celebrate and honor all of the people who have loved and nurtured and given themselves to make this movement what it has been for me and is for so many others: a community where the fullness of our faith in the nonviolent Jesus is given witness; where our longing for the reign of God–which is compassion, mercy, peace, love and justice–is lived out in concrete ways; where we have companions willing to walk the way with us in prayer, study and action. I cannot believe how lucky I was to be part of the bridge built to honor the legacy of the past 50 years and then start us forward into the next 50. If honoring those first 50 years was the first part of our task, the second part was setting this movement up to grow and thrive for the next 50. I think we’ve made a good start of it. I hope you feel that way too.
Back in April, our staff was able to go on retreat at Kirkridge, to be renewed and rejuvenated, to plan for the future, and to mark the transitions that were happening among us. One thing that our retreat leader asked us to do was to write down our dreams for Pax Christi USA. As you contemplate the work of this next 50 year period of our history, I thought I’d share with you some of what I wrote down of my dreams for us:
- I hope we’ll continue to prioritize leadership development of people who are in their 20s, 30s and 40s, and that we’ll pass on, with grace, the leadership of this movement to a new generation of peacemakers. Our survival as a movement depends on being able to create space for younger people to shape and drive the agenda of our movement, even when it looks or feels a bit different than how things may have been done before, or even when it makes some of us “old-timers” a tad bit uncomfortable. (That’s okay. We once made some other “old-timers” a bit uncomfortable too.)
- I hope that we’ll continue to prioritize our commitment to being an anti-racist Catholic movement for peace with justice. Our authenticity as a Catholic community committed to peace and justice is only as deep as our commitment to de-centering “whiteness” in our movement, to debunking “whiteness” as normative in the ways we pray, study and act together. I’ve never been prouder than when we as a movement made the commitment with Brothers and Sisters All back in 1999, but the work is generational and we’re only a few steps on the way of what is a long, long journey. I am so deeply grateful for the new team that is forming to drive this work forward.
- I hope that we’ll continue to prioritize and resource the building and growth of a stronger, more coherent, better organized grassroots network that can maximize the effectiveness and power of our movement to make constructive change. Our power is in our people. We need not only activists but organizers to build the structures that keep us united, coordinated, and strategic so that our efforts will yield the changes we long to see for all those who are marginalized, oppressed or suffering because of the way things are.
This is just a bit of what’s been on my mind recently; it’s impossible to say everything that I’d like to. But I know we have many days still ahead of us, many conversations still to be had, many hopes and dreams still to share. I’m stepping down as executive director, but I’ll always be a part of this community. Pax Christi has been my home for my entire adult life, and all of you were instrumental in my “growing up” within this movement. I’ll still be around. And I look forward to how much more you all have to teach me as I continue to deepen my own discipleship to the nonviolent Jesus.
As I do step away from my responsibilities as executive director, I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you one last time to give in support of this movement. Many of you have already read and replied to my final appeal letter (see it here at this link). But if you haven’t, or if you can reach down and give again, I’d love for Charlene Howard, the new Executive Director, to see firsthand the incredible generosity of this movement. Your gift will help to start her tenure off confident and poised to keep us moving forward. It has been a gift to work with Charlene these past three years as chair of the National Council; she’s an excellent leader, and she and the staff are energized to serve and grow this movement. So click here and make a little extra gift if you can today.
Lastly, THANK YOU. Thanks to every single one of you for being patient with me. Thank you for being kind to me. Thank you for teaching me and mentoring me, for correcting me when I have been wrong or misguided, for forgiving me when I have made mistakes, for bearing with me and understanding when I have not gotten back to you in a timely fashion or missed your email or forgot to pass on something you needed. Thank you for the respect and grace you have shown me even when we disagreed or saw things differently. Thank you for your deep and abiding support and encouragement, at every step of my journey these past 33+ years. You have all shown me so much love, forgiveness, patience, support and kindness. Over and over and over again. I cannot begin to tell you how much I cherish you for all you have given me, all you have shown to me.
It has been a privilege to serve you and work with you as executive director these past five years. My wife, Heather, and I are so grateful, and we look forward to continuing the journey with you.
In peace,
Johnny