Peace Indicator: 107, 35, 10,979

Since the Peace Indicator took an unexpected two week vacation I thought I would offer 3 numbers this week.

All three of these numbers came from my friend John Shuford, who works with the Alternatives to Violence Project, both in the United States and internationally. John pulled together information for me from several AVP reports.

According to AVP-USA's 2009 Annual report they held trainings in 107 correctional facilities in 35 U.S. states. Those trainings served 10,979 inmates (990 of which were trained to be facilitators).

From John's reports I also discovered that elements of AFSC's Help Increase the Peace Project have been integrated into the AVP programs used in Australia.

AVP's work world-wide has provided the tools of nonviolence to an amazing variety of people. If you have some time, I highly recommend looking over some the the reports on their site. They provide great examples of the power and impact of their programs, and the steps they are taking to bring peace to the world.

Peace Essay #5

This week's Peace Essay comes from Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, formerly of AFSC's San Fransisco office, who recently helped found the Community of Living Traditions at Stony Point. AFSC will miss Lynn, but we wish her success with her new project.

Peace Talk

Language helps creates peace. The concept shomer lashon/guarding one's tongue against hurtful communication is central to Jewish nonviolent communication and peacemaking. Our sages consider the following questions: What can we say about each other? What is considered hurtful language? When talking through contested issues, how do we engage each other in ways that leads to cooperation and concrete action? How do we use language to bless and heal wounded relationships? We are also obligated, as peacemakers, to purify community narratives by removing the strands of racism, sexism, triumphalism and other forms of violence woven within the human story.

Educational methodology associated with Torah study values multiple points of view and the dialogic process as 'words of the living God.' Creative tension in multiplicity is divine. As a rabbi committed to nonviolence, I pray that work for a peaceful and just holy land using language that humanizes the faces of all involved while struggling to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian life with clarity, courage and direct action. We are obligated to speak the truth about violence while working for restorative justice. It is not an easy road.

L'Shalom,
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb
Co-founder of the Community of Living Traditions at Stony Point


All peace essays on this blog are the work and opinion of their authors, even those written by AFSC staff. The authors (including staff) are free to disagree with AFSC's positions; these essays should not be seen as statements by AFSC. We share them in the hope of sparking conversation about the true meanings of peace.

Peace Indicator: 26

With today marking the eight years in Afghanistan I thought we'd use an indicator related to that war.

This week's Peace Indicator is 26, the number of vigils calling for an end to war. People all around the country have entered events into our system. Other groups are also hosting vigils, meaning this number could be even higher.

We're calling for:

• A timeline for withdrawal of U.S./NATO forces
• No additional troops sent to Afghanistan
• Talks with all parties to the conflict
• Generous civilian-led development funds

If you know about other vigils happening in the next few days, please ask the organizer to add them to our system so as many people as possible hear about these important events.

Also, check out today's article by AFSC's General Secretary, Mary Ellen McNish on Huffington Post.

Peace Essay #4

This week's peace essay comes from my friend Elizabeth Walmsley. She runs the Middle School Friends Program of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.

Peace: Collected Musing in Journal Form:
by Elizabeth Walmsley

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

My father once gave a message in Meeting for Worship while we were at Australia Yearly Meeting. He stood and said something along the lines of:

“Friends, peace is possible. I know this because I have experienced it. At the talent show last night I was caught up in the crowd’s whooping and cheering in a way that I am not accustomed to, and realized that there was peace, in that moment.”

When I think of my father’s message, I wonder in which moments I have experienced peace. Certainly while sleeping, and snuggles are a close second. But in large groups of people there have also been moments of peace, like watching middle school youth work together to achieve a team building task on an obstacle course, participating in a large fashion show fund raiser for women’s health, and dancing with lots of people on a dance floor, to name a few. When I think of peace, I think of:

Although she doesn’t pray the way humans do, she is clearly well acquainted with peace and does her best to remind me of it as often as possible - my beautiful, fluffy and loving cat Cally

• Having an inner, personal peace. To be calm and settled within yourself.
• The absence of greed and paranoia.
• The presence of generosity, confidence, and calm wisdom.
• Valuing every human being equally as all being worthy of love, care, and good attention.
• Fairness and honesty in business practices.
• Functional families.
• LISTENING!!

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

I see peace as a process, and not just a state of being. It requires a lot of work to “do” peace, to maintain (ie - do maintenance on) peaceful relations. It is not merely the absence of violence, but requires forgiveness. It is almost beyond comprehension to me to think of how a Hutu and a Tutsi, ex-neighbors, could possibly get together and talk to each other in the same room, face to face, when one of them has killed the entire immediate family of the other. How can the other find it within themselves to forgive this person? And after all the wrongs have been forgiven and there is no more violence occurring, is that peace?

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

As I sit on a morning commuter train surrounded by other middle class western world folks like myself, I find that I am challenged to write about the meaning of peace. I am wearing nice clothes, sipping fresh coffee, and next to me sits a plump wallet displaying my card for the train that shows that all of my passages have been paid for. I glance over and see people contentedly absorbed in their books, gazing out the window at the pleasant shrubbery, or having quiet conversations on their cell phones. No wonder I am feeling so challenged to write about the meaning of peace – my experience is totally disconnected from the raw and cutting edge side of peace that makes itself so obvious because it is not violence.

Colossians 3:12 As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.

My favorite prayer activity is the “Five Fingers of Prayer”. I experience strong elements of peace in the process. As you work your way through your fingers, you focus on, and pray about, the following areas:

Thumb: Thanksgiving
First finger: Confession (That no one is perfect)
Middle finger: Intercession (Holding people in the Light)
Fourth finger: Listening (to God)
Pinky: Praise (God!)

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.



All peace essays on this blog are the work and opinion of their authors, even those written by AFSC staff. The authors (including staff) are free to disagree with AFSC's positions; these essays should not be seen as statements by AFSC. We share them in the hope of sparking conversation about the true meanings of peace.