Our mission is to foster the spirituality of active nonviolence in Australia.
Pace e bene (pronounced pah-chay-bay-nay) means 'peace and all good' in Italian -- it was an expression used by St Francis of Assisi as a greeting and a means of proclaiming the way of nonviolence in the midst of a violent world.
PeBA (A for Australia) formed in 2006 by a group of Australians committed to nonviolence as a personal approach to life and an effective means of social transformation. We operate through a local network of facilitators and we develop and run our own programs, as well as being affiliated with Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service in the USA. Our roots have grown in the Franciscan tradition of peace-making, and we embrace all cultures and faiths.
PeBA is an association of members who are committed to nonviolence and grounding our lives in:
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- the equality of all people
- rejoicing in our individual differences
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- the interconnectedness of all things
Our primary purposes (as defined in our constitution) are to:
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- maintain a network of facilitators
- maintain a public trust fund, called the Pace e Bene Australia Peace Fund, to receive donations and fund projects that promote the prevention or control of behaviour that is harmful or abusive
- liaise with Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service in the USA and around the world
- network with other organisations working to promote peace through active nonviolence
- set a benchmark of 90% of the Association’s time being devoted to the principal activity, with the remaining 10% being on such as administration, networking and fundraising in support of the principal activity.
We are completely voluntary-run and our activities are overseen by a national committee.
THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE
The National Committee is made up of elected members and oversees the activities of PeBA. The current members are:
DALE HESS
I live in Bun wurrung country in Australia (Melbourne). My interests include peace education and international development, but I have a particular interest in West Papua, the most protracted conflict in the Pacific. I joined Pace e Bene Australia in 2008.
BRENDAN MCKEAGUE
I grew up in Northern Ireland where I experienced a deeply embedded culture of discrimination and violence, alongside a Celtic culture of music, dance, poetry and storytelling. I have been fascinated by the mix ever since. My passion is for ongoing learning about sustainable, nonviolent peace building through experimentation and discovery. I love to create spaces where conflict transformation and new possibilities might emerge. I have been connected wit Pace e Bene in the USA since 1994 and was a founder member of Pace e Bene Australia in 2006.
GILL BURROWS
Gill lives in Sydney and is married with four adult children and ten grandchildren. A ‘late starter’ Gill was unaware of the potential, power and possibilities of nonviolence when she attended Brendan’s first Sydney From Violence To Wholeness workshop in 2001. This experience awakened in her the passion to explore, learn, live and share the spirituality and practice of active nonviolence leading Gill to volunteer with others to set up a national ‘Pace e Bene Australia’ group in 2005/6. Gill continues to serve on the coordinating and peace fund committees and is the PeBA contact for NSW. Gill is a member of Pax Christi NSW and is involved with other peace, climate action and justice activities in Sydney.
JANET HUBNER
I have been a member of Pace e Bene Australia since 2011 and I came to it through some of the workshops, particularly Travelling with the Turtle, that led me to look for peaceful ways of being and relating. I am particularly interested in nonviolence in the workplace, interpersonal relationships and the nonviolence of Jesus. I am a facilitator of PeBA workshops as well as working full-time as a university policy officer. I have been on the national committee since 2016.
JOHN AKOY
I came a long way to Australia, from South Sudan via Kenya. I have experienced much violence since I grew up in the war torn country and lived in a refugee camp for ten years. In the camp, there was more violence between groups, and community fighting unnecessarily. That's part of my life.
I participated in a Pace e Bene Australia workshop in 2017. My aim is to have peace within myself and extend this to whoever needs peace.
We started a small group workshop here in Perth among the South Sudanese people. The idea is to bring real peace in my country, but we are stuck here for now. I hope we will pick up again in the future.
JASON MACLEOD
Jason MacLeod is an educator, organiser and researcher with over thirty years of activist education and campaigning experience in Australia, Asia and Oceania. For twenty-five years he has been accompanying the nonviolent struggle in West Papua, primarily as a civil resistance educator. He helped train activists in Hong Kong, Tonga and Myanmar, has been active in the climate justice movement, and has spent time in jail for organising and participating in nonviolent action in Australia and overseas. He is a Quaker and descendant of crofters from the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. He currently resides on Jagera land, in Meanjin (Brisbane), where he is part of a co-housing settlement. Whenever possible he likes to fly his paraglider off mountains.
GEORGE TRIPPE
My work in nonviolence took more formal shape in recent years when invited to join with Brendan and to design a residential program that became the Nonviolent Interfaith Leadership Program. My contribution in this endeavor is to focus our attention of the psycho-spiritual framework that helps us sustain a nonviolent way of life. My present work is as a psychotherapist, mentor and spiritual director, very part time, semi retired.