The Sydney crew of Pace e Bene Australia are running the ‘Engage – Exploring Nonviolent Living’ workshops over four Saturdays after the success of last year’s program.
These workshops combine intellectual and experiential learning to help participants take the next steps on the journey towards living nonviolently.
The dates are 26 July, 16 August, 6 September and 27 September, running from 9am to 4:30pm in Epping.
Full details and registration can be found here.
Adelaide: November 6th – 9th 2008
This is an open invitation to be a part of our National Gathering in Adelaide later this year which seeks to bring together people from around the country to network, share experiences and be further equipped for nonviolent life and action.
Costs will be kept to a minimum with scope for some part-scholarships.
This is the second such national gathering – the first was at Pallotti College in Millgrove, Victoria in December 2006 – from which Pace e Bene Australia emerged. Click here for further details and registration.
The Pace e Bene AGM will be held on Nov 10th after the Gathering.
Continue reading “Open Invitation to our National Gathering” →
Dear friends,
Climate change has become possibly the defining moral issue of our time. One of the biggest problems we face is that Australia is addicted to coal. Coal exports are Australia’s biggest contribution to climate change. The greenhouse pollution from our coal exports exceeds all of our domestic pollution combined – and is set to grow massively.
This July we invite you to join us in taking action to put a stop to this madness.
A major ‘camp for climate action‘ will be happening in Newcastle from 10-15 July. The camp will be six days of inspiring workshops and direct action aimed at shutting down the world’s largest coal port.
We are hoping to gather a group of concerned Christians together to form an action team (or affinity group) for the blockade action. This will probably involve most (but not all) members risking arrest for a minor offence, although details will be decided by the group.
Attached is a FAQ sheet with information on climate change and Christian faith, why coal exports represent an urgent threat, the hows and whys of nonviolent action at the camp, and the history of Christian nonviolent action. We invite you to read the FAQ and consider whether God is calling you to become involved.
You don’t have to be willing to risk arrest to be involved. You don’t have to be available all six days to be involved – some people are just coming Friday to Sunday. You don’t have to be an experienced activist to be involved. You do need to be passionate about climate change and about what God thinks about us trashing the planet.
To help people think through the issues and decide if they want to be involved, Project Green Church and Pace e Bene Australia Nonviolence Service will host a few afternoon workshops over the coming weeks. These will cover details about the camp, the direct action, Christian discipleship and some nonviolent action training. You don’t have to attend one of these workshops to join us at the camp, but it will help. Details of the workshops can be found here.
If you are interested, we would love to hear from you.
Yours in Christ,
Jonathan Moylan, Rising Tide & Newcastle UCATSA
Miriam Pepper , Project Green Church
Wenny Theresia, Australian Student Environment Network
Justin Whelan, Pace e Bene Australia Nonviolence Service
(Note: organisation names are included for information only. We do not claim to represent them.)
Some great news from the UK (if a bit delayed): the Campaign Against Arms Trade and The Corner House have won a High Court case forcing the Serious Fraud Squad to re-open a corruption investigation into BAE’s arms exports to Saudi Arabia. The investigation had been closed after pressure from both parties was put on the UK government. The Court called it a “paradigm case” that concerns “the way this country is governed”.
Insipring news for those of us planning to protest the international arrms expo in Adelaide in November!
Continue reading “High Court reopens BAE-Saudi corruption investigation” →
I just got sent a copy of a speech Rev Jon Inkpin gave to the Pax Christi NSW AGM. Some interesting thoughts here – perhaps a good ‘glass half-full’ counterpoint to my pessimistic article Kyrie Eleison from a few weeks ago.
Continue reading “What’s left to do in the Decade to Overcome Violence?” →
For some time now I have been trying to work out how to do liturgy that really honours the courage and sacrifice of people who have fought in war, and at the same time speaks to the gospel call to peacemaking witness.
For me, the obvious starting point is that any remembrance has to be themed around the statement ‘never again!’ – nothing else really gets close to honoring the experiences of the utter depravity that soldiers so consistently report.
Anyway, this Anzac Day I had another go. I decided to structure the service around dual symbolic lists – one a litany for the victims of war, the other a calling forth of the spirit of great peacemaking saints. I welcome your thoughts!
As the Iraq War reaches its fifth anniversary today, it is time for the church to repent.
It is true that the church was opposed to the war from the outset. With an almost unanimous voice, church leaders and ordinary Christians said ‘no’ in loud and clear voices. We declared it to be an ‘unjust war’. And so we were on the ‘right side of history’.
But is it enough to say no to a war with our voices only?
If we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that the church took the easy path. We wrote letters, said prayers, marched in the streets. We did all the things we needed to do to salve our own consciences about the war, and absolutely nothing to stop it from happening.
Perth – St John of God Retreat Centre, Shoalwater WA
Sunday June 22 – Friday June 27
A five day residential retreat in a post-denominational Christian tradition.
News of a great action by Glenys and her small group up on the Central Coast… and inspired by PeBA:
“Many of our parishoners signed a petition to the US Government and Head of US Military Intelligence. It called for the cessation of teaching of torture techniques at a military intelligence base. It called also for the release of two priests, Louie Vitale OFM and Steve Kelly SJ. They were imprisoned for five months for trespass on military property when they tried to present a letter of protest about the teaching of ‘advanced intelligence techniques’ to both military and civilian personnel.
We let Father Louie and Father Steve know of our effort and wrote to them in the prison.
Continue reading “Solidarity with peace activists in prison” →
I received this post about a new journal this week and thought it is worth ‘spreading the word” for both the general reader and those on the list who are interested in academic contributions to peace studies. Hope you find it a useful resource:
Journal of Religion, Conflict, and Peacelaunches online scholarly discussion of role of religion in peace.
The online scholarly journal, published by a collaborative of Indiana’s three historic peace colleges,is a forum for discussion of the role of religion in both conflict and peacebuilding.
The premier issue of the Journal features articles by nine major thinkers in theology, ethics, religious studies and conflict transformation.
Readers may access the articles about religion as a source of conflict and as a resource for peace without subscription and distribute them (with attribution and unaltered) freely. A “letters to the editor” feature further encourages dialogue among readers and scholars.
