Creating a Culture of Peace
To register for this workshop, please complete and mail this registration form (registration form specific to this workshop). Registration forms and fees must be received no later than one week prior to all workshops.
February 8-11, 2008
Workshop start and end times to be announced.
What would you do if someone entered you house with a gun? Is spray-painting a billboard an expression of violence? How should you act toward a person that’s really difficult to get along with? Why isn’t anybody doing anything about social justice? Isn’t the movement to end the war in Iraq a lost cause?
Over the past year and a half, groups across the Upper Midwest have been struggling through questions and scenarios such as these through an interactive program called “Creating a Culture of Peace: Nonviolence Training for Personal and Social Change†(CCP). CCP was developed by Janet Chisholm, the former nonviolence coordinator at Fellowship of Reconciliation who is now headquartered at Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center (Bangor, PA). The 15-20 hour curriculum employs popular education methods to broaden and deepen our understanding of–and commitment to–active nonviolence.
CCP draws in part upon materials and exercises found in “From Violence to Wholeness,†a training program established in the 1990s by the California-based Catholic organization Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service. Chisholm adapted From Violence to Wholeness for use with an interfaith constituency, and this approach has since been adopted as the training method for organizations such as Veterans for Peace and Episcopal Peace Fellowship.
This intensive retreat will make use of interactive pedagogical techniques drawing upon the wisdom and experience of the participants. Through small group discussion, journaling, and ritual expression, individuals are encouraged to plumb the depths of their own experience with violence, personal security, and active nonviolence. Through brainstorming, role-playing, and simulation exercises, the group explores approaches for developing nonviolent communication and community-sustaining skills, analyzing social change movements, and planning strategically-informed action campaigns.
Candace Lautt and Phil Stoltzfus will be leading this CCP basic training weekend. Cost is $225, which includes a shared room and meals. For more information about the training, contact Phil at 507-663-1859 (stoltzfus@stthomas.edu). For questions on registration, lodging, meals, and Starwalkers, contact Rose Ann Steenhoek, 507-645-6414.
