2005
Peace Programs
Peace
Programs in 2006
– 2007
– 2008—
Return
to Main Peace Page
|
| August
2-6, 2005 |
 •
to affirm the gift of individual diversity
so that it might radiate
•
to embrace divergent religious perspectives
•
build together a peaceful path towards social
change.
|
 |
•
so that our light may shine into the
souls of our children and invigorate a sense
of purpose, worth, and peace.
|
•
We
who are seeking the questions and we who are
seeking answers
•
We who are troubled by increasing violence
•
We who deeply wish to live our values and
take time to reflect about what that requires
of them
•
We who wish to understand why religion, peace,
justice and pluralism are inextricably intertwined
•
We who hesitate to step out of our "comfort
zone" around religious pluralism and
cultural diversity |
Interfaith
Visions for Peace will
be an interactive experience in which all of us
– faculty and participants – are both
learners and teachers. Our purpose is to create
a space in which people from diverse religious traditions
can engage in honest conversation and learning together.
Through dialogue, the arts, worship, and reflection,
we’ll gain understanding about others with
whom we might not normally be in community. It is
our goal that this experience will allow each of
us to incorporate peacemaking into our daily lives,
inspiring us to act upon the understanding that
peacemaking belongs at the very heart of spirituality.
Participants will help create the program as it
unfolds, opening our ears, eyes, mouths, hearts
and minds, becoming an interfaith community envisioning
– and creating – peace.
Plan to participate in this unique and inspiring
symposium. We’ll explore the climate of religious
pluralism in the world today, and how diversity
can strengthen non-violent social action as we work
to achieve peace and positive community building
throughout the world.
This will be a collaborative, “organic”
experience that we will create together. Please
bring something that represents the theme or what
it means to you; you will take this back home with
you. Bring something to share – it can be
a stone, a vial of water, etc. . . . this will go
home with another participant. And bring along whatever
tools you need to support you in your process: journals,
books that you treasure, music, instruments, etc.
Beginning
the dialogue . . .
perspectives from our distinguished
faculty |
Faculty
|
“Peace
has to involve the personal without getting
so small it doesn’t touch the international,
and involve the international without getting
so big it doesn’t touch the personal.
As leaders of this program, we need to talk
about our own perspectives and personal
struggles with the process of creating peace
– we need to risk the same vulnerability
that we’re asking our participant
community to risk.”
The
Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy |
 |
The
Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, author
of over 20 books, including Faith and
Politics, leads the national non-partisan
grassroots and educational organizations,
The Interfaith Alliance and The Interfaith
Alliance Foundation and serves as the Pastor
for Preaching and Worship at Northminster
(Baptist) Church in Monroe, Louisiana. In
addition to being a prolific writer, Dr. Gaddy
provides regular commentary to the national
media on issues relating to religion and politics. |
| |
|
|
“We
must acknowledge the significant interpersonal
risk of creating a diverse community. We’ll
make mistakes, we may say things we didn’t
even know we felt. We will encourage each
other to approach the work in honesty and
amnesty, giving ourselves permission to
struggle, be unenlightened. We need to a
make space where what each of us needs will
be able to emerge throughout our time together.”
The
Rev. Rosemary Bray McNatt |
 |
The
Rev. Rosemary Bray McNatt is minister
of The Fourth Universalist Society in New
York City. She graduated from Yale University
and Drew Theological Seminary. The Rev. McNatt
is a former editor at the New York Times
Book Review. In addition, her work has
appeared in Essence, Glamour, Ms, Redbook,
The New York Times Magazine, The Village Voice
and other publications. She is author of three
books, including her memoir, Unafraid
of the Dark. |
| |
|
|
“As
individuals, we may not be AT peace with
the way things are, and so we need to consider
a peace position as a process rather than
a ‘place.’ The arts allow us
to engage in this process, moving beyond
thought and into the heart and spirit.”
Dr.
Kenneth Nafziger |
 |
Dr.
Kenneth Nafziger brings people of
any musical skill and faith tradition to new
levels of spirituality through community singing.
His D.M.A. is from the University of Oregon.
At Eastern Mennonite University he teaches
the EMU Chamber Singers, courses in conducting,
music history, interdisciplinary humanities,
and music and worship at the seminary. Ken
has led workshops on singing spirituals with
Schola Cantorum Coralina in Havana. Co-author
of Singing: A Mennonite Voice, Ken
served as clinician at the UU Musician’s
Network Conferences at The Mountain in 1994
and 2001. |
| |
|
|
DISTINGUISHED
GUEST
Rabbi Joshua Lesser —
Congregation Bet Haverim, Atlanta,
GA
|
|
Voices
representing Muslim, Jewish, and other faith
traditions will be an integral part of this
community conversation. |
| |
|
|
Return
to Top of Page
Topics
Include:
 Peace
Education.
Unless we teach our children peace,
someone else will teach them violence.
Until the peace movement focuses on
schools, where more than 50 million
children at all levels are attending
everyday, little progress can be expected
toward creating the peaceable society.
Peacemakers.
Most of us know a little about Martin
Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi. But what
about Jeannette Rankin, Dorothy Day,
Emily Balch, A. J. Muste, Tolstoy, Thomas
Merton, Gene Sharp, Jody Williams and
a long list of others.
America’s
Wars – from Vietnam
to Iraq. The pattern is the same, including
the cost in lives, money and honor.
Capital
Punishment. As is said
on America’s death rows, “them
that has no capital gets the punishment.”
Is progress being made to end the death
penalty? Are family members of victims
always pro-death penalty? Which is moral:
punitive justice or restorative justice?
Animal
Rights. How well are
humans sharing the planet with animals?
Can animals possibly have rights? What
are the benefits to human beings when
the rights of animals are honored? |
|
| |
|
|
Colman
McCarthy . . .
former Washington Post columnist
and founder of the Center for Teaching Peace
in Washington, D.C., is an adjunct professor
for Georgetown University Law Center. He teaches
a course entitled “Solutions to Violence,”
a subject so important to him that he has
formed a non-profit organization, The Center
for Teaching Peace, which helps schools begin
or broaden peace studies programs. Under his
leadership, the center also conducts workshops
and seminars on conflict resolution and mediation.
Those who follow the writings of Colman McCarthy
cherish him for the passion of his convictions
and the idealism of his beliefs. It is the
same with his lectures. He is a sought-after
speaker on U.S. campuses because he convincingly
calls on students to defy the conventional
by becoming citizens who are “other-centered,”
not “self-centered.” He argues
persuasively that each of us is called on
to be a peacemaker in our personal and political
lives. |
|
From
Colman McCarthy to Participants:
“Do
you remember the class you had in high school
that addressed the methods of non-violent
conflict resolution?
“Do you remember the mandatory class
in college aimed at educating each prospective
graduate on the merits of Pacifism?
“Very few people attended school at
any level in which the discipline of peace
was taught or practiced. At the turn of
the century it was determined civilization
had just endured the most violent century
to date. The need to teach non-violent alternatives
to conflict is urgent. It is dire that we
begin to live these peaceful methods in
our everyday lives, in hopes of inspiring
a generation of youth to consider nonviolent
resolution as the most viable and legitimate
policy-making method. Unless we teach our
children peace someone else will teach them
violence.” |
| |
|
|
“I’d
like to dedicate my next song to an
old friend of mine who has done much
for peace.
“He has written about nonviolence,
he has done nonviolence,
has read nonviolence,
has taught nonviolence for years and
years and years.
He’s had a column in the
Washington Post.
“And so, Colman McCarthy, thank
you very much.”
Joan
Baez, in concert,
Washington, DC
November 2004 |
|
| Reference
Books:
|
Solutions
to Violence.
Edited by Colman McCarthy.
$25. This anthology of peace
writings ranges from the
well known—Gandhi,
Tolstoy, Thomas Merton and
Joan Baez—to the obscure.
Strength Through
Peace: the Ideas and People
of Nonviolence.
Edited by Colman McCarthy.
$25. Chapter titles range
from “Active Nonviolence,”
to “How Does Goodness
Happen?”. |
|
| Suggested
Additional Reading:
|
•
A Force More Powerful: A
Century of Nonviolent Conflict
by Peter Ackerman and Jack
Duval.
• American
Nonviolence: The History
of an Idea
by Ira Chernus.
• The
Unconquerable World: Power,
Nonviolence and the Will
of the People
by Jonathon Schell.
• An Energy
Field More Intense Than
War: the Nonviolent and
American Literature
by Michael True.
• I’d
Rather Teach Peace
by Colman McCarthy. |
|
Reference
books will be available for purchase
at the seminar. If you wish to order
in advance, contact Center for
Teaching Peace, 4501 Van Ness
Street, NW, Washington, DC 20016. Add
$3 for shipping. |
|
Return
to Top of Page
|
|
|
|
|
Site
Map About
Us | Programs | Bringing
a Group | Calendar | Volunteers
| Donate | Contact
Us | Site Map | Privacy
Policy
The
Mountain Retreat & Learning Center, Inc. • 3872 Dillard Road •
P.O. Box 1299 • Highlands, NC 28741
Phone: 828-526-5838 • Fax: 781-846-1295 • Email
© Copyright 2004 The Mountain
Retreat & Learning Center, Inc.
|
