Author Archive

A few weeks ago a new organization, The International Guild of Visual Peacemakers (IGVP), launched their website. Their vision statement describes IGVP as a group of “visual communicators devoted to peacemaking and breaking down stereotypes by displaying the beauty and dignity of various cultures around the world.”

Despite initial unease, members of Heartsong United Methodist Church in Cordova, have embraced their new neighbors: “What would Jesus do if he were us? He would welcome the neighbor.”

Alarmed by the rising tide of Islamophobia and resulting backlash against the Muslim community taking place across the United States as well as in other parts of the world, the United Religions Initiative (URI) were compelled to take action.

In his book, Redeeming the Wounded, B. Bruce Cook uses his experience as crime victim, correctional chaplain and crime victim counselor to reveal a restorative justice approach for enabling the process of healing the wounds and repairing harm.

Peacemaker Ministries is hosting their annual Peacemaker Conference on Sept 16-19th in Washington, DC. The theme is forgiveness – as Colossians 3:13b says, “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

Every year the United Methodist conference and retreat center, Lake Junaluska, hosts a Peace Conference that is sponsored by various United Methodist agencies, annual conferences, and seminaries.

Today, August 28th, 2010, marks the 47th anniversary of the historic “I Have a Dream” speech delivered from the steps of the Lincoln memorial in Washington, DC. by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite offers a sermon for those who will preach on the day after this year’s anniversary of 9/11. Based on the text, “Perfect Love Casts Out Fear” in 1 John 4:18, Thistlewaite’s sermon explores the danger of harboring fear and how it drives us away from love.

Rev. Dr. John M. Swomley, a United Methodist minister and pacifist Christian, died this week. Swomley was the Executive Secretary of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, president of the Methodist Peace Fellowship, and helped influence Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “pilgrimage to nonviolence.”

At the 2010 meeting of the Illinois Great Rivers Annual Conference, Bishop Palmer laid out plans to create a conference-wide initiative to launch a conflict transformation and reconciliation ministry to train lay and clergy volunteers in becoming conflict interventionists.