Skip to main content

Gene Stolzfus talks over next weeks


As you may know I wrote this piece looking at non-violent solutions to the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict for my book Israel, Palestine and Terror.

This guy is giving talks on the subject around the country in next week or two. This is just for your information. Of course, he is a Christian and the venues are all Christian but I am sure they let heathens in.

PRESS RELEASE

Pioneering Christian peace activist and organizer Gene Stoltzfus will be in Britain and Ireland from 16 January 2009, speaking about nonviolent intervention in situations of conflict and injustice. With the tragedy unfolding in Gaza, the trip could not be more timely. The visit is part of a larger tour.

Gene Stoltzfus was the director of the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) since its founding in 1988 until September 2004. CPT trains and places violence reduction teams in high conflict situations like Iraq, the West Bank, Colombia and various native or indigenous communities in the United States and Canada.

In the Americas, Teams and peacemaker delegations have worked in Chiapas, Vieques, Puerto Rico and Washington DC. Meanwhile, investigative teams have visited Chechnya, Afghanistan, Congo and the Philippines.

Stoltzfus traveled to Iraq immediately before the first Gulf War in 1991 and spent extensive time in Iraq again in 2003, consulting with Muslim and Christian clerics, Iraqi human rights leaders, families of Iraqi detainees and talking with American administrators and soldiers.

Gene's commitment to peacemaking is rooted in his experience in Vietnam as a conscientious objector with International Voluntary Service during the US military escalation there from 1963-68.

He recalls that watching the helicopter personnel unloading their cargo of bloodied bodies in Saigon set him "on the search to make sense of life and death where the terms of survival, meaning and culture don't forbid killing. I had to ask myself," he said, "whether I was as willing to die for my conviction as the Vietnamese and American soldiers all around me were being asked to do."

His peacemaking is also solidly rooted in theology, derived from his own Mennonite commitment, and the theory and practice of nonviolent action, conflict transformation, resistance and social change.

For the most up-to-date information, check out Gene's blog "Peace Talk" at http://gstoltzfus.blogspot.com/

Dates and venues

16 January, 7:30pm - Sustaining Spirit, Body & Mind for Long Term, Disciplined Peacemaking

Friends’ Meeting House, 43 St. Giles, OXFORD, tel: 01865 557373

17 January, 3:00pm - Case Studies - Peacemakers in the Midst of War

Friends' Meeting House, South Terrace, HASTINGS, tel: 014 2443 7820

18 January, 2:15pm - How can we regain a sense of compassion in the face of the frustrations of activism?

London Islamic Network for the Environment, at 14 Shepherds Hill, LONDON, tel: 0845 456 3960

18 January, 7:30pm - Invitation to Global Peacemaking

Cheap Street Church Hall, Cheap Street, SHERBORNE, email: l.docksey at yahoo.co.uk

19 January, 7:30pm - Following the Call to Peacemaking: the experience of Christian Peacemaker

The Friary Church Hall, Crawley Town Centre, Hasslett Avenue, CRAWLEY tel: 0129 354 2853

20 January, 7:30pm - Iraq as a case study: does nonviolence work in this century?

Friends Meeting House, 2 Church Street, READING, tel: 0118 9671362

21 January, 2:00pm - Case Study — Peacemakers in the Midst of War: Iraq

CCR Training Room, Peace Studies Department, Pemberton Building, BRADFORD, tel: 012 7423 5171

21 January, 7:30pm - Bending Our Lives to Active Peacemaking

South Parade Baptist Church, Kirkstall Lane, Headingley, LEEDS, LS6 3LF, tel: 0113 2754989

22 January, 6:30pm - Peacemaking and Anger

St. Ethelburga’s, 78, Bishopsgate, LONDON, EC2N 4AG, tel: 020 7496 1610

23 January, 6:30pm - Does Nonviolence Work?

Friends’ Meeting House, Hill Street, COVENTRY, CV1 4AN, tel: 024 7667 8735

24 January, 9:30am - A Peacemaking Vision: a Seminar on Realities and Risks

London Mennonite Centre, 14 Shepherds Hill, LONDON, N6 5AQ, tel: 0845 450 0214

25 January, 8:15pm - Case Study — Peacemakers in the Midst of War: Iraq

Cordner Hall, Cooke Centenary Church, BELFAST, BT7 2FW, email: reconsec at tcd.ie

26 January, 7:00pm - Does Nonviolence work in this Century?

Bishop Lloyd's Palace, 51-53 Watergate Row, CHESTER, CH1 2LE, tel: 0759 003 1388

27 January, 7:00pm - Does Nonviolence work in this Century?

Friends’ Meeting House, Dean Street, BANGOR, email: mail at bangorpeace.co.uk

28 January, 7:00pm - Following the Call to Peacemaking: The Experience of Christian Peacemaker Teams

Evesham Methodist Church, Bridge St, WR11 4SF EVESHAM, email: gematthews at tiscali.co.uk

29 January, 7:00pm - Case Study: Peacemakers in the Midst of War - Iraq

Quaker Meeting House Bean street, HULL, HU3 2PR, tel: 079 5292 8829

30 January, 7:30pm - Burns’ Night: Iraq, A Case Study in Peacemaking

The Christian Centre, Glebe Street, FALKIRK, tel: 013 2471 6231

31 January, 2:00pm - Bending Our Lives to Active Peacemaking

Bull Street Meeting House, 40 Bull Street, BIRMINGHAM, B4 6AF, forbesbarbarae at yahoo.co.uk

Comments

anticant said…
Any initiative of this nature is to be welcomed, whether religiously inspired or not.

Another Christian group with much constructive behind the scenes involvement in the Northern Irish peace process is the Corrymeela Community:

http://www.corrymeela.org/default.aspx

Popular posts from this blog

EVIDENCE, MIRACLES AND THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS

(Published in Faith and Philosophy 2011. Volume 28, Issue 2, April 2011. Stephen Law. Pages 129-151) EVIDENCE, MIRACLES AND THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS Stephen Law Abstract The vast majority of Biblical historians believe there is evidence sufficient to place Jesus’ existence beyond reasonable doubt. Many believe the New Testament documents alone suffice firmly to establish Jesus as an actual, historical figure. I question these views. In particular, I argue (i) that the three most popular criteria by which various non-miraculous New Testament claims made about Jesus are supposedly corroborated are not sufficient, either singly or jointly, to place his existence beyond reasonable doubt, and (ii) that a prima facie plausible principle concerning how evidence should be assessed – a principle I call the contamination principle – entails that, given the large proportion of uncorroborated miracle claims made about Jesus in the New Testament documents, we should, in the absence of indepen

Why I won't be voting Labour at the next General Election, not even to 'keep the Tories out'.

I have always voted Labour, and have often been a member of the Party, campaigning and canvassing for them. For what it’s worth, here’s my feeling about voting Labour next General Election:   1. When the left vote Labour after they move rightwards, they are encouraged to just move further right, to the point where they are now probably right of where e.g. John Major’s Tory party was. And each time the Tories go further right still. At some point we have got to stop fuelling this toxic drift to the right by making the Labour Party realise that it’s going to start costing them votes. I can’t think of anything politically more important than halting this increasingly frightening rightward slide. So I am no longer voting Labour. 2. If a new socialist party starts up, it could easily hoover up many of the 200k former LP members who have left in disgust (I’d join), and perhaps also pick up union affiliations. They could become the second biggest party by membership quite quickly. Our voting

Aquinas on homosexuality

Thought I would try a bit of a draft out on the blog, for feedback. All comments gratefully received. No doubt I've got at least some details wrong re the Catholic Church's position... AQUINAS AND SEXUAL ETHICS Aquinas’s thinking remains hugely influential within the Catholic Church. In particular, his ideas concerning sexual ethics still heavily shape Church teaching. It is on these ideas that we focus here. In particular, I will look at Aquinas’s justification for morally condemning homosexual acts. When homosexuality is judged to be morally wrong, the justification offered is often that homosexuality is, in some sense, “unnatural”. Aquinas develops a sophisticated version of this sort of argument. The roots of the argument lie in thinking of Aristotle, whom Aquinas believes to be scientifically authoritative. Indeed, one of Aquinas’s over-arching aims was to show how Aristotle’s philosophical system is broadly compatible with Christian thought. I begin with a sketch of Arist