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THE DECADE
FOR A CULTURE OF NONVIOLENCE
Resolution
in Context
How can the small
Episcopal Peace Fellowship with only one energetic staff person
in a tiny office and members scattered across the country move the
U.S. Episcopal Church and our culture to embrace training in active
nonviolence? As Margaret Mead said, "Never doubt that a small
group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world;..."
Fall
1999 - Resolution time at the state level!
During the summer, our diocesan
peace and justice committee met to draft resolutions by the deadline
so they could be raised for vote at the annual Connecticut convention.
I was aware through FOR of the U.N. Decade for a Culture of Peace
and Nonviolence for the Children of the World and so offered a draft
resolution modeled after one by the Lutherans.*
It endorsed the Decade and committed the church to provide study
and action resources on nonviolence. We revised the text and consulted
with the Bishop. His primary concerns were whether church time and
money would be required to design curricula; at the same time he
questioned whether available conflict resolution training already
met the need. We assured him that good resources about nonviolence
already existed but were not widely known or available. Also, we
believed nonviolence training went beyond the interpersonal focus
of conflict resolution to include teaching the lessons of successful
nonviolent social movements and a way to address systemic violence
in our culture. We enlisted convention delegates willing to speak
in support of the resolution. It passed with overwhelming support!
Summer
2000 - Resolution time again, now at the national church level!
After hearing about the success
in Connecticut and later in Vermont, the EPF board strategized to
submit a resolution that would similarly commit the national church.
We had to seize this opportunity quickly or wait three more years
for the next nationwide convention. Volunteers wrote and filed the
resolution, consulted with voting members of the two houses of convention
who agreed to speak in favor of the resolution, and worked the floor
advocating our legislation. Again, the resolution passed with overwhelming
support!
July 2000 General
Convention of the Episcopal Church
Resolved,
That the Episcopal Church promote a culture of non-violence which
values love, compassion, and justice, and rejects violence as
a means of solving problems and join with other faith communities
in observing the United Nations' Decade for a Culture of Peace
and Nonviolence for the World (2001-2010) by prayer, action, and
study of "the things that make for peace" (Luke 19:42);
and be it further
Resolved,
That the Episcopal Church at national, provincial, diocesan, and
congregational levels, with the assistance of Church staff and
peace, justice and education networks, provide worship, study
and action resources and opportunities throughout the Decade which
promote the development of a culture of peace and non-violence
at all levels of society, with special attention to the unique
gifts for peace and justice of the faith community in its history,
theology and practice; and be it further
Resolved,
That the Secretary of General Convention send this resolution
with letters of encouragement in their work for peace and justice
to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the General Secretary
of the World Council of Churches, the President of the United
States and Episcopal Members of Congress.
Following the convention,
there were numerous opportunities for EPF staff and board members
to promote and implement the resolution. There were individuals
in the national church office and within the house of bishops who
wanted to collaborate; other justice groups in the church affirmed
the importance of nonviolence training as basic to all spiritual
formation and church training and teaching. When I spoke to audiences
at national gatherings of Episcopal groups, the response was overwhelmingly
positive.
Before
and After September 11, 2001.
It was a matter of context,
even before September 11, 2001. Violence seemed to be on the tip
of everyone's tongue; and Americans in all classes and communities
seemed concerned to acknowledge and act to change the pervasive
violence of our U.S. culture. Personal and inter-personal violence
had been highly-publicized in the hate crimes that killed James
Byrd and Matthew Shepherd, shootings at Columbine High and other
schools, child abuse, cases of domestic brutality and murder, sexual
harassment cases even at the Supreme Court level, and the Million
Moms March against gun violence. And there was growing consciousness
of the systemic violence in the U.S.: innocent people given the
death penalty; racial profiling; police brutality; racial and class
preference in the criminal justice system; children and families
without health care, equal education, housing and nutrition, or
an adequate income, while tax dollars were being shifted to military
support.
After September
11th, there was a sense of greater urgency among us. It was apparent
that the church must help build a culture of nonviolence. After
the terrorists' attack, EPF and the national church statements called
for nonviolent responses, and the bishops issued their pastoral
letter entitled "Waging Reconciliation" which reads in
part:
…As
members of a global community and the worldwide Anglican Communion,
we are called to bear one another's burdens across the divides
of culture, religion, and differing views of the world. The affluence
of nations such as our own stands in stark contrast to other parts
of the world wracked by the crushing poverty which causes the
death of 6,000 children in the course of a morning. We are called
to self-examination and repentance: the willingness to change
direction, to open our hearts and give room to God's compassion
as it seeks to bind up, to heal, and to make all things new and
whole. … We do so not alone but trusting in your own faithfulness
and your desire to be instruments of peace. …
Let us therefore wage reconciliation. Let us offer our gifts
for the carrying out of God's ongoing work of reconciliation,
healing and making all things new. To this we pledge ourselves
and call our church.
Fall
2001 - Resolution by EPF.
A year before, EPF had decided
to move its fall 2001 board meeting to Oakland to experience a nonviolence
training program called "From Violence to Wholeness."
This decision came after a period of discernment by those of us
on the EPF board. We realized we bore some responsibility for helping
the church implement the Decade resolution. We wondered whether
EPF itself, with its history of peace and justice work since 1939,
could be an effective resource for the rest of the church. Could
we prepare facilitators to be available to Episcopal groups around
the country to explore creative, nonviolent social change? I could
speak from my own experience at FOR, and I recommended "From
Violence to Wholeness" as a spiritually-grounded and holistic
nonviolence training program that could serve as the core for EPF's
program. It was designed by Pace e Bene activists, yet resonated
also with those who were not yet activists. It was being used effectively
with various cultural, faith and secular groups. Also of importance,
it valued diversity and relationship-building; and its goals were
personal and social transformation leading to action. Participants
explored the dynamics and scope of violence and nonviolence, social
and structural change, and the importance and requirements of supportive
communities. The learning process utilized small groups, meditation,
rituals, role plays, story-telling, and other interactive processes.
The board voted to undertake the development of a network of nonviolence
facilitators and trainers who could be available to Episcopal groups
across the country.
Spring
2002 - Resolution in context.
EPF held its first nonviolence
training in May. A diverse group of 20 individuals with prior group
facilitation experience and a commitment to nonviolence converged
in Chicago. EPF's new Executive Director, Jackie Lynn, planned for
months ahead, advertising the program, attracting individuals who
would form a strong foundation for a facilitator network, and fund
raising. Two Pace e Bene trainers and I designed and led the training.
However, many more people applied than we could accommodate, so
we will invite them to a second facilitator training. In the coming
months, we will hold a training for trainers. And we are writing
proposals to offer nonviolence training at Episcopal seminaries.
We will seek more funding to hire more staff who can coordinate
the training program. And we must further enculturate the core program
of "From Violence to Wholeness" into our Episcopal context
- to unite the principles and stories of active nonviolence with
our Episcopal rituals, songs, prayers, resolutions, and peace and
justice stories - and to listen to the words of nonviolence that
we repeat so often in worship services, like the familiar words
of our baptismal covenant:
Will you
seek and serve Christ in all persons,
loving your neighbor as yourself?
I will with God's help.
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people,
and respect the dignity of every human being?
I will with God's help.
The U.N. Decade
resolution calls nations to teach the history, principles and practices
of active nonviolence "at all levels of society." We take
seriously its challenge to transform the violent culture of our
own country. Therefore, it is a priority to make nonviolence training
and resource materials more widely available and accessible if we
are to increase our chances of building a majority movement for
nonviolent social change. It is a necessity to expand our circle
beyond traditional peace communities to include others committed
to justice and social change through nonviolent action, reaching
even into the mainstream of our society. And we must make friends
of our opponents. Although we cannot copy the exact strategies used
by Gandhi or King, we will study our own context and then find ways
to enculturate nonviolence in our own here and now. We can appeal
to the highest common denominators, the values already articulated
in our history, subcultures, communities and institutions.
*In 1998 and 1999, nearly half of the synods
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) passed a Decade
resolution committing themselves to leadership and nonviolence training.
In 1999, ELCA's national board and biennial national assembly passed
the legislation for the whole church. Since then, the Lutheran Peace
Fellowship has conducted numerous nonviolent orientations and trainings,
using material from Pace e Bene's program, From Violence to Wholeness.
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