Nonviolence Archives

April 5, 2013

Peacemaking Travel Study Seminar in Northern Ireland: Reconciliation in the Celtic Context

Posted 5:42pm

At First Presbyterian Church Armgh talking about peace with young people

Post by Andy Gans, pastor of Fort King Presbyterian Church in Ocala, FL

Day three has been a day of travel. We traveled to the City of Armagh and visited several places. Our first stop was to the Center for Celtic Spirituality and a historic Celtic village dating back to the time of St. Patrick. While at the center we learned about the history of St. Patrick and his life from no religious affluence to slavery, to Christian missionary. St. Patrick considered the city of Armagh as the ecclesiastical center of Ireland.

April 3, 2013

Peacemaking Travel Study Seminar in Northern Ireland: Reconciliation in the Celtic Context

Posted 5:55pm

A view of the grounds of Dromantine Retreat Center

Post by Andy Gans, pastor of Fort King Presbyterian Church in Ocala, FL

Our group is made up of 27 people from across the nation. We have a handful of clergy and several elders, most of us are Presbyterian but there are a couple who are not. Tonight we had a great education in to some of the names and terms that surround the unrest between Ireland and Northern Ireland. I am disturbed, again, at how religion plays so much into division between people. I keep asking myself, if people are so faithful how can they hate so much? Religion is just part of the division as religion has become a marker of whose side you are on. If you are protestant you are traditionally on the side of being loyal to the crown of England. If you are Catholic you are on the side of a united Ireland that is independent of England. Oh how politics and religion make strange bed fellows.

January 18, 2013

New Approaches to Peacemaking and Nonviolence for the 21st Century

Posted 12:00pm

Across the Presbyterian Church (USA), congregations and presbyteries are being asked to participate in a church-wide Peace Discernment conversation to “seek clarity as to God’s call to the church to embrace nonviolence as its fundamental response to the challenges of violence, terror,and war; and to identify, explore, and nurture new approaches to active peacemaking and nonviolence.”

January 18, 2013

Discerning Peace: Seventeen Reflections from the Montreat College Conference 2013

Posted 12:56am

At the 2013 Montreat College Conference, I provided interested students and leaders two questions to respond to in writing. The responses are compiled below.

Where do you see violence in your community and world?

Emotional violence, especially against youth. In ourselves. My high school with fights between peers. Wars between religions. A shooting at my kids’ high school. Demonstrations by hate groups. Fighting at sporting events. Various wars around the world. Frankly, where do we not see violence?

November 29, 2012

General Assembly grants Palestine non-member observer State status at UN

Posted 8:38pm

Today, the United Nations General Assembly grants Palestine non-member observer State status at UN. The vote passed with 138 members voting in favor, 9 against, and the remaining abstaining. I had the unique opportunity to spend the day starting with the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and then with the UN… Read more »

October 25, 2012

A revolutionary idea

Posted 5:34pm

“There is nothing more revolutionary than the idea ‘love your neighbor!’’ Germán Zárate reminded the group who gathered at the Church Center for the United Nations on October 23, 2012. Germán, Director of the Diaconal of the Iglesia Presbiteriana de Colombia and the Rev. Mamie Broadhurst, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission co-worker in Colombia, spoke about… Read more »

September 25, 2012

President Obama addresses the UN General Assembly

Posted 3:09pm

President Obama and other world leaders are in town this week for the 67th United Nations General Assembly. I had the opportunity to join the President and others in the opening of the General Debate this morning. Below is President Obama’s speech. THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary Remarks by the President to… Read more »

September 13, 2012

UN visit from the National Evangelical Synod of Syria & Lebanon

Posted 5:14pm

Yesterday, the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations welcomed our partners from the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon to advocate with governments of the United Nations Security Council. Each representative we met received a package including letters from the Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon, stories of what is happening to Christians in… Read more »

September 6, 2012

International Day against Nuclear Tests Celebrated at the UN

Posted 5:42pm

Rochelle Rawls-Shaw, intern with the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations attended a discussion today on the International Day against Nuclear Tests at the United Nations. Below is her reflection on the event. Read more »

August 30, 2012

A prayer for Nigeria

Posted 4:44pm

“No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders, but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise.”
– Isaiah 60:18 Read more »

Posts Categorized: Nonviolence