Welcome to the Peace Month 2011 webpage!
Second Annual NWYM Peace Month
January 2011
Our Stories of Peace
Resources:
- Peace Trunks from the GFU Peace and Justice Center.
- Available Speakers, Trainers and Discussion Leaders
- Peace Education Curricula
- Film Suggestions (an annotated PDF listing)
- Activities with Children: Ideas for activities with children will be mailed to each meeting’s pastor and Christian education clerk. Due to copyright issues, we cannot post this information on the Web. Please be in touch with your pastor or Christian education clerk to view this information, or look on the ‘curricula’ page if you would like to purchase a children’s peace-oriented curriculum.
- Activities with Youth (pdf outline)
- Daily Devotional Reader (pdf). If you want to print it, you should get a copy from your meeting or write to peaceeducation@nwfriends.org to get a paper copy sent in the mail.
- Our Stories Poster
- Our Stories Poster (Spanish)
- Leader’s Handbook
If it’s helpful, use these weekly themes to form sermons, discussions, guest lectures, Sunday school classes and events.
- January 2 – Friends in the 17th century: How Friends came to be a “peace church”
- January 9 – Friends in the 18th century: John Woolman
- January 16 – Friends in the 19th century: Lucretia Mott
- January 23 – Friends in the 20th century: Elise Boulding
- January 30 – Friends today: How are we called?
Purpose:
The communities in NWYM represent a variety of beliefs, practices, and education levels regarding the Friends peace testimony. We hope Peace Month will provide each congregation space to begin or continue discussions regarding peace and social justice issues in ways that are helpful. Our main goal is to create a safe setting where people in your meeting can openly discuss this issue, no matter where their opinions fall along the belief spectrum.
Each meeting is encouraged to host at least one event each week during January related to the peace testimony. Perhaps have an emphasis on peace in a regularly-scheduled gathering (e.g., Sunday morning worship), or a special event, such as showing and discussing a movie or inviting a guest speaker. Your whole congregation could be involved in these, or you could do something for each age level on different weeks.
By the end of Peace Month, it is our hope that individuals:
- will be better educated about the Friends peace testimony,
- will sense deeper bonds with others in their meeting through opportunities to discuss peace and justice issues more openly, and
- feel challenged and equipped to follow Christ’s call to peacemaking more faithfully.
When we practiced Peace Month together as a Yearly Meeting last year, Friends expressed a feeling of encouragement in knowing that others across the Yearly Meeting were also discussing and wrestling with these issues at the same time. We hope this continues to be the case for you and your congregation.
We don’t want to simply create extra work for those in leadership at your meeting, so we hope the resources provided will give you a variety of options that will fit your congregation’s needs while helping you incorporate education about the peace testimony into your annual curriculum.
Questions or Suggestions?
Contact the Peace Education Subcommittee: peaceeducation@nwfriends.org
