Peace

Prayer for International Non-violence Day
The United Nations has designated October 2, Gandhi’s birthday, as International Non-violence Day. To help people of faith honor the day the Catholic Church has published this worship service resource, which contains an opening prayer, scripture readings, liturgies, intercessory prayers, and more.

Lectionary on Peace
Acts of Faith, the Council’s free lectionary-based worship resource, provides faith leaders with commentaries, prayers, key facts, and personal reflections to aid in planning services of worship.

Preparing the Way: Blessed are the Peacemakers
A reflection on the beatitude of peacemaking, originally written as part of a social justice study for Lent.

Baring Our Swords
Sermon preaching by NC Council of Churches Executive Director Jennifer Copeland at Duke Chapel on November 28, 2004. The text was Isaiah 2:1-5.

Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, Litany of Disarmament Prayer Service

Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters in the USA, Prayer Services for International Day of Nonviolence

Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, Prayer for Peace and Nonviolence

Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, Prayer for Conversion to Gospel Nonviolence

Center of Concern, A Call for Prayer and Solidarity

Isaiah 2:2-5

Psalm 46

Luke 6:27-36

1 Peter 3:8-17

Psalm 85

Romans 12:9-21

Matthew 5:1-48

John 14:25-27

Self-Paced Study on Nonviolence
A series of free, self-paced, online classes offered by the Metta Center for Nonviolence, a nonprofit organization that has special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council at the United Nations. Take classes in a number of areas, including: Introduction to Nonviolence, Peace and Conflict Studies, Nonviolence Action, Spirituality of Nonviolence, and Data and Strategy. Certification is available to individuals and groups for completing the study.

Nonviolence Reading List
A collection of books on peace by the Metta Center for Nonviolence.

Clergy Anti-Racism Preparedness Toolkit
Contains theological reflections, facts about active hate groups, tips for counter protesters, action items, and more.

Host a movie screening and discussion:

Pray the Devil Back to Hell
Pray the Devil Back to Hell chronicles the remarkable story of the Liberian women who came together to end a bloody civil war and bring peace to their shattered country. Thousands of women – ordinary mothers, grandmothers, aunt and daughters, both Christian and Muslim – came together to pray for peace and then staged a silent protest outside of the Presidential Palace. Armed with only white t-shirts and the courage of their convictions, they demanded a resolution to the country’s civil war. Their actions were a critical element in bringing about an agreement during the stalled peace talks.

A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict
A Force More Powerful uses stunning archival footage to present six stories of successful nonviolent movements around the world. Each includes interviews with witnesses, survivors and unsung heroes who contributed to these century-changing events. The stories include: the 1960 Nashville, Tennessee campaign to desegregate the city’s downtown business district, which was emblematic of the American civil rights movement; Mohandas Gandhi’s famous Salt March of 1930 – a turning point in the movement that paved the way for India’s independence from Britain; the consumer boycott campaign against apartheid in the black townships of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa in the mid 1980s; the courage and endurance of Denmark’s citizens during the five-year Nazi occupation of World War II; the 1980 Gdansk Shipyard strike that launched the Solidarity movement leading to the fall of communism in Poland; and the national protest days led by Chilean copper miners in 1983, which showed that public opposition to the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet was possible, and signaled the start of a nonviolent democratic opposition.

The Singing Revolution
First occupied by the Soviets in 1939, then by the Nazis, and then by the Soviets again, Estonia lived through decades of terror. By the end of World War II, more than one-quarter of the population had been deported to Siberia, been executed, or had fled the country. Music sustained the Estonian people during those years, and was such a crucial part of their struggle for freedom that their successful bid for independence is known as the Singing Revolution. During those years, hundreds of thousands gathered in public to sing forbidden patriotic songs and to rally for independence. The Singing Revolution tells the moving story of how the Estonian people peacefully regained their freedom–and helped topple an empire along the way. It is the story of humankind’s irrepressible drive for freedom and self-determination.

Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
Full audio of a speech given by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his untimely death.

Aware | Prepare | Act
Resources from Metropolitan Community Churches for responding to racism, white supremacists, and hate rallies. Contains tips for writing a letter to the editor, denominational statements of faith, and other resources for peaceful action.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”
-Dwight D. Eisenhower Address “The Chance for Peace”. Delivered before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, 4/16/1953