A Global Movement...
Building a culture of peace involves providing children and adults with an understanding of the principles of and respect for freedom, justice, democracy, human rights, tolerance, equality and solidarity. It implies a collective rejection of violence. It also implies the means and will taking part in the development of society. The Culture of Peace concept has taken shape as a broad socio-political movement, involving partners both in the UN system and beyond. Threats to peace take many forms, from the lack of respect for human rights, justice and democracy to poverty and ignorance. The Culture of Peace is a response to all such threats and seeks solutions that must come from within a society, not imposed from outside.

Quoted from UNESCO

1. How does a recognition of the dignity of all people in the eyes of God affect my relations with people when I am really angry with them?
2. What are the implications of this in national and international affairs?

2. Facing up to Bullying

1. What can be done about bullying in our private lives?
2. What can we do about bullying in public life?

3. Peace Building

1. What steps can I take in my relations with other people and in my general attitude to God and to other people to build peace?
2. What steps could our country take towards other peoples to build peace on earth?

4. "Peace at Any Price"

1. What is meant here by "peace"? What are the dangers to my own true peace if I pursue this type of peace?
2. What are the implications in our national and international relations in we pursue this type of peace?

5. Understanding the Causes of Conflict

1. What are the main causes of conflict in my personal life - with family, friends, and colleagues?
2. What parallels can we see in these personal conflicts in the major conflicts of our nation and world?

6. Conflict Resolution

1. How can we seek to resolve conflict in our own lives? Are there skills we can learn?
2. Can these same skills be used in national and international conflicts?

7. Reconciliation

1. How can I come to reconciliation with someone who has hurt me deeply? How can I forgive them if they continue to hurt me or if they express no regret for past hurts? What will happen to me if I do not forgive them?
2. How can reconciliation be encouraged amongst peoples who have bitter hatred for each other?

8. Facing up to Prejudice

1. Do I ever see differences of race, creed, culture, colour, language, sex, age, as a threat to my own way of life? What would help me to celebrate these differences as God's amazing diversity?
2. How do these differences exacerbate conflict in national and international affairs? What can be done to increase tolerance in the world?

9. Anger - Destructive or Constructive

1. Is anger a constructive or destructive emotion in my personal pursuit of peace?
2. How can anger be used constructively in the pursuit of justice? How can its destructiveness be avoided?

10. Lighting a Candle or Cursing the Darkness

1. In my personal pursuit of peace is it better for me to "light a candle" or to "curse the darkness"?
2. In national and international affairs which is the more important?

11. Non-Violent Action

1. If I believe in non-violence, is it equally important to be verbally non-violent? Is it sufficient to be non-violent physically and verbally yet still to have violence in my heart?
2. How can non-violent action be pursued in public life? What is the value of non-violent action in public life?

Source: "Questions for Reflection", Justice and Peace Scotland (2000)

Principles:

1. Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.

• It is active nonviolent resistance to evil.
• It is aggressive spiritually, mentally and emotionally.
• It is always persuading the opponent of the righteousness of your cause.

2. Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding.

• The end result of nonviolence is redemption and reconciliation.
• The purpose of nonviolence is the creation of the Beloved Community.

3. Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people.

• Nonviolence holds that evil doers are also victims.
• The nonviolence resister seeks to defeat evil, not people.

4. Nonviolence holds that suffering can educate and transform.

• Nonviolence accepts suffering without retaliation.
• Nonviolence accepts violence if necessary, but will never inflict it.
• Nonviolence willingly accepts the consequences of its acts.
• Unearned suffering is redemptive and has tremendous educational and transforming possibilities.
• Suffering can have the power to convert the enemy when reason fails.

5. Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate.

• Nonviolence resists violence of the spirit as well as the body.
• Nonviolent love is spontaneous, unselfish and creative.
• Nonviolent love gives willingly, knowing that the return might be hostility.
• Nonviolent love is active, not passive.
• Nonviolent love is unending in its ability to forgive in order to restore community.
• Nonviolent love does not sink to the level of the hater.
• Love for the enemy is how we demonstrate love for ourselves.
• Love restores community and resists injustice.
• Nonviolence recognises the fact that all life is interrelated.

6. Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice.

• The nonviolent resister has deep faith that justice will eventually win.
• Nonviolence believes that God is a God of justice and love.

Written by Martin Luther King, Jr (1929 - 1968)
US Civil Rights leader who organised nonviolent demonstrations against racial inequality.
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

Asian Practitioners:

• Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
  His campaign of nonviolent civil resistance to British rule helped lead to India's independence in 1947. He shattered the myth that nonviolent action is passive, believing that oppression and injustice should be fought solely by nonviolent means.

"The only people on earth who do not see Christ
and his teachings as nonviolent are Christians."

• Aung San Suu Kyi (1945 -present)
  Leader of the nonviolent movement for human rights and democracy in Burma.

"Peace is life itself. But by peace I do not mean a life of passivity,
I do not mean a life without action
because sometimes we have to act a lot to bring about peace."

Asian Experiences:

The Philippines dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, was overthrown in February 1986 by a nonviolent revolution. His government had been labelled as "illegitimate" by the Catholic hierarchy in a pastoral letter. Nonviolent activism was advocated by opposition politician, Cory Aquino. Marcos banks and businesses, for example, were boycotted. After millions of people took to the streets in Manila, the military backed down from confrontation and Marcos left the country.

In 1999 three women of the Trident Ploughshares group climbed into the Trident nuclear programme's floating research laboratory on Loch Goil and threw all its computers into the sea. They were later acquitted of criminal damage, after the sherriff accepted their defence that rather than committing a crime, they were preventing one. One of them, Angie Zelter, was also acquitted in 1996 after damaging a Hawk aircraft bound for Indonesia on the grounds that she was preventing a crime against humanity in East Timor. The subsequent publicity forced the British government to stop exporting Hawks to Indonesia.

Source: "The Transforming Power of Active Nonviolence",
Vocation for Justice, Autumn 2001, Volume 15 No.3

On 24 January religious leaders from around the world will gather in Assisi at the invitation of the Pope to pray for Peace. In his World Day for Peace Message on 1 January, the Pope invited all believers to pray more intensely for Peace.

The theme of the World Day for Peace Message this year is "No Peace without Justice, no Justice without Forgiveness". It addresses the relationship between justice, forgiveness and peace in the light of international terrorism.

The Australian Catholic Social Justice Council has prepared a Discussion Guide (Available for Download in PDF Format) to the World Day for Peace Message, to help Australian Catholics to support the Assisi prayer gathering. It provides a brief summary of the World Day for Peace Message, questions for discussion, and resources to promote prayer for Peace. You can also request a copy of this Guide in PDF by sending email to ACSJC.

Baha'i Prayer for Peace

Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity.
Be fair in judgement, and guarded in thy speech,
Be a lamp unto those who walk in darkness,
and a home to the stranger.
Be eyes to the blind,
and a guiding light unto the feet of the erring.
Be a breath of life to the body of humankind,
a dew to the soil of the human heart,
and a fruit upon the tree of humility.

Buddhist Prayer for Peace

May all beings everywhere plagued
with sufferings of body and mind
quickly be freed from their illnesses.
May those frightened cease to be afraid,
and may those bound be free.
May the powerless find power,
and may people think of befriending one another.
May those who find themselves in trackless, fearful wilderness -
the children, the aged, the unprotected -
be guarded by beneficial celestials,
and may they swiftly attain Buddhahood.

Christian Prayer for Peace

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred ... let me sow love;
where there is injury ... pardon;
where there is doubt ... faith;
where there is despair ... hope;
where there is darkness ... light;
where there is sadness ... joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled ... as to console;
to be understood ... as to understand;
to be loved ... as to love.
For it is in giving, that we receive;
it is in pardoning, that we are pardoned;
it is in dying, that we are born to eternal life.

Hindu Prayer for Peace

Oh God, lead us from the unreal to the Real.
Oh God, lead us from darkness to light.
Oh God, lead us from death to immortality.
Shanti, Shanti, Shanti unto all.
Oh Lord God almighty, may there be peace in celestial regions.
May there be peace on Earth.
May the waters be appeasing.
May herbs be wholesome,
and may trees and plants bring peace to all.
May all beneficent beings bring peace to us.
May thy Vedic Law propagate peace all through the world.
May all things be a source of peace to us.
And may thy peace itself bestow peace on all
and may that peace come to me also.

Jain Prayer for Peace

Peace and Universal Love is the essence
of the Gospel preached by all Enlightened Ones.
The Lord has preached that equanimity is the Dharma.
Forgive do I creatures all, and let all creatures forgive me.
Unto all have I amity, and unto none enmity.
Know that violence is the root cause of all miseries in the world.
Violence, in fact, is the knot of bondage.
"Do not injure any living being."
This is the eternal, perennial, and unalterable way of spiritual life.
A weapon, howsoever powerful it may be,
can always be superseded by a superior one;
but no weapon can, however,
be superior to non-violence and love.

Jewish Prayer for Peace

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
that we may walk the paths of the Most High.
And we shall beat our swords into ploughshares,
and our spears into pruning hooks.
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation -
neither shall they learn war any more.
And none shall be afraid,
for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts has spoken.

Muslim Prayer for Peace

In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful.
Praise be to the Lord of the Universe who has created us
and made us into tribes and nations
that we may know each other,
not that we may despise each other.
If the enemy incline towards peace,
do thou also incline towards peace,
and trust God, for the Lord is the one that
heareth and knoweth all things.
And the servants of God,
most gracious are those who walk on
the Earth in humility, and when we
address them, we say "PEACE."

Native African Prayer for Peace

Almighty God, the Great Thumb,
we cannot evade to tie any knot;
the Roaring Thunder that splits mighty trees;
the all-seeing Lord up on high who sees
even the footprints of an antelope on a rock mass here on Earth.
You are the one who does not hesitate to respond to our call.
You are the cornerstone of peace.

Native American Prayer for Peace

Oh Great Spirit of our Ancestors, I raise my pipe to you.
To your messengers the four winds,
and to Mother Earth who provides
for your children.
Give us the wisdom to teach our children
to love, to respect, and to be kind
to each other so that they may grow
with peace of mind.
Let us learn to share all good things that
you provide for us on this Earth.

Shinto Prayer for Peace

Although the people living across the ocean
surrounding us, I believe, are all our brothers and sisters,
why are there constant troubles in this world?
Why do winds and waves rise in the oceans surrounding us?
I only earnestly wish that the wind will
soon puff away all the clouds which are
hanging over the tops of mountains.

Sikh Prayer for Peace

God adjudges us according to our deeds,
not the coat that we wear:
that Truth is above everything,
but higher still is truthful living.
Know that we attaineth God when we loveth,
Know that we attaineth God when we loveth,
and only victory endures in consequences
of which no one is defeated.

Zoroastrian Prayer for Peace

We pray to God to eradicate all the misery in the world:
that understanding triumph over ignorance,
that generosity triumph over indifference,
that trust triumph over contempt, and
that truth triumph over falsehood.

Source: The Axe, Vol XVIII No 4, Oct-Dec 2001