Eastern Synod Assembly 2012

To: The Congregations of the Eastern Synod

Regarding: 2012 Eastern Synod Assembly MOTION 3.1“A Call to Non-Violence,”

From:Director of Public Policy and Service Ministries, Rev/ W. Phil Heinze

Date: December 10, 2012

Motion 3.1 included the following directive:

"We therefore request Synod Council and the Director of Public Policy and Service Ministries to identify or develop resources to help congregations study and work toward restorative practices and just peace in the world, and to respond to violence in the home, at work and at school, and in that perpetrated against creation.

At the November 2012 meeting the Eastern Synod Council I presented a list of information and material for distribution to Synod congregations and specialized ministry leaders in compliance with this directive. The Council gave its approval and suggested that the materials be shared through Eastern Synod E-Notes and that the materials also be made available in print form for those who do not use the internet.

The following are some resources suggested for possible congregational use:

  1. Study and work toward restorative practices and peaceful interactions in the home, school and workplace
  • Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Create Your Life,Marshall B. Rosenberg PhD, © 2003, Puddledancer Press

“…for centuries our culture has taught us to think and speak in ways that can actually perpetuate conflict, internal pain and even violence. Nonviolent Communication partners practical skills with a powerful consciousness and vocabulary to help you get what you want peacefully.”

  • Sojourners On The Issues “Christians and Non-Violence Discussion Guide”

(Product Code: DG_NON - Requires Acrobat reader)
For small groups or individual study! Designed to spark discussion and thought about how to live out God's call for justice in our world. Each session includes Sojourners articles, questions for discussion, and ideas for further study. (4 sessions, 10 articles, 37 pages)
About this guide: Nonviolent love for one’s enemies is not an optional accessory in Christian living, but rather a key part of following Jesus. During the past 50 years, most large-scale overthrows of repressive regime’s in East Germany, South Africa, the Philippines, and Chile, to name a few, have happened through nonviolent resistance rather than military action.

Talks | TEDx: Scilla Elworthy: Fighting with non-violence

How do you deal with a bully without becoming a thug? In this wise and soulful talk, peace activist Scilla Elworthy maps out the skills we need -- as nations and individuals -- to fight extreme force without using force in return.To answer the question of why and how non-violence works, sheevokes historical heroes --Aung San Suu Kyi, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela -- and the personal philosophies that powered their peaceful protests. (Filmed at TEDxExeter.)

Scilla Elworthy founded Oxford Research Group in 1982, to promote effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers and their opponents.

  • Talks | TEDx : Karen Armstrong makes her TED Prize wish: the Charter for Compassion

People want to be religious, says scholar Karen Armstrong; we should help make religion a force for harmony. She asks the TED community to help build a Charter for Compassion -- to restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious doctrine.

Karen Armstrong is a provocative, original thinker on the role of religion in the modern world.

Here's what people are committing to!
"I will commit to teach my children how to understand and provide
compassion to others."
  • Restorative Justice
  • International Institute for Restorative Practices: See
  • Also visit:
  • And visit
  • Faith Care (Communities Affirming Restorative Experiences)
  • Learning How to Grow Restorative Churches
  • Restorative Practice Framework

Possibilities:

-3 day growth event at LutherHostel

- Study program at WLS

-Faith Care program in February 2013

(Rev. Bruce Schenk is open to ‘donating’ a workshop to the Eastern Synod.)[See Note at end of document]

  • The Things That Make for Peace [Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, Presbyterian Mission Agency, Presbyterian Church-USA] - a five-week adult study for small or large groups to be used during A Season of Peace or any time of the year. It focuses on the inner and outer path to peace as foundational to faithful discipleship. Each session has a “dig deeper” section for study through the week. See:
  • Anti-Bullying Programs
  • Canadian Red Cross “Stand Up 2 Bullying: If you see it you can stop it!
    See:
  • RespectED: Violence & Abuse Prevention

See:

  • Stop A Bully: Safe and Anonymous (A school based program)

See:

  • Heroic Imagination Project: Transforming compassion into heroic action(A nonprofit organization that teaches people how to overcome the naturalhuman tendency to watch and wait in moments of crisis and to create meaningful and lasting change in their lives.)

See:

  1. Study and Work toward Non-Violence and Peacemaking
  2. Project Ploughshares: See -

Project Ploughshares takes its name and its vision from the ancient biblical vision in the Book of Isaiah in which the material and human wealth consumed by military preparations are transformed into resources for human development, thereby removing the roots of war itself.

"God shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more." Isaiah 2:4

Project Ploughshares operates under the belief, shared by all of our sponsoring churches, that

1. War is to be and can be avoided. 2. The use of force in national and international relations is to be minimized. 3. Conflict is to be resolved as much as possible in the interests of justice and without resort to violence. 4. The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons cannot be justified under any circumstances and are contrary to the will of God.

Project Ploughshares was established as an agency of The Canadian Council of Churches to give practical expression to the fulfillment of God's call to bear witness to peace, reconciliation and non-violence and to contribute to the building of a national and international order that will serve the goals of peace with justice, freedom and security for all.

  1. Global Voices for Non-Violence

See:

  1. Directory - See:
  1. “FromDictatorshiptoDemocracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, Fourth U.S. Edition, Gene Sharp

Download at:

  1. Oxford Research Group:

The Oxford Research Group (ORG) is a leading independent think-tank that has been influential for 30 years in pioneering the idea of sustainable approaches to security as an alternative to violent global confrontation, through original research, wide-ranging dialogue, and practical policy recommendations.

  1. Christian Peacemaker Teams

See:

  1. Peace and Conflict Studies: ConradGrebelUniversityCollege, University of Waterloo

See:

  1. Centre for Peace Studies, McMasterUniversity

See:

  1. Critique of Current Canadian Governmental Military Policy
  2. Warrior Nation: Rebranding Canada in an Age of Anxiety, by Ian McKay, Jamie Swift, Between The Lines, May 2012

Once known for peacekeeping, Canada is becoming a militarized nation whose apostles - the New Warriors-are fighting to shift public opinion. New Warrior zealots seek to transform postwar Canada's central myth-symbols. Peaceable kingdom. Just society. Multicultural tolerance. Reasoned public debate. Their replacements? A warrior nation. Authoritarian leadership. Permanent political polarization.

Ian McKay is one of Canada's leading historians. In 2009 the Canadian Historical Association awarded Ian the Sir. John A. Macdonald Prize for the best book in Canadian history for his book "Reasoning Otherwise." Jamie Swift is the author of a dozen books, from biography and corporate muckraking to political theory and environmental politics. He has held the Michener Fellowship for Public Service Journalism at Queen's.

Sponsors: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Council of Canadians, WorkersHistoryMuseum, Citizens for Public Justice. Media Sponsor: rabble.ca

Note

This material is being forward to Waterloo Lutheran Seminary and the LutherHostel planning committee for them to consider the possibility of partnering with The Rev. Bruce Schenk and Faith Care (Communities Affirming Restorative Experiences) in offering one or more 3 day growth events either as a curriculum piece at WLS or at LutherHostel.

Synod Council gratefully receives Pastor Schenk’soffered workshop donation and should neither WLS nor LutherHostel be able to host such a workshop, the Synod Council will do so.

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