Shalom Activism: Peacemaking in All Spheres

by Jonathan Dorsett

If you haven’t heard of it before, Peace School is a year long programme exploring what it means to be a peacemaker in every area of life; personal, local and global. The programme investigates peacemaking from the biblical perspective of shalom. It views peace as not merely the absence of violence, but as the presence wholeness; it is about life giving relationships with others, with God and with the rest of creation.

Peace School is a community of learning where everyone’s contribution is valued, where everyone is a student and everyone is a teacher. You do not have to have any experience or prior knowledge to take part, just a commitment to actively participate. The programme is open to everyone from homemakers to lawyers, teachers to shop workers, Peace School enables you to investigate how to be shalom activists in your own spheres of influence i.e. your work, community, family, interest areas etc.

The programme begins with a week long summer residential followed by four weekend residentials throughout the year. In between gathered times participants interact and support one another through an online blog and discussion forum. The gathered times give us an opportunity to explore a whole raft of subjects together from ‘The Myth of Redemptive Violence’ to ‘The Importance of Playfulness’. Throughout the programme there is a focus on story; our own individual stories; stories that inspire us; stories that warn us; stories from history; and stories in the making today. Around this idea of how stories inform and express our worldview are four other themes; Creativity and Expression; Theology and Values; Spirituality and Character; Strategies and Models. More information on the content of the programme is detailed on the Peace School website: www.peaceschool.org.uk.

Peace School seeks to survey the world through a Jesus-centred, Christian understanding of shalom. While the programme is designed for people wishing to explore shalom from a Christian perspective, we aim to provide a welcoming environment for people of any background or faith who want to dig into the rich and fulfilling understanding of the Christian vision of peace.

There’s no set fee for taking part in Peace School, instead we lay out on the website the costs of running the programme and let participants decide how much they are able to contribute. The current average cost is worked out to be around £800 per person for the year.

The dates for the 2008 – 2009 Peace School are -

Summer School - 1st to 8th August 2008, Beamsley Centre, North Yorkshire.

Weekends - 17th to 19th October 2008; 23rd to 25th January 2009; 17th to 19th April 2009; and 19th to 21st June 2009, all at the Chellington Centre, Bedfordshire.

Please do have a look at the website for more information about Peace School (www.peaceschool.org.uk), and if you would like any more details or would like to discuss taking part in this year’s programme please contact the programme coordinator Jonathan Dorsett at jonathan@peaceschool.org.uk or 07930 364733.