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Peacemaking Resources and Publications

Featured Resources

Proclaiming the Good News of God’s Peace

Image of the 2009 adevent resource

Peacemakers from across the United States and around God's world contributed to this daily devotional booklet for Advent 2009. Using lectionary texts, the writers reflect on God's gift of peace and explore what it ways to live as peacemakers following Jesus during Advent and throughout the year. Use Proclaiming the Good News of God's Peace in your personal devotions. Share copies with family and friends including those who homebound, in nursing homes, serving in the military or away at school.

Item # 2435809006 • $0.40

Piece Work/Peace Work: Working Together for Peace and Sudan

Image of the resource Piece Work/Peace Work: Working  Together for Peace and Sudan

This study resource on Sudan is designed for elementary children from Grades 1 through 6. It is divided into four sessions, one intergenerational session and a resource section which includes stories of Sudan and information on African quilt history and Sudanese religions and customs.  Using a quilt project, the study explores the relationship between the work of making a quilt from different pieces of fabric and the work of making peace. Activities include games, simulations and art projects.  Through an exploration of situations faced by the children of Sudan, children are led into an understanding of the largest country in Africa and learn also of the many divisions within the country. Worship, songs, scripture, a book center and a computer station all enhance the learning process.

Item #2435809008 • $8.00

 

Justice and Peace Shall Kiss: Praying through the Year

Cover of Justice and Peace Shall Kiss

This resource from the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program contains prayers or other liturgical elements for each of the Special Days and Programmatic Emphases appearing on the Presbyterian Planning Calendar that include concern for peace and justice. Prayers are also included for the major holidays of Christmas Eve, Easter and Pentecost.

Item #2435809001 • $3.00

Web-based resources

Finding God’s Values in Today’s World: A Pilgrimage for Understanding

In December 2004, after the bitterly-contested presidential and congressional elections, Forest Hill Church, Presbyterian in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, perceived a partisan divide within its congregation.  To dig deeper and to understand why the divide existed in the first place and, more importantly, to see if it could be bridged at least within our church community, a small but diverse group of members was invited to meet and talk about their values. These discussions provided clues that helped the participants discover what shaped their own and others' belief systems and, in turn, not only shed light on why the divisions existed but also led to discovery of beliefs held in common. While the Values Conversation began with an initial focus on addressing the political divisiveness in the 2004 General Election, it became a transformative journey for the participants, and it resulted in agreement on an Affirmation of Faith.

A Values Conversation at Forest Hill Church, Presbyterian This is an Adobe Acrobat pdf document.

Staying Spiritually Alive for the Long Haul

Peacemaking is not a task for a moment, nor is it a cause for a day. Peacemaking is a calling for our lifetime — following Jesus. How do we stay alive and engaged for the journey? Dick and Charlene Watts shared insights on that question at a training for presbytery peacemaking leaders. Download Staying Spiritually Alive for the Long Haul. This is an Adobe Acrobat pdf document.

PUNO Quick Guides to Quick Information

PUNO logo

The Presbyterian United Nations Office has developed several "Quick Guides" to help access information about different countries and different crises. These guides provide links to different Web sites, most of which are not sponsored by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). They focus on the UN system and represent only the first step to learning more about what's going on in the world.

Peacemaking Scenes Through the Seasons

These six, brief skits are designed to help Presbyterians lift up the 25th Anniversary of the peacemaking emphasis within the Presbyterian Church. They require only a few easily obtainable props and may be adapted to fit a variety of situations.

Download this resource This is an Adobe Acrobat pdf document.

Faithful Living in a Time of Violence and Terrorism

This six-session study This is an Adobe Acrobat pdf document. (1 MB) explores the issues addressed in the Resolution on Violence, Religion, and Terrorism approved by the 216th General Assembly (2004). It includes options for use in a variety of settings. 

Power: A Bible Study of Mark 9:33-35 This is an Adobe Acrobat pdf document.

Living Faithfully in a Global Arena: Heresy and United States Foreign Policy

Steps Along the Way: Living as Peacemakers in a Violent World Supplemental Readings

Publications

Peace Notes

Contact Dayna Oliver to have Peace Notes sent to you electronically.

Of special interest to college and seminary students

Thinking about War and Peace

The 215th General Assembly (2003) directed the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program and the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy to produce and distribute resources for college and seminary students on the morality, costs, and consequences of war in the light of the teachings of Jesus Christ as found in the whole of the Scriptures.

Thinking about War and Peace as Followers of Jesus: Resources for College and Seminary Students

Download Thinking About War and Peace, a PDF document.

Among such resources are:

PC(USA) General Assembly Statements Available Online

Peacemaking: The Believers' Calling

This resolution This is an Adobe Acrobat pdf document. , adopted by the 192nd General Assembly (1980), established peacemaking as an emphasis of the church and led to the creation of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program.

Iraq: Our Responsibility and the Future (with study guide)

This study paper (plus study guide) This is an Adobe Acrobat pdf document. focuses on Iraq: Our Responsibility and the Future, a resolution adopted by the 216th General Assembly (2004).

Iraq and Beyond

This resolution This is an Adobe Acrobat pdf document. was adopted by the 215th General Assembly (2003).

Faithful Living in a Time of Violence and Terrorism

This six-session study This is an Adobe Acrobat pdf document. (1 MB) explores the issues addressed in the Resolution on Violence, Religion, and Terrorism approved by the 216th General Assembly (2004). It includes options for use in a variety of settings.

PC(USA) Resources Available through Presbyterian Distribution Services

Presbyterians and Military Service

This booklet examines options related to military service in question and answer form. Issues covered range from enlistment procedures related to the draft to an understanding of conscientious objection. PDS #7027005035. $.35 plus s/h.

Iraq: Our Responsibility and the Future (with study guide)

This study paper focuses on a resolution adopted by the 216th General Assembly (2004). The study stimulates reflection and discussion on "just war" and other principles of conscience concerning the military action in Iraq. PDS #6860005002. $4.00 plus s/h.

Iraq and Beyond (with study guide)

This study paper focuses on Iraq and Beyond, a resolution adopted by the 215th General Assembly (2003). PDS #6860003005. $3.00 plus s/h.

Just Peacemaking

This six-session study considers Just Peacemaking and the Call for International Intervention for Humanitarian Rescue, a resolution adopted by the 210th General Assembly (1998). PDS #7027002024. $4.95 plus s/h.

Christian Obedience in a Nuclear Age

A statement by the 200th General Assembly (1988) that explores the question of the morality of war, with the added dilemma of whether the existence of nuclear weapons has changed the nature of war in such a way as to reshape the Just War Principles. PDS #6860004003. $1.00 plus s/h.

Christian Obedience in a Nuclear Age

This book contains background study information on the statement. PDS # OGA88102. $2.00 plus s/h.

PC(USA) Web-Based Resources

Presbyterians and Military Service Series

  • Resources on Military Service, the Draft and Conscientious Objection
  • Enlistment Q&A
  • The Draft Q&A
  • Conscientious Objection Q&A
  • Selective Conscientious Objection and Just War Principles Q&A

This series contains leaflets exploring options related to military service ranging from enlisting to registering for the draft to conscientious objection status. They include many helpful contacts in order to find more information.

More resources

A Soldier Reflects

The following journal entries come from a young soldier deployed to Iraq during the early days of the war. He has shared his reflections, anonymously, so that others may know something of what young men and women in the military faced.

Books

Bainton, Roland H., Christian Attitudes toward War and Peace (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1979).

Brueggemann, Walter. Peace (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2001).

Cahill, Lisa Sowle. Love Your Enemies: Discipleship, Pacifism, and Just War Theory (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 1994).

Elshtain, Jean Bethke. Just War against Terror (New York: Basic Books, 2003).

Long, Edward Leroy, Jr. Facing Terrorism: Responding as Christians (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004).

Nelson-Pallmeyer, Jack. Saving Christianity from Empire (New York: Continuum Books, 2005).

Wink, Walter. The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1998).

Winn, Albert Curry. Ain't Gonna Study War No More: Biblical Ambiguity and the Abolition of War (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993).

Web sites

Important phone number for those serving in the military

Recognizing the stress placed on individuals serving in the military, a coalition of nonprofit, non-governmental organizations have created the GI Rights Hotline: (877) 447-4487 (877-GI RGHTS). The hotline provides information to members of the military about discharges, grievance and complaint procedures and other civil rights. Individuals who have enlisted in the armed forces and come to question that decision based on new understandings of faith may use the hotline or visit the GI Rights Hotline Web site.

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  For more information, contact Dayna Oliver at (888) 728-7228 extension 8700 - send an email. Or write to the Peacemaking Program, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202.  
     
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