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peacebuilding organizations

Building a Shared Israel: One Child, One Family, and one Community at a Time

Building a Shared Israel: One Child, One Family, and one Community at a Time

by Vicki Garlock

Long-term conflicts require long-term solutions. With over 1,750 children in grades preK-12 at six schools across Israel, Hand in Hand is becoming an important player in the Middle Eastern peace process.

Peacemaking with "the Other"

Peacemaking with "the Other"

by Paul Chaffee

What does living life as an ‘interfaith activist’ mean? Millions have joined the cause in recent months, so we can well ask ourselves: What do interfaith activists share in common within our own communities and in the world? A quick, simplistic answer might be that all of us are striving towards peacemaking with ‘the other.’

Ruminations on Em-Powerment

Ruminations on Em-Powerment

by Frederica Helmiere

After my second child was born, I found myself yearning for a hearty dose of vocational discernment. Perhaps it was the presence of this new little life in our home that compelled me to reassess my own life’s calling, or perhaps it was a general growing dissatisfaction with my work that I could no longer ignore.

Beating a Message of Peace in Uganda

Beating a Message of Peace in Uganda

by Vicki Garlock

In a country often known for unspeakable violence and political strife, Buyondo Micheal offers a beacon of hope to those desperately seeking peace. As founder of Faiths Together Uganda (FTU), Micheal uses dance, music, and art to unify and delight. Inspired by global interfaith initiatives, he provides the funding and the energy for events that cross religious, cultural, and tribal divides.

Women Powerfully, Silently Walk Together For Peace

Voices fell quiet as hundreds of women of different faith traditions filed silently through the busy throngs at the Salt Palace Convention Center on the opening day of the Parliament of the World’s Religions. The gathering that happens every five years brings together thousands of religious and spiritual people from around the world.

Exploring Religion, Peace & World Affairs at Georgetown University

The attacks on September 11, 2001. Religious conflict in Northern Ireland. Protests over cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.

KAICIID Launches Peace Mapping Program

As world leaders prepared to adopt the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” at the United Nations on September 25-27, the Vienna-based International Dialogue Centre, known as KAICIID, launched the “Peace Map” in New York City: At the heart of its first phase, the Peace Map offers an interactive database of over 400 organizations that work to promote interreligious dialogue around the world.

Creativity Melts Syrian-Lebanese Barriers

Beirut - Muhammad, who arrived from the Syrian city of Homs, lost his leg in the Syrian war. At the border, he was met by Lebanese who treated and cared for him until he could walk on his prosthetic leg. He then went to the market looking for a job, where he was hit with racism. He could not find any work and store owners kicked him out, cursing him and throwing accusations that he would rob them for sure. This discrimination and oppression made him hate all the Lebanese without exception, forgetting those who cared for him and who extended a helping hand.

Neuropeace: Putting Science to Work for Peace

Imagine this elephant picture as the human brain. The rider on top – he represents conscious processes. Out of all of the brain’s activity, he seemingly directs everything, allowing us to “know” what we are doing. The rest of the elephant? It represents the unconscious aspects of our brain, the parts that we don’t have so much information about. Surprising, isn’t it? Here we thought that we lived in a rational age where cognitive science had at least figured out much of what there is to know about the brain. Actually, it’s quite the opposite.

Gatherings Large and Small Call for Peace

Last month I was glad to be invited to two significant interfaith gatherings, one in South Korea and the other in Southern India.

Europe’s Religious Leaders Working Together for Peace

A Profile of the European Council of Religious Leaders

Talking Back to Hate Around the World

Report: Talking Back to Hate Campaign Activities 2013-2014

Calling Forth the Vision and Voices of Women Building Peace

Peace X Peace Passing the Torch

The Work of the Peace Council

A Practical Commitment to a Non-Violent Search for Peace

SARAH Celebrates 10 Years

Eleven years ago I awoke to the unbelievable imagery of a catalytic shock to our world, a wake up call inspiring millions of people to co-create a new world. In particular, it would be the activating yeast mobilizing women to embrace leadership in a familiar but long forgotten way.

“Interfaith 3.0” from the Outside

In the December 2011 issue of The Interfaith Observer, Bettina Gray wrote about the recent changes in the interfaith movement. Her piece is impressive and inspiring, an optimistic view of our interfaith future. She wrote as one with significant experience and a long history in interfaith work; but she also wrote from the perspective of someone embedded in the “mainstream” religions that have dominated interfaith work since its beginnings. Once restricted to Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam), the administrative core of interfaith work gradually expanded to include the other two members – Buddhism and Hinduism – of what have been called “the big five” religions.

Interfaith and Peace, Social Justice, and Respect for the Earth

“War no more.” That was the hope that inspired Charles Bonney as he explained in his opening address to the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions. Bonney believed that a major cause of conflict was “because the religious faiths of the world have most seriously misunderstood and misjudged each other.”i One hundred years later, Hans Küng declared that there would be “No peace in the world without peace between religions.”ii