On Earth Peace invites you to participate in the 2012 campaign for the International Day of Prayer for Peace, September 21.
We are seeking two hundred communities who will organize a public prayer event on or near September 21, 2012.
We are especially calling for youth and young adults to step up to organize creative and exciting public events where their communities pray together for peace.
An initiative of the United Nations and the World Council of Churches, the International Day of Prayer for Peace is a time when the guns, armies and militias go silent as 24-hr ceasefires are observed around the world, and when people and grassroots groups join in celebration, prayer and speaking out about their hopes for a more peaceful world.
On September 21, hundreds of thousands of people around the world express their commitment to building community and building peace—neighbor to neighbor; neighborhood by neighborhood; crossing racial, ethnic, and class lines; and reaching around the world.
Since 1974, On Earth Peace’s education, reconciliation and organizing programs have touched thousands of people in hundreds of congregations and groups. On Earth Peace grows from a three-hundred year faith legacy of opposing war and seeking reconciliation, and we are now laying plans for the next century of eliminating violence and building peace, in God’s service.
Through our 2012 IDPP campaign, we invite individuals and faith/community groups to grow in faith and hope for the future that God intends for our communities and the world. As it is written in Jeremiah 29, “Seek the peace of the city - for in its peace you will find peace.” On Earth Peace believes that the “city” here can apply to towns, to neighborhoods, to rural communities, and our global metropolis. We believe God calls us to fervently pray for healing, wholeness, justice, and peace, and to be involved in shaping the destiny of our communities.
Resources will be made updated throughout the campaign and can be found on the On Earth Peace’s IDPP website, on topics including vigil organizing, liturgical ideas, media hints, and more.
In addition, campaign staff will provide webinars on topics including planning a successful vigil, garnering media attention for your efforts, and organizing a listening initiative as part of the lead-up to your efforts.
We are especially inviting participating groups prepare the way for their IDPP event by carrying out a listening initiative in the period leading up to September 21.
A listening initiative is a focused effort to reach out and gather up stories from people in your community, asking who is affected by violence, how they are hurting, what causes they see, and what signs of hope people see.
We see listening initiatives as a building block for celebration/prayer services on Sept 21 because they put you in touch with the community in a new way. As a first step, stories from the listening initiative are presented in your public prayer vigil the week of September 21. It is our experience that the extra effort to organize a listening initiative builds new or deeper relationships and can lead to ongoing efforts to eliminate violence and build peace.
Sample questions and a basic plan for organizing a listening initiative are found in the Resources section of our website.
In 2009, I was leading a listening initiative in Rockford, Illinois, as part of my preparation for the IDPP. I got in touch with different faith-based and non faith-based community organizations, which exposed me to the Rockford community: The pain, the hope and the joy that lies within, but above all the openness and willingness of different people wanting to work together to bring about change. My experience in Rockford with a listening initiative helped shape my church planting effort, making it relevant in meeting the needs of our community.” Quote from Samuel Sarpiya, Rockford, IL.
Sarpiya's listening initiative laid the groundwork for sustained efforts to mobilize the Rockford community, addressing common obstacles and building a positive future.
One opportunity as part of this year’s campaign is Change for Peace, a few moments of daily reflection and prayer, when participants deposit their daily pocket change and pray for strength, inspiration and courage to engage with the many faces of violence. Change for Peace will strengthen participants’ spiritual power to overcome violence with good (Romans 12), and will support local justice and peace initiatives in concrete ways through donations.
Change for Peace participants select a local initiative that is reducing violence and building peace to which they deliver 50% of their collected coins on September 21. 50% is sent to On Earth Peace for ongoing nonviolence and reconciliation ministries, including funding for grassroots organizing.
Through this campaign, On Earth Peace hopes to connect with many individuals and emerging leaders for peace and nonviolence, so we can walk and work together to build more peaceful communities and organize alternatives to violence, oppression, and poverty.
For those communities where a critical mass is coalescing, and who want to continue mobilizing their community after September 21, On Earth Peace is available to offer a four-day intensive training event about eliminating violence in October or November 2011, “You Can’t Stop the River: Nonviolent Community Change.” This training is focused on catalyzing community leadership by applying principles and skills of nonviolent leadership in the tradition of Martin Luther King, Jr. Contact campaign staff for more info.
We hope you will accept this invitation to participate in IDPP 2012, which can serve as a doorway into ongoing efforts to eliminate violence locally and in our world.
Register now!
