Pre-Annual Conference Workshop: Nonviolence, Hope, Courage, and Strategic Defiance

Save the Date for Pre-Annual Conference workshop: Nonviolence, Hope, Courage, and Strategic Defiance!

Join On Earth Peace for a pre-Conference training open to members of the Church of the Brethren and interested members of the public. This year, millions of people have stood with their immigrant neighbors, raised their voices against abuses of power, and found new ways to use love as a force for public good.

Join us for a weekend of strategic nonviolence analysis, skill-building, and spiritual power. This training is meant to help Christians and people of goodwill build spiritual and practical grounding for the work ahead. Prepare your spirit, mind, and body for whatever is coming next as we read the signs of the times, build and refine our nonviolence tools, and generate ideas for creative ways forward. 

Objectives: 

• Activate nonviolent Christians in the context of political violence in the United States
• Analyze the current landscape to identify opportunities for movement and action
• Use key strategy tools to develop options for addressing pressing community situations
• Prepare to engage, respond, and de-escalate situations to develop the capacity for courageous response at the personal and community level
• Equip ourselves through music, prayer, and spiritual sharing

Conceptual content to be drawn from: 

• Kingian Nonviolence - the values, theology, and philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the US Civil Rights Movement 
• Strategic Nonviolence - planning and analysis tools from global nonviolence movements
• De-escalation - learning and practicing skills to de-escalate tense situations
• Harnessing Our Power to End Political Violence (HOPE-PV)/ Backfire methodology - understand the dynamics of political violence, and organize in ways that make it less likely that perpetrators will continue to act
• Noncooperation - learning how to withdraw society’s “pillars of support” from authoritarian systems 

Dates: June 26 - June 28, 2026

Hours and length:

Friday 5pm-9pm - Starts with supper 

Saturday 9am-9pm; 90 min break for lunch (bring or buy your own downtown); supper provided

Sunday: 9am-12pm  

Location: Grand Wayne Convention Center, Fort Wayne, Indiana 

Meals provided: Friday Supper; Saturday Supper. Please bring one snack to share with the group. 

Cost:

The training will have a registration cost on a sliding scale from $75 to $500+ depending on resource and ability. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. 

Clicking RSVP on this page will indicate your interest to the organizing team, who will follow up with an actual registration form. 

Trainers Bios:

Sherrilynn Bevel, PhD, is a Level III Kingian Nonviolence Trainer. She co-founded and is Associate Director of the Addie Wyatt Center for Nonviolence Training. From 2018 through 2020, she was Director of Training and Special Projects for the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence in Providence. Sherri chairs the board of directors of The Diversity Think Tank, which seeks equity in academic hiring at state-supported institutions of higher education. In the classroom, she teaches political science, human rights, Nonviolence, and African American studies. In The Chicago Freedom Movement: Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Rights Activism in the North (U. of KY Press, 2016), she documented the contributions of a youth-led campaign to end lead poisoning, which ultimately resulted in federal lead protection legislation; and argued that this aspect of the Chicago Freedom Movement was an important precursor to the modern environmental justice movement.  

Stephen Niamke is the youngest son of Mrs. Maggie P. Jones and Mr. Herbert C. Jones, Sr. He has three older brothers including a twin. Stephen is also a father having one child, Stephanie, who is in the midst of pursuing a doctorate in sociology. Stephen is the National Field Organizer for Pax Christi USA.  He is also the President and Hub Coordinator of Meta Peace Team. Stephen founded Friends of Evans Spring, a nonviolence, grassroots organizing group based in Roanoke, Virginia.  Stephen is a level-two certified trainer in Kingian Nonviolence. 

Rhonda Baker is a level I Kingian Nonviolence instructor through On Earth Peace.  She is a singer songwriter and has combined her love of music with Kingian Nonviolence Principles.  She and her husband perform as a duo, Rhonda and Greg and with a horn band called SoulShine.  Rhonda grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana at Beacon Heights and is now a member of Northview Church of the Brethren in Indianapolis, Indiana and is an active member of the Church of the Brethren Gun Violence Action Team as well as the Central Indiana Brethren Building Beloved Community (B3C).

On Earth Peace reserves the right to use images and recordings from this event in our publicity and reporting. To opt out of this, please email [email protected].

Clicking RSVP on this page will indicate your interest to the organizing team, who will follow up with an actual registration form.