Andover Newton Theological Seminary, the oldest graduate school of theology in the United States, will host Pace e Bene’s Engaging Nonviolence: Skill Building for the Beloved Community on its campus in Massachusetts. This workshop on Nov. 10-12 will be our first weekend intensive training in the region.

L.R. Berger, New England Associate for Pace e Bene and former student at Andover Newton, initiated the partnership. “Bringing the Pace e Bene Engaging Nonviolence program to Andover Newton Theological Seminary fulfills a longtime desire to introduce the Northeast community to our training program. My own path to working with Pace e Bene as an Associate was very much catalyzed by being introduced to their programs while a student at Andover Newton.”

Berger will be joined by trainers Ken Butigan, one of Pace e Bene’s co-founders, and Linda Jaramillo, executive minister of the UCC’s Justice and Witness Ministries.

Founded in 1807, Andover Newton is the oldest graduate school of theology in the United States. Today, over 400 students from 35 denominations are enrolled, creating a lively, ecumenical environment for study. Andover Newton is also part of the Boston Theological Institute, a collaborative association of nine area seminaries.

This Engaging Nonviolence workshop will explore the power of creative, spiritually grounded nonviolence principles and practices for the purpose of personal and social transformation. It is a program for both those who are beginning to explore nonviolence as a tool for building beloved community, and those who are already living nonviolence and wish to build capacity and ground their nonviolence practice and vision more deeply with others.

Participants will be offered strategies and models of nonviolence practice. It’s a “hands on” program. Using stories, exercises, individual and small group reflection time, we will have an opportunity to share our wisdom as well as to locate our own thresholds of conversion: those places in our lives and communities where we are being called to be transformed and take nonviolent action in the face of violence.

Shahla Mousavi, a previous workshop participant, said: “The Pace e Bene retreat was a wonderful opportunity to gather together and discuss practical ways of healing the violence that plagues our communities, relationships, ecosystem and earth. Pace e Bene presents the most comprehensive approach to peace I have ever encountered, as it embraces the physical, spiritual and emotional elements of humanity torn in division. It further seeks to reconcile this division… This weekend revealed that while our world faces brokenness on many levels, it also holds the capacity to heal.”

To learn more, or to register, please see workshop description here.