The first Pace e Bene Australia National Planning Retreat was held November 27-December 2, 2005 at Palotti College outside of Melbourne. Two dozen From Violence To Wholeness facilitators and organizers from across Australia participated. Four members of Pace e Bene’s North American staff – Laura Slattery, Veronica Pelicaric, Ken Preston-Pile, and Ken Butigan – also took part.

Before and after the retreat, the North American contingent facilitated fifteen Engage: Exploring Nonviolent Living workshops and talks in Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and at three locations in Tasmania. Brendan McKeague – Pace e Bene’s Australia Associate based in Perth – organized both the planning meeting and the national tour of presentations and trainings.

Pace e Bene in Australia

These events were the fruit of much cultivation over the last decade. In the mid-1990s Brendan McKeague began offering Pace e Bene workshops throughout Australia. He had hosted an Australian speaking tour by Pace e Bene co-founder, Alain Richard, and had helped develop People of the Way, a project for organizing Pace e Bene and other programs in Australia. By 2000, McKeague and others were leading thirty or more Pace e Bene trainings a year.

In early 2004, McKeague proposed a national gathering in Australia. He raised funding to hold the retreat and to make it possible for the North American staff to travel to Australia to participate.

The National Gathering

The national meeting consisted of community-building, skill-sharing, and decision-making. It was a marvelous opportunity to meet people from nearly every part of the country – to learn about their nonviolence journeys, to hear how they had used the From Violence to Wholeness programming, and to imagine together the ways spiritually-grounded nonviolence training and action could be spread even more broadly throughout Australia.

Open Space, a participatory decision-making process, was used to help discern the next steps for Pace e Bene in Australia. Facilitated by Fr. Brian Bainbridge, the Open Space process was used by the Australian participants to decide, first, to create a national network and, second, to designate a steering committee of seven people from throughout the country to help organize a two year plan to move this network forward. This plan will include: getting familiar with and using the new Engage curriculum; developing a more systematic process of formation of facilitators and trainers; increasing communication between trainers and facilitators; and taking steps to inculturate Engage and From Violence To Wholeness in an Australian context (more Australian stories, readings, language, approaches).

Talks and Workshops

Before and after the meeting, we offered talks and led trainings across Australia. These presentations included two high school assemblies of 140 students (Burnie and Devonport, Tasmania); one two-day workshop (Perth) and two one-day workshops (Sydney and Adelaide); half-day workshops with service providers (Launceston, Tasmania), the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (Hobart, Tasmania), and members of the Council of Churches (Adelaide), and a variety of one or two hour talks. Ken Preston-Pile even delivered a Sunday sermon a Sydney church!

Learnings

Everywhere we went, we learned about the challenges that Australia as a nation is facing: Australia’s participation in the war in Iraq; the erosion of civil liberties; legislation undermining a century of gains by labor; and the need to create a more just and sustainable relationship with indigenous Australia. There was a sense of urgency – a felt need to take steps to challenge and transform a whole set of policies and approaches.

This led to a second learning: about the rich and vibrant history of nonviolent action on which Australians stand and which will ground whatever new efforts emerge.

Finally, we learned about a widespread longing to discover ways to connect personal and social change – to root people-power in a spiritual journey of compassion, courage and connection.

In light of these three realities, there was a profound sense that we can mutually support one another in putting nonviolent living into practice. We look forward to doing so.

We wish to thank all those who hosted us on this journey, including Kim and Susan Chen, Doug Routledge, Des O’Grady and the Christian Bothers of Adelaide, Peter and Marya Stewart, Dave Freeman of the Edmond Rice Center in Fremantle, Penny McKeague, Helen and Bernie Neville, Gil Burrowes, John Darcey, and the entire staff of Palotti College. We especially want to thank Brendan McKeague for all the time, energy and relentless persistence he expended in creating this beautiful and powerful process.