Words of Peace and Nonviolence—Action Days Events in Grand Junction, CO
We are halfway through Campaign Nonviolence Action Days, Sept 21-Oct 2, where thousands of people planned, promoted, and participated in events that build a culture of peace and active nonviolence, free from war, poverty, racism, and environmental destruction. You can read more reports about these fantastic actions here.
This report comes from Elizabeth High with the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Grand Valley, who shares about their two events on September 24: “We offered a worship service with the title ‘Non-violent Communication: The Power that comes with Words of Peace.’ The service took place in person and also via Zoom so that people who could not make it in person could watch. There was beautiful music from our choir with songs chosen to reflect the theme of peace. Our minister gave a beautiful sermon capturing many important facets of nonviolence, including that there is POWER in peace/nonviolence, that it is active and to be effective it stems from a peaceful mind/heart state. She included inspiring quotes including from Gene Sharp. Sermon starts at 23.08 on the YouTube recording embedded below. People who watched the service gained more understanding and appreciation of what nonviolence is about.”
While adults were in Sunday worship service, we spent about 40 minutes teaching children about Positive Peacebuilding—Understanding the Power of Nonviolent Communication. We watched a video about the origins of the peace sign, then we let the kids choose from several different peace-themed coloring pages to color in. While the children were coloring, we talked with them about the meaning of peace, and how it means more than no war and also includes how we relate to each other. We talked about how it is important for everyone to feel comfortable in speaking up if they disagree, but to do so respectfully. Children shared with us instances of conflicts they had experienced in playgrounds or with their friends, and we talked about peaceful ways to resolve these conflicts. We concluded our event with a puppet show in which Joey the Jolly Elephant interviewed two of the teachers to learn about the Two Hands of Nonviolence.
Many thanks to Ruth Ann Angus, from Yes we Can Peacebuilders, who gave us coloring pages and some of the ideas for our activities. Helping children to learn some of the basics of relating to one another in a nonviolent way and also teaching them about the history of the peace sign helps to build a culture of nonviolence.”