Tag Archives: Peace

Devotional

Shoes for Peace

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Text: Ephesians 6:10-18

Prayer
Alert us now, eternal Spirit to your presence among us. May hearts and lives of all people be drawn to you through our witness. Holy One of God, strengthen our heart and soul as we seek to walk with courage and peace all our days. Amen.

Question:
Think of an experience when you have been an instrument of peace or witnessed an event of peace making.  What elements contributed to the outcome? How did you sense God working in the situation? In what ways has that event or situation impacted your faith?

–Stan Dueck, Director, Transforming Practices

Congregational Life Ministries of the Church of the Brethren is offering these simple prayers and questions in connection to this year’s Advent devotional written by David W. Miller. (Available from Brethren Press) Join us as we look and listen for the coming of the Word through the reading of scripture, David’s reflections, times of prayer, and conversations on this blog.

Devotional

War No More

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Prayer for the Day

Lord of heaven and earth, forgive us for limiting the age of your peace to heaven alone. Stir in us the vision of your present and emerging reign so that we may find the courage to take part in your work on earth as it is in heaven. Amen

Question

Where have you witnessed the transforming presence of Christ? How have you limited your understanding of Christ’s peace to heaven alone?

-Joshua Brockway; Director, Spiritual Life and Discipleship

Congregational Life Ministries of the Church of the Brethren is offering these simple prayers and questions in connection to this year’s Advent devotional written by David W. Miller. (Available from Brethren Press) Join us as we look and listen for the coming of the Word through the reading of scripture, David’s reflections, times of prayer, and conversations on this blog.

General

Hourly Prayers for Peace

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Brothers and sisters, my apologies for not getting these on the blog in a more timely manner. Below are the first set of hourly prayer updates on this International Day of Prayer for Peace. May the peace of Christ be with you.

8pm EST – As you close the day, pray that the peace that started in these prayers today is only the start, laying the foundation for a peaceful world.

7pm EST – Pray for our mission workers around the world, that they might carry the peace of Christ w/ them, helping build a world of peace.

6pm EST – Pray for the peace of the church-for your church, for your communion, for the body of Christ-that we might walk in the way of Christ.

5pm EST – Pray for all of those who have been impacted by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as by terrorism and the war on terrorism globally.

4pm EST – Pray for the influence of violence on our children and youth. Be an example for them, that they might know another way of living.

3pm EST – In this hour, pray for those who continue to suffer from domestic violence and the violence of sexual exploitation.

2pm EST – As millions are impacted by disaster-man made & natural-pray & act to seek sustainable living w/ God’s creation. http://t.co/BkLNxtt4

1pm EST – As millions go jobless & live in a life of systematic poverty & hunger, pray that we might transform systems of injustice around us.

12pm EST – This hour, say a prayer for #TroyDavis, all of those on death row, & this country that continues to seek vengeance through violence.

11am EST – Pray for #Obama, as he speaks at the UN & meets w/ Israeli and Palestinian leadership. And seek mid-east peace – http://t.co/CTB79IiJ

10am EST – This hour, pray for the peace of your family-whoever that is. Pray that they may find the peace they each need, and peace with one another.

9am EST – Move from the peace within, to extend it to your immediate surroundings. Pray for the peace of the person standing next to you.

8am EST – Start this #IDOPP by seeking your own peace. Begin by praying for the peace you need within. Loving your enemies begins with loving yourself.

Youth Peace Travel Team

Camp Galilee

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I climbed into the top bunk and glanced at my watch.  It read half an hour until campers arrive – just enough time to get my bearings.

Where am I?  Camp Galilee, West Virginia.

Will I have enough clothes to get through the week?   Hasn’t stopped me yet.

Will I be able to nestle in the cove of pine trees outside the window?  Time will tell.

What will God bring forth in the week to come?  …

There rests a mysterious anticipation in the moment between traveling and the arrival of campers – a moment to dream of what might be experienced.  Each camp is so new and each mix of individuals so unique.  In this sense, Camp Galilee held a special mystery for me.  Despite the web of Brethren connections from camp to camp, I had never been to Galilee, never met the staff, and didn’t yet sense where God might be leading me.

As with each week, mystery soon turns to movement.  Camper after camper ran into our cabin, claiming their space and catching up with summer friends.  Parents were skirted away, and into a week of sharing we went.

In the corner of the recreation hall at Camp Galilee rested a large pad of newsprint a camper and I had been eyeing up all week.  Activities kept us swirling past until finally we grabbed the board, crayons, Mr. Sketch smelly markers, and headed outside.  Setting up our outdoor studio, we began sketching the Camp Galilee driveway, sign, and gorgeous tree just behind.  As we worked, camper after camper came behind us…

Camper – Watcha drawing?

Me – Camp.  Would you like to draw?  Grab a maker.

Camper – Uh, no way.  I’d mess it up.

Me – Yo, everyone has a touch of creativity inside them.

Camper – Everyone except me.  The height of my creativity rests in stick figures.

Me – I love stick figures!  Draw some here.

Camper – Haha, nah.

Me – Alright then, I think the sky needs some purple over there.  Give it a whirl…

Camper – …ok

Soon our setup had a clan of artists working hard, stepping away, adding something more, and coming back to proudly check progress.  Individuals no longer looked to me for direction, but to their own leading and community support.

When we create a space for all youth — shy, bold, self-conscious, outspoken, gay, searching, active, compassionate — we create a space for something beautiful to emerge.  Sometimes the beauty is art of crayons and markers.  Other times, beauty is found in the process of creation itself.  When youth create a supportive community, this is a dance of beauty.  When they join singing, forming dramas, playing games, and seeking God, beauty is found.

Emerging from mystery came art — the art of creating space, building community, and bringing forth beauty.  May it be so with us, our communities, our church, our world.

Peace and joy,

Kay

Youth Peace Travel Team

Brethren Woods – Keepin’ It Extreme

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“I think I’ll try climbing the most difficult rock face, because we keep it extreme!”

“This down hill crawlspace looks like a tight fit…I’ll do it head first! Gotta keep it extreme.”

“Let’s see how many people we can fit in one canoe…and let’s act like pirates at the same time! Keepin’ it extreme!”

The Campers of Youth Challenge Camp at Brethren Woods no only know how to have a fun filled week of camp, but, as their motto for that week says, they “Keep it extreme!” From a day worth of canoeing on the rapids of the Shenandoah river, to crawling into the depths of the Earth with caving and then climbing vertically to the clouds with rock climbing in West Virginia, what an adventure it was to be a part of this group all week! While Peace Team got to lead a session for the other younger campers, we primarily followed the youth challenge camp’s schedule. What a blast!

What was most “extreme” about the senior high campers was the joy and compassion in between the official “adventures.” Like staging a spontaneous “sit-in” after a meal or creating a human tunnel for other groups entering the dinning hall; what fun! Or, accepting everyone in the group and forming meaningful friendships; what compassion! Or laughing for hours as we looked at God’s star-filled sky; what community! Those youth at Brethren Woods, like the other campers and counselors there, taught us a thing or two about how to keep everything in life extreme…specifically the joy in community.

Youth Peace Travel Team

YPTT reflections on Annual Conference 2011

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When we claim to be both a historic and living peace church, yet we do not lament our brokenness, where do we go from here?

When progressive and BRF young adults spend an evening together playing games and building friendships, why don’t we go from here?

When women were ordained in the Church of the Brethren in 1958, yet we undermine the vote for a woman in 2011, where do we go from here?

When Bethany Theological Seminary lifts up all women’s voices, why don’t we go from here?

When our global neighbors are suffering from the impacts of climate change, yet we are slow to take responsibility and action, where do we go from here?

When those in the Church of the Brethren transform their churches and homes to be energy efficient with the help of the New Community Project, why don’t we go from here?

When youth and young adults on the Annual Conference floor push for our voice to be heard even more, where do we go from here?

When Moderator Tim Harvey holds a meeting to hear youth and young adult concerns, and challenges them to take it upon themselves to invest in the church, why don’t we go from here?

When youth and young adults are in love with a Church of the Brethren which lives a just love and peace, yet this church has seemed to disappear before them, where do we go from here?

When youth and young adults are inspired by Brethren who literally put their lives on the line for peace, why don’t we go from here?

When the theme of Annual Conference is “Gifted with Promise: Extending Jesus’ Table,” yet the church does not extend this table to our LGBTQ brothers and sisters, where do we go to here?

When a spontaneous footwashing is held to support all walks of life in the church, why don’t we go from here?

When we focus so much on being in the world, not of the world, that we forget we are FOR the world, where do we go from here?

When Brethren rise through Brethren Disaster Ministries, New Community Project, On Earth Peace, Washington Advocacy…enough said, why don’t we go from here?

When we lift up the love of law over the law of love, where do we go from here?

Radically following the life of Jesus, why don’t we go from here?

Striving to live as radically as we began,
Kay, Mark, Sarah, Tyler

General

What do we do now?

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I want to start this by thanking so many of you – for your words of support, whether it be through comments on here, twitter, or facebook. This was an action I only took knowing the church was with me – from leadership in Elgin to local pastors in the Washington, DC area. And to hear from so many of you … it is when we speak with each other, through one another, and together that we have a voice that makes a difference.

It was a powerful experience – to kneel in prayer in the Rotunda of the Capitol building, and pray that the decisions made in that building would reflect the values of the faith that so many hold dear. That the Holy Spirit would fill that place, and move our decision makers to seek to make this world more in accordance with the will of God – and to stand where God stands, caring for the poor and feeding the hungry. And then to be arrested for doing that very thing – with 10 other persons of faith.

Many have asked me whether or not I think the arrests yesterday of 11 people of faith made a difference. There has certainly been a lot of press attention to the actions taken. From the Huffington Post, to the New York Times, to ABC News, and many, many more – the word certainly got out about the actions. Combine that with the attention building around the daily prayer vigils, which continued today, and will continue next week, and it would seem that our country is certainly paying attention to what the church is saying.

But this still leaves the question of whether or not this will shift the debate in Washington – one that seems to only want to ask communities that have no more to give to sacrifice to get our fiscal house in order (which does need to happen). Whether it be the hungry through cuts to SNAP, God’s Creation by stripping funding for the Clean Water Act, or those in poverty around the world by slashing food aid – these seem to be the only communities actually being asked to give.

The reality is the action I took yesterday will only have an impact if it has your backing. Your words of support to me have meant so much – but your Senators and Representatives need to hear them, too. There are so many ways you can weigh in. Send them an email, call their offices in DC, or, and this one would have the most impact, visit their local offices (they are listed on their websites). No matter where you go, the message is that we cannot bring our fiscal house in order as a nation on the backs of the poor and vulnerable around the world. We need to consider increasing revenue and cutting security and military spending, too. The poor and vulnerable have no more to give. Or, just let them know that you are holding them in prayer as they consider what God would have them do.  Check out the NCC Poverty Initiative for more resources. BUT THEY NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU. It is time for all people of faith to speak up, and to take action, and seek to live in a nation that reflects our values. What we spend our money on goes a long way toward determining what those values are.

General

Why I got arrested

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I got arrested today, as the Director of Peace Witness Ministries of the Church of the Brethren. And it was something that needed to happen.

There is a long tradition of members of the Church of the Brethren participating in acts of civil disobedience – you could certainly say that the formation of our church was in itself an act of civil disobedience. And ever since, when the church has felt that steps the government was taking were forcing them to be unfaithful, we have responded – living out the values of the realm of God rather than adhering to the laws of the nations in which we reside.

Over the course of the last two and a half weeks, and really for months prior to this, the Church of the Brethren, in conjunction with the interfaith community, has been speaking out on behalf of those living in poverty, those who hunger in the United States and around the world, and those on the margins. We have stated, repeatedly, that it is the role of the government in a just and compassionate society – and the role of our government, in a democracy that claims to speak on our behalf – to offer care and opportunity to these people. People whose voice often doesn’t end up around the power tables of Washington, DC – it is this voice that the church highlights.

And so, over the last number of months, you have seen action alerts. There have been sign on letters, which General Secretary Stan Noffsinger, as well as Brethren Press director Wendy McFadden, have joined. For the last two and a half weeks, the faith community in Washington has held daily prayer vigils outside of the United Methodist Building, and met with both Administration and Congressional leadership. In fact, it was during the meetings with leadership that we realized more needed to be done.

A staff member told us that, for poor and vulnerable communities, what was going to happen was going to be bad. They couldn’t say how bad, but bad. Brothers and sisters, when we consider the priorities with which the government uses our money – and that we have a voice in how that happens – that just isn’t acceptable. It is not acceptable to turn more people toward poverty, while cutting off the support for those that are already there.

And so, I got arrested today. Not only because Members of Congress need to hear from the faith community about the sinfulness of what they are doing – but that you, members of the Church of the Brethren, need to know what your Congress is doing. And that it is time for it to stop. Brothers and sisters, it is time for a just and compassionate budget – one that reflects the values of those who live, move, and breath in this country, and one with which the church can partner to continue the inbreaking of the realm of God.

Youth Peace Travel Team

Ode to Camp Bethel

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Camp Bethel, Camp Bethel, what a sacred space
You welcomed us in like one great big embrace

With campers many, a new challenge came
We had to split in half, step up our game

The joy, the laughter, the smiles with all
We learned many new songs and had a ball

The counselors, you amazed us all, for real for real
Your dedication to campers, your overflowing zeal

We loved meeting you, summer staff, memories hilarious and grand
Interacting with such inspiring peers, to you we clap our hand…s

From Rest Period Song, silly skits, great worships too
we are so grateful to share in such greatness with you

And campers, you impressed us something wonderful
Your talents, leadership, with joy your hearts were full

For me personally, as this summer we roam
I cherish the love found at Camp Bethel, my home.

Tyler Goss

Youth Peace Travel Team

The Work of Art

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I found myself working on a piece of art today.

The reason? I had always admired the particular technique of this One artist whose art is timeless.

I see the works of others who have learned from the original artist, and they are always so creative in adopting the style and making it fit their own works of art.

Mine was to also be a creative spin on this style. Any great work requires new angles of this classic technique to help mold it to today’s culture.

My work of art is not finished, but I do know a few things…
The subjects – people and nature
The colors – bold
The overall plan – well thought out
The time spent on it – it feels like a lifetime…and then some
The shading – it’s too dark for my liking. Still, the light needs to spread across more.
The time period portrayed – now
The message – it’s difficult to say as of now, but that needs to change…obviously
The price – thankfully I was able to borrow the supplies from my Teacher. The finished product will for sure come at a price many are not comfortable with, but this work of art is something all people would appreciate if they were willing to pay the price.
The texture – I have really tried to smooth things out
The contrast – there’s a lot present, but differences will hopefully be perceived in a more harmonizing way

The title – Peace

~ Tyler Goss