Newsletters and Updates

Current Articles Papua Peace Update (July 2008) Evans Reflections on CTF (July 2008) Courant Plowshares Article (July 2008) Indonesia Seminar 2009 (July 2008) Interfaith Dialogue Initiative (February 2008) Restorative Justice Work (February 2008) Ghost Ranch Workshop (January 2008) Local Training Opportunities (April 2007) Hong Kong/China Seminar 2008 (April 2007) Truth and Friendship Commission Update (January 2007) South Africa Seminar 2007 (January 2007) Aceh Peace Project Prospers (December 2006) Plowshares Celebrates 25th Anniversary (November 2006)

Digging Deeper to Open Avenues of Hope 
June 2004

A full year after the bombing of Iraq, Spring 2004 has not brought relief to the United States or the world community from threats of war, terrorism and violations of human rights and civil liberties.  The threats stretch from wanton violence in Iraq to unrest in Afghanistan, Palestine, Israel and Haiti.  Violations of due process and human rights flourish from Guantánamo Bay to Harare, Zimbabwe.  Lack of housing, health, employment, and education plague displaced people throughout our fragile world.  At the same time, the scourges of HIV/AIDS and malaria continue to have devastating effects, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In the midst of this dismal picture, Plowshares finds promising rays of light and hope.  These signs range from Parents for Peace in the polarized Middle East to new initiatives for human rights, democracy, and proactive conflict intervention in Indonesia. Grassroots quests for peace are growing along with reactions to pre-emptive military action on the suspicion of threat.  Government officials and candidates who promote curtailment of civil liberties and military intervention are being rejected by citizens from Hong Kong to Spain. There is also growing reliance on spiritual, moral and cultural resources for peace building.  While these peoples’ movements have not yet finished the work of replacing militarism with diplomacy and peace building, they are clearly getting stronger. 

As citizens of the world, we all have a stake in working towards peaceful and just transformation in national and global conflicts. Plowshares’ understanding of this process is to identify the systemic causes of conflict and create innovative alternatives that humanize and restore relationships between disputing parties. This involves recognition of one another’s deepest needs and empowerment with skills to reach a just resolution.

Plowshares workshops on conflict transformation and peace building stress the importance of deep listening in which “digging deeper” for mutual understanding is a central component of constructive communication. The past few months of programmatic work at Plowshares have involved digging deeper into Plowshares’ resources in order to help our partners around the world develop skills and effective approaches to systemic problems and address the roots of violence and terror.  Our work with the Indonesian Ministry of Justice and Human Rights equips project participants to be more effective agents of reconciliation through intensive workshops and encounters with transformative programs in South Africa.  

We are digging deeper in our work with mediators and non-government organizations in Zimbabwe who are seeking to empower citizens to claim their rights and voices in a fragile democracy.  Plowshares continues to support colleagues in South Africa, especially religious leaders, as they seek to deliver integrity training, economic empowerment, and moral leadership for social transformation. 

We are also digging deeper with our friends in Cuba who, in a very vulnerable period, are searching for a vision for Cuba that can bridge the gap between Cubans and Cuban-Americans.  In the US we are encouraging community and church leaders to draw more deeply on spiritual resources to address issues of sexuality, marriage and affirmative action in ways that can unite rather than divide communities. 

Many of our long-term initiatives have not yet found stable, peaceful, and just solutions to systematic conflicts, but Plowshares continues to act on the belief that our partners can reach these goals with continued empowering engagement.

In light of limited funding, we are digging deeper as an organization through more effective deployment of staff resources that we might better respond to the many requests for our ministry within the bounds of limited financial resources.  In turn, we are asking our individual supporters and foundation sponsors to dig deeper in giving the financial resources which under gird programs that they acknowledge are pioneering efforts in peace and reconciliation.  Finally, we are digging deeper within our own spiritual resources as we are called to be agents of reconciliation in the name of a loving God who is inclusively forgiving and all merciful.