It only takes one person to start a group to study, share and act for peace. That person can enlist one other and together they can make it happen. Following are personal statements about how members benefit from participating in such groups. ..
From: Episcopal Peace Fellowship at a recent meeting at Holy Cross Faith Memorial Episcopal Church in Pawleys Island, SC
The group shared their hopes and aspirations for their participation in our EPF Chapter and generated a variety of approaches to the way we meet and pray, how we learn, and actions we might take.
Individuals told why they joined the group and what attributes needed to be present for them to continue to participate. Several themes emerged. We are a prayerful community, providing support for our individual struggles with becoming actively nonviolent, experiencing the empowerment arising from our time together, learning from a variety of sources about peace and nonviolence, and taking action to build relationships with the powers that be in order to work for peace in every aspect of society.
Individual Statements
“I need people to keep me strong and help me find things I can do for peace. We need to listen to each other as we sort out individual and collective opportunities to work for peace in our community.
“I believe the issue of violence vs. peace is at the bottom of every illness in society—from the war in Iraq to spouse abuse and issues of poverty in our own area. I want to help others come to that awareness and I want to tap that mysterious power that comes “whenever two or three are gathered…
“I want us to be pro-active, making changes in society by stepping out and building relationships with political leaders through letters, phone contacts and face-to-face meetings. We need to better understand those we see as the opposition in order to communicate effectively and help them see alternatives to violence. We need to be active, not just meeting and talking.
“I seek a community of prayer that empowers me to do more than I can do by myself. I must do it myself, but I can’t do it alone.”
“I appreciate the safety of this group where I can express my disappointments with the dominant culture around us, and I look to this group to equip me through education and mutual support to help change it. After all, peace must begin with us."
Resources for starting a group
The following invaluable resources are described in greater detail elsewhere on this site. (Simply click on the title.) All three offer specific steps for forming a group, and include a wealth of information for learning about the extent of violence in our lives and what to do about it.
The Peace Book offers 108 specific, practical things anyone can do to foster peace.
Enage: Exploring Nonviolent Living is a ten part learning program, again including content and exercises for identifying our own tendencies toward violence and how to overcome them.
After doing your homework, following are possible steps you can take, based on a pamphlet, “Starting an EPF Chapter” available from the Episcopal Peace Fellowship.
Begin by talking to prospective members; make a few informal phone contacts to test the ground. Once you have identified a few likely members call an organizing meeting
When you meet, start by asking each participant to take a few minutes to describe his or her peacemaking autobiography or journey. Let any group consensus about the purposes of the group emerge slowly; don't force it.
Remember that your group, if one is formed, must be responsive to individual needs and concerns as well as focused in its collective activity. Some individuals may wish to turn to the group as a source of empowerment in their own peacemaking agenda without becoming involved in its continuing work. Respect their decision and be available to them for support.
As the group establishes a sense of direction, it can begin to define what areas of peacemaking it wishes to focus on. It is often wise to defer this decision until a second o even third meeting; sometimes the need to build up mutual acquaintance and trust require that all participants have a chance to think things out at more leisure following the first get together. Thus, a focus may naturally suggest itself depending on both your interests and the resources you already have present, as well as from the reading.
Your group may well discover that its initial, and for the time being primary, need is inner growth through, meditation, and various forms of guided study. As a general rule no peace group is truly healthy which does not provide for the spiritual development or consciousness raising of its members. The peace movement should never stop saying its prayers!
Once you have some idea of your agenda, then - and only then - ought you to worry about structure. Overly elaborate organizational schemes are probably unwise at an early stage (if not indeed at any stage) of development. Of course, every group should have a designated convenor, both to call meetings and to serve as the contact.
You will need a mechanism for effective contact between meetings. How often are meetings themselves necessary? Feel your way into the answers to these questions, through experience, trial and error; don't assume you can guess what the pattern of your group’s activities will look like after one or more years.
Any group should develop a means for periodically reviewing its purpose, for attracting new members and sustaining continuing members.
Others would be delighted to hear about your progress. You can do that by writing dwightfee@aol.com and he will post your news on this website.
