I have only known Veronica Brady through her public appearances. But she has always intrigued me. A slight woman who took on the ABC, the Howard Government over its treatment of Indigenous Australians, the Pope and Australian Church leaders over their treatment of women, and Australian society over its materialism, she belongs to the long [...]

Over four-and-a-half days, the participants participated energetically in a program that gave introductory concepts in conflict analysis and avenues for nonviolent conflict resolution, religious dynamics and identity in conflict, religious resources for peacemaking, religious bias, stereotyping, and pluralism, and interfaith dialogue. Participants were especially moved by the USIP-supported documentary the Imam and the Pastor, which [...]

ON March 11, 2007 Sekai Holland was lying broken and bloody in a Harare police cell after being brutally tortured on the orders of the Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe. Last month, she shook the dictator’s hand, accepted his congratulations and sat down to share a snack. The long-time democracy activist and former Sydney resident has [...]

Ultra-Orthodox Jews took the Pennsylvania Amish on a walking tour of their world Tuesday, saying their communities are naturally drawn to each other with a commitment to simpler lifestyles. “It’s reinforcing to the Amish community to see us Jews living the way the Bible says Jews are supposed to live, and have lived since the [...]

In Claiming the Beatitudes: Nine Stories from a New Generation, Howard asks the questions, “What would the beatitudes look like today? Is it possible to live a beatitudes life in today’s world?” Through nine remarkable stories of young pastors and seminarians, we are introduced to a world where the beatitudes are not an unreachable moral [...]

Who might be the greatest living peacemaker? I acknowledge the question is a bit impertinent. It conjures competition, while by its nature, the word “peacemaker” bespeaks humility, equality, warm humanity. Even so, for the title of greatest I place my money on Hildegard Goss-Mayr of Vienna. If you don’t know of Hildegard, I urge you [...]

These are inspiring and informative audio recordings of an all-day workshop involving lectures, reflections and Q&A, led by Jean Vanier (founder of L’arche) and Stanley Hauerwas, professor of theological ethics at Duke University Divinity School. This event was part of the Teaching Communities program, conducted Nov 8-10, 2008 at the Duke Center for Reconciliation. The [...]

I just stumbled across this story from the middle of 2008… the news story: Sydney aid worker Darren Stratti was trying to protect five women from robbers trying to get into their mud hut when a bullet fired through the brittle wall struck and killed him in Tanzania, his colleagues and brothers say. Mr Stratti, [...]

Fr. Raymond Helmick is a copious correspondent. For the past three years, the Jesuit priest has written nearly 20 letters to Khalid Mishal, founder and political leader of the Palestinian movement Hamas, urging him to abandon militancy, unify with Fatah, Hamas’ political rival, and organize the Palestinians in a disciplined campaign of nonviolent resistance to [...]

Bethlehem –At least ten soldiers have opted for prison terms rather than going through with their deployment. The refusals would be the first of their kind since Israel launched its massive air, sea and ground assault on the Gaza Strip, On “conscience’s grounds,” the soldiers refused orders to head to the Gaza Strip, they said…”the [...]

Just a few days after the bombing of Gaza started, my rabbi, Rabbi Brant Rosen (Rabbi Brant’s blog ) here in Evanston, Illinois had the courage to write something on his blog that may forever change his life, and the lives of those around him. As I read it, I could literally feel the earth [...]

From conservative evangelical to ardent Roman Catholic, from West Point appointee to crusading pacifist and playwright, Joshua Casteel has crossed boundaries enough for a lifetime in his 29 years…This “child of homeschooling and Bible quizzing,” as he wrote in a biographical essay, this high-school valedictorian and president of the high-school Young Republicans, “was not supposed [...]