On Earth Peace: Peace Curricula and Peace Retreats for Youth

Peace Retreats for Youth

On Earth Peace offers overnight and weekend-long peace retreats for youth.  Working with local hosts- congregations, districts, camps, organizations, Peace Retreats are tailored to each group's learning and fellowship goals.  Topics can include:  bullying, Christian advocacy, just peace, Brethren peacemakers, Christian nonviolence, peacemaking in everyday life, communication and listening, global justice issues, conscientious objection, understanding difference, Biblical roots of peacemaking, conflict resolution, and peacemaking and the creative arts.

In addition, On Earth Peace offers four fully designed retreats:

• Agape Community Peace Retreat invites youth to explore Jesus' call to peacemakers through scripture and peace church tradition.
• The Meeting Place Peace Retreat teaches youth skills for healthy communication and conflict transformation.
• Enemy Love Peace Retreat focuses on Jesus' call to "love your neighbors."  Youth explore just peace, conscientious objection to war, and nonviolent strategies for social change.
• Who Is My Neighbor Peace Retreat (for middle school youth) is an introduction to peacemaking in everyday life.

Each Peace Retreat engages youth through adventure-based learning and creative problem solving and is designed to build community through worship, learning, and fellowship.

For more information or to schedule a retreat, contact Marie Benner-Rhoades.

Peace Curricula

For Elementary School Children

• If Only You Knew…The Things that Make for Peace (K-8)
  This unique 160-page resource for religious educators on "peacemaking in post-9/11 America" challenges students to put the Gospel call to peace into practice at a critical moment in human history. Divided into two sections - "Images of Peace and the Pledge of Nonviolence" and "Responding to the Violence of Terrorism & War." (nondenominational Christian)
• In Our Hands, Grades 1-3 and In Our Hands, Grades 4-6: A Peace and Social Justice Program.
  In this program, children explore peace and fairness through stories, discussions, and activities. Participants learn constructive ways of resolving conflict and promoting peace in their own lives. ISBN 1558961577 and ISBN 1558961585. (Unitarian Universalist)
• Jesus' Third Way for Kids, Grades K-5.
  Available from Rev. Nansi Hughes Hawkins. Based on Walter Wink's The Powers That Be. (nondenominational Christian)
• Peacemaking for Little Friends
  A resource for working with kids around twelve themes, for example: "Myself . . . a Gift," "We're All Winners," "100 Hungry People," "We Are Different . . . Hooray!" (nondenominational)

For Junior High Youth

• GetIt! Global Education to Improve Tomorrow
  Heifer International's GET IT! curriculum provides teachers with a standards-based academic unit that can be integrated - in whole or in part -- into their annual middle school lesson plans. Teachers can use the GET IT! curriculum to teach students about their roles as consumers and the effects their choices have in the global marketplace. This unit emphasizes reading comprehension, writing for a particular audience, high-level thinking, and research strategies.
• Peace Heroes
  Promotes 5 "heroes" who live out Christ's call to be peacemakers: Jesus, Mother Teresa, Francis of Assisi, John Perkins, and Muriel Lester. Inspires youth to become peacemakers in their communities. 5 sessions from the Fastlane Bible Studies series. Brethren Press. ISBN 087303306X. (Brethren)
• Living Without Violence
  Through storytelling, activities, and scriptural reflection, this study encourages youth to handle conflict and live nonviolently. 5 sessions from the Fastlane Bible Studies series. Brethren Press. ISBN 0893032220. (Brethren)
• If Only You Knew…The Things that Make for Peace (K-8)
  This unique 160-page resource for religious educators on "peacemaking in post-9/11 America" challenges students to put the Gospel call to peace into practice at a critical moment in human history. Divided into two sections - "Images of Peace and the Pledge of Nonviolence" and "Responding to the Violence of Terrorism & War." (nondenominational Christian)
• Jesus' Third Way for Kids, Grades 6-12.
  Available from Rev. Nansi Hughes Hawkins. Based on Walter Wink's The Powers That Be. (nondenominational Christian)
• Lighting Candles in the Dark.
  These are stories of courageous people who used nonviolent and creative action in difficult and dangerous situations. Some of the stories are taken from Quaker history, others focus on helpfulness, fairness, the power of love, and care of the earth. A study guide is also available. (Quaker)
• Shoes of Peace: Letters to Youth from Peacemakers
  These 36 letters from lifelong peacemakers challenge youth to step up to Christ's call to be people of peace. nspiring discussion starters for any group interested in Brethren heritage then and now. (Brethren)

For Senior High Youth

• The Class of Non-Violence: Solutions to Violence (C. McCarthy)
  Solutions to Violence is an eight session online class developed by Colman McCarthy, founder of the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington, D.C. It uses classics in peace and justice literature to teach peacemaking. This course can change your life and you can change the world. (secular)
• Does God Fight?: Violence in the Bible
  What does the Bible say about violence and armed conflict? Discussion of issues in the Old and New Testaments. From the Generation Why Bible Study Series. ISBN 0873032659. (Brethren)
• Fight Right: A Christian Approach to Conflict Resolution
  Discusses how to be honest and also be loving, and explores how conflict can be used for positive result. From the Generation Why Bible Study Series. ISBN 0873032799. (Brethren)

• If Only You Knew…The Things that Make for Peace (for Christian High Schools and Youth Groups)
  This unique 125-page resource for teachers and youth ministers on "peacemaking in post-9/11 America" challenges youth to put the Gospel call to peace into practice at a critical moment in human history. Divided into two sections - "Images of Peace and the Pledge of Nonviolence" and "Responding to the Violence of Terrorism & War." (nondenominational Christian)
• Jesus' Third Way for Kids, Grades 6-12.
  Available from Rev. Nansi Hughes Hawkins. Based on Walter Wink's The Powers That Be. (nondenominational Christian)
• Life of the Beloved (H. Nouwen)
  What is our place in the world in God's eyes? How can we blend service and spiritual worship with the harshness of the everyday world? How can we, imperfect and each broken in our own way, feel beloved by the Almighty? Nouwen ponders these topics in an open letter to a troubled friend. Methodically, the former instructor at both Harvard and Yale walks us through analogies and insights that bring us to a place of feeling beloved. Crossroads Press. ISBN 0824519868. Study-guide included in recent editions. NEW: Borrow 12 copies from On Earth Peace! (Catholic)
• Making the Peace: A 15-Session Violence Prevention Curriculum for Young People

  Making the Peace is written to help young people break away from violence, develop self-esteem, and regain a sense of community. It provides exercises, role-plays, in-class handouts, homework sheets, and discussion guidelines to explore issues such as dating violence, gangs, interracial tension, suicide, sexual harassment, and the social roots of violence. A program of the Oakland Men's Project. (secular)

• Shoes of Peace: Letters to Youth from Peacemakers
  These 36 letters from lifelong peacemakers challenge youth to step up to Christ's call to be people of peace. Inspiring discussion starters for any group interested in Brethren heritage then and now. (Brethren)

• Thermostat
  Youth leaders should not miss Thermosat, a curriculum which addresses issues of the militarization of youth, the roots of Christian peacemaking, and other topics relevant to today's youth. (Mennonite)
• Raising Conscientious Objector Consciousness Among Our Youth: Six Lesson Plans For U.S. Friends High School First Day Programs
  This interactive and thought-provoking mini-curriculum on conscientious objection can be downloaded for free or purchased online.(Quaker)
• Way To Live: Christian Practices for Teens

  "I want to find a way to live that keeps me involved in what God is doing in me and in the world around me. Do you know a way to live that is like that?"Eighteen teens and 18 adults tackle that question in Way to Live: Christian Practices for Teens. Their different points of view and personal stories make living a Christian life real. Upper Room Books. ISBN 0835809757.

  Accompanied by the Way To Live: Leader's Guide Ideas for Growing in Christian Practices with Teens, which is available as a pdf file at the bottom of the page (Bass, Richter, Wright, Breihl). Sections particularly relevant to peacemaking are: Choices, Justice, and Forgiveness. (Methodist)

For Adults

• The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (J. Cameron)
  With the basic principle that creative expression is the natural direction of life, Julia Cameron and Mark Bryan lead you through a comprehensive twelve-week program to recover your creativity from a variety of blocks, including limiting beliefs, fear, self-sabotage, jealousy, guilt, addictions, and other inhibiting forces, replacing them with artistic confidence and productivity. ISBN 0874776942. (nondenominational)
• Biblical Pacifism (D.W. Brown)  
  This book explores key biblical passages about peace and answers the unsettling questions that today's world poses to peace-loving Christians.  The study guide is PDF file and can easily be viewed and printed on any computer with Acrobat® Reader installed.  A free version of Acrobat® Reader can be downloaded. Brethren Press. ISBN 0871780542. (Brethren)
• The Class of Non-Violence: Solutions to Violence (C. McCarthy)
  Solutions to Violence is an eight session online class developed by Colman McCarthy, founder of the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington, D.C. It uses classics in peace and justice literature to teach peacemaking. This course can change your life and you can change the world. (secular)
• Down Range: To Iraq and Back (B. Cantrell Ph.D and C. Dean)
  A book dedicated to bringing the troops home and addressing the challenges of reintegration from combatant to civilian. Why do many veterans suffer from flashbacks, depression, fits of rage, nightmares, anxiety, emotional numbing, and other aspects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)? The answers are here. ISBN 1933150062. (secular)
• Enemylove (M. Guynn)
  Matt Guynn redirects our thinking from responses to violent situations, such as war and assault, to responses to people, especially our enemies. Questions at the end of the essay make for great discussion. (Brethren)
• Engage (Pace E Bene)

  Full of stories, exercises and resources, Engage is a workbook to learn, study and practice the nonviolent options available to us. It offers a guide for groups on how to take action for justice and peace in the midst of war and injustice. Engage is ideal for advocacy organizations, faith communities, citizen action leagues, campus networks and any group seeking to work together to create a society committed to justice, democracy, peace, sustainability and equality. (nondenominational)

• From Violence to Wholeness (Pace E Bene)
  A ten-part study and action program that explores nonviolence as a creative, powerful and effective process for addressing and resolving the conflicts in our lives and in the life of the world. Drawing on the vision of Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dorothy Day, this program offers your church, community, or group resources to deepen your journey from fear to freedom, from despair to hope, from violence to wholeness. (Catholic/Franciscan)
• Getting in the Way (edited by T. Brown)
  The stories recounted in this collection of first-person narratives were written by members of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). The fear, joy and challenge faced by these committed Christians is reported vividly from trouble spots like Haiti, Iraq and Colombia, where the CPT work to reduce violence and conflict. Whether relating an account of incarceration in an Israeli prison, the death of a CPT member in Iraq, or coming face-to-face with angry loggers in the forests of Canada, the narratives in Getting in the Way are intimate, moving, and deeply humanizing. Herald Press. ISBN 0836192483. Study-guide available here. (nondenominational Christian)
• Journey Towards Reconciliation (J.P. Lederach)
  A professional mediator and former director of Mennonite Conciliation Service reveals honestly and thoughtfully the heart and guts of the work required for reconciliation. Each chapter weaves stories from personal experience, with scripture and practical advice, into a conclusion. He tells stories that we need to hear. It's an important journal and a helpful guide. Herald Press. ISBN 0836190823
• Life of the Beloved (H. Nouwen)
  What is our place in the world in God's eyes? How can we blend service and spiritual worship with the harshness of the everyday world? How can we, imperfect and each broken in our own way, feel beloved by the Almighty? Nouwen ponders these topics in an open letter to a troubled friend. Methodically, the former instructor at both Harvard and Yale walks us through analogies and insights that bring us to a place of feeling beloved. Crossroads Press. ISBN 0824519868. Study-guide included in recent editions. NEW: Borrow 12 copies from On Earth Peace! (Catholic)
• Playing with Fire: Creative Conflict Resolution for Young Adults
  (F. Macbeth and N. Fine)
   Teens and young adults receive training on handling violence and conflict, and can use these linked exercises, which have been field-tested with multicultural groups of students and young offenders, to resolve their own life problems. Teachers, youth workers, and others involved with teens will find this as important as will the teen readers themselves.
  New Society Publishers. ISBN 0865713065. (secular)
• The Powers That Be (W. Wink)
  The Powers That Be reclaims the divine realm as central to human existence by offering new ways of understanding our world in theological terms. Walter Wink reformulates ancient concepts, such as God and the devil, heaven and hell, angels and demons, principalities and powers, in light of our modern experience. He helps us see heaven and hell, sin and salvation, and the powers that shape our lives as tangible parts of our day-to-day experience, rather than as mysterious phantoms. Based on his reading of the Bible and analysis of the world around him, Wink creates a whole new language for talking about and to God. Equipped with this fresh world view, we can embark on a new relationship with God and our world into the next millennium. Galilee. ISBN 0385487525. Study-guide available online. (nondenominational Christian)
• Second Mile Curriculum, particularly Pathway A "The Land that I will Show You"
  Second Mile is a peace curriculum that invites congregations and small groups to enter a journey of worship, study, action and reflection that will help them become active signs of Christ's peace in a broken world. Brethren Press. (Brethren/Mennonite)

• Traveling With the Turtle: A Small Group Process in Women's Spirituality and Peacemaking (Pace E Bene)
  Women's spirituality is a powerful force for peacemaking. Come travel with the turtle, ancient symbol of feminine wisdom and strength, and explore the ways this spirituality can impact your life. Traveling with the Turtle can help you unleash the power and share the wisdom that you possess deep within, in order to make peace with yourself, in your relationships, communities, and in society. Through ritual, exercises, readings and life practices, this thirteen-part group process empowers you to work for peace in ways that are practical, creative, inclusive and nonviolent. (nondenominational)

• The Upside-Down Kingdom (D. B. Kraybill)
  Kraybill says Jesus calls us to foster an Upside-Down Kingdom favoring those suffering at society's margins. The King is Jesus, who wins by serving and triumphs by losing. Herald Press. ISBN 0836192362. Study-guide available here. (Mennonite)

Source pages: http://www.onearthpeace.org/youth-retreats | http://www.onearthpeace.org/peace-curricula

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