Upcoming events for peace and justice nationwide
Across the country, the Fellowship of Reconciliation and FOR chapters are sponsoring, supporting, and attending some exciting interfaith peace events. Join us and other FOR members in the Southeast, the Pacific Northwest, Texas, California and Minnesota! No events happening near you? Please share these events with others, and join our email list so we can let you know about events in your area!
Memphis, TN: Gandhi-King Conference, this weekend
Gather with activists, organizers and grassroots leaders in a unique environment that will leave you better equipped and connected at the 2012 Gandhi-King Conference.
This year began yesterday with the Gandhi-King Youth Conference, which is open to middle and high school aged youth from throughout the mid-south. There is also a program for college aged students to participate as allies and mentors for the other youth.
On Saturday, the Gandhi-King Community Conference will take place all day ending with the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center’s Annual Meeting that evening. Registration is sliding-scale, with no one turned away.
Learn more about the conference and register online.
Oregon FOR retreat, Oct. 26-28
Taking place at Camp Adams in Molalla, 30 miles southeast of Portland, OFOR’s Saturday Symposium features keynote speaker Ellen H. Brown, author of Web of Debt, where we will dabble awhile in the world of our country’s financial life and how we can “progress” further by hearing about alternative ways of banking so we can keep our money in our own wallets and create a better world, too.
Other activities planned include a moonlight walk in the forest, playing in the water and singing a lot. Good food, good times!
Registration begins at $20 on a sliding scale. Learn more about the retreat and register online.
Ellen H. Brown will also be speaking in Portland on Oct. 25 and Milwaukie on Oct. 28. More information.
Mexican peace movement leader tours CA, TX, OR, AZ, Nov. 4-19
FOR will host Mexican peace movement leader Olga Reyes, who has seen six members of her family killed in the last two and a half years.
- San Francisco Bay Area: Nov. 4-6
- Salem/Corvallis, OR: Nov. 7-9
- Dallas/North Texas: Nov. 10-13
- Tucson, AZ: Nov. 14-17
- Riverside, CA: Nov. 17-19
Since the killing of her two siblings and sister-in-law last year, Olga has participated in the two “caravans of consolation” led by poet Javier Sicilia, that traveled from central Mexico to the U.S. border and to Chiapas near the Guatemala border. She is participating in the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity that is traversing the United States this summer.
Olga’s visit is part of longer-term work to change the militarized drug policy of the United States in Mexico, cross-border gun trafficking, and/or solidarity support for addressing the human rights crisis in Mexico. It builds on the previous tours by Olga’s brother Saúl Reyes and Juan Fraire Escobedo, the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity, and Borderlands Heeding God’s Call.
Learn more about the upcoming tour. Interested in hearing when the tour comes to your area? Join our email list and include your zip code, and you’ll receive an email letting you know when the events are announced.
North Carolina: Lake Junaluska Peace Conference, Nov. 8-11
The fifth annual Lake Junaluska Peace Conference, “Love in Action: the Transformative Power of Nonviolence,” will draw upon the lessons of nonviolent campaigns and their leaders who discovered a force that can change the world. Participants will explore the principles and learn the applications of nonviolence as taught by Gandhi, King, and many spiritual leaders who offered this alternative paradigm for resolving conflict, achieving justice and building peace.
Speakers include:
- Leymah Gbowee, Liberian peace activist and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner
- Rev. Dr. Bernard Lafayette, Jr., distinguished scholar-in-residence, Candler School of Theology and civil rights leader
- Michael Nagler, founder and president, Metta Center for Nonviolence
- Alan Storey, Central Methodist Mission in Cape Town, Africa
Participants will have a unique opportunity to become a part of an ongoing multi-faith community of peacemakers who practice nonviolent witness to societal and global transformation. Through the addresses, panels, and workshops, the conference provides peacemaking skill building experience that will empower and sustain us individually and in community as we do the hard work of peacemaking in a world broken and corrupted by systemic violence.
Registration is $125, and scholarships are available for current college and seminary students. Meals and lodging are available for additional fees.
Learn more about the conference and register online.
Near Olympia, WA: Climate crisis, the coal train and beyond, Nov. 10
Giant coal companies are pushing their plans to extract massive quantities of coal from Montana and Wyoming and ship it on exposed rail cars to West Coast ports, spewing dangerous coal dust all along the way. They want Washington’s and Oregon’s ports to export it to China and other countries that will burn it, seriously pollute the world’s air, and hurt our climate.
Grassroots people in Puget Sound and along the Pacific coast are organizing vigorous campaigns to stop this. Western Washington FOR’s 2012 fall retreat focuses on this crisis and how we can stop it. Please join us Saturday, Nov. 10 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. in a pleasant location in Lacey, WA, for an informative, inspiring, and activating day!
We ask a $15 donation to cover costs, and invite people to give more or less as their situation allows. Please bring a brownbag lunch.
Learn more about the event or view the event on Facebook.
St. Paul, MN: Minnesota FOR annual conference, Nov. 11
The 2012 Minnesota FOR annual conference will honor Marie and John Braun as Minnesota FOR Peacemakers of the Year, feature a presentation and discussion with Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, and include music, fellowship, and refreshments.
The event is free. Learn more and get directions.
Columbus, GA: Celebrate the resistance at School of the Americas Watch, Nov. 16-18
As we converge each year at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia, we are creating a strong community and a powerful force that will close the SOA, end U.S. militarization in the Americas and dismantle the broader system of oppression of which the SOA is a part. Our movement unites vast sectors of society, including union workers, immigrants, people of faith, anarchists, pacifists, students, torture survivors, and many others. We recognize the existence of the School of the Americas as an example of the pervasive culture of militarization. We stand together with many justice movements in our joint struggle for social change.
With kickoff events in Atlanta on Nov. 14 and 15, continuing with a rally and workshops at the Columbus Convention Center on Nov. 16, the traditional peace walk to and rally at the gates of Ft. Benning on Nov. 17, and closing with a veterans march and funeral procession on Nov. 18.
View details about each day’s events, including housing and travel options.
