Peacemaking at School

No Name-Calling Week

No Name-Calling Week, January 23-27, 2012, is an annual week of educational activities aimed at ending name-calling of all kinds and providing schools with the tools and inspiration to launch an on-going dialogue about ways to eliminate bullying in their communities.

Visit the No Name-Calling Week website for more information, to join the network and receive anti-bullying resources throughout the year, and to access resources.

Jan. 17, birth of Martin Luther King, Jr.

From the LPF website:

Martin Luther King quotes reflecting some of the breadth of Dr. King's thought.

Useful as a bulletin insert.

A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: “this way of settling differences is not just”.… A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

Where Do We Go From Here

Now Online: Martin Luther King's Works -- talks, sermons, letters (including early drafts & mark-ups) etc. The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change has opened an online digital archive of Dr. King's works.  http://www.mlkonline.net/

Two great recent articles:

Occupy: Resurrecting Rev. King's Final Dream
by Leo W. Gerard
International President, United Steelworkers

How to Learn Nonviolent Resistance as King Did
by Mary Elizabeth King
also distributed by Common Dreams

Christmas Day - December 25th

It is not always “simple” to live and work for simplicity and sustainability in our world.
This is especially true during the holiday season when consumerism is working overtime.

Here are ideas on simplicity in the way we live, the gifts we give, the time we share, and the ways we prepare to receive the Prince of Peace.
Peacepoints: Reclaim the Season

And here's a poignant piece by Jim Wallis:
The Real War on Christmas ... by Fox News

Human Rights Day - December 10, 2011

pays tribute to all human rights defenders
and asks you to get involved in the
global human rights movement.

This year, millions of people decided the time had come to claim their rights. They took to the streets and demanded change. . .

videos:

2011
An extraordinary year for human rights


Celebrate Human Rights!



Human Rights DAY 2011 HC message



Global Protest Human Rights Day 10 December 2011 Worldwide Action



World Revolution - Global Action - 10 December 2011 - Human Rights Day



Human Rights Day 10 December 2011 - Stand up for our Childrens' Rights

Links:

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights - Human Rights Day 2011

Human Rights Day 2011 (UN website)

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Campaign for U.S. Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

Defence for Children International

LPF resource: Addressing Racism: Challenge for Peacemakers

Lutheran Human Relations Association

Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Service

Lutherans Concerned/ North America

Goodsoil

ELCA:

Human Rights - CSR program

Human Dignity and Human Rights

ELCA Commission for Multicultural Ministries

Journal of Lutheran Ethics - February 2009 issue - Human Rights and Family

World Day of Prayer and Action for Children observed worldwide on November 20

What if all the religions of the world devoted one day a year to prayers and visible actions to promote the well-being of children? It would make an enormous difference for peace, and send a potent message worldwide.

This international movement is already happening! In 2008, Arigatou International launched the World Day of Prayer and Action for Children. Every November 20, people of faith and secular partners organize a community festival at a house of worship or public place. They follow up with a concrete project that will improve the lives of children in their area.

In 2009, more than 9,000 people in 22 countries took part. In 2010, more than 36,500 people joined in from 48 countries! Stopping violence against children is the World Day's campaign for 2011-2013. A guide to positive parenting and non-violent discipline will soon be released. See www.dayofprayerandaction.org for more info.

World Day Convening Chair Kul Gautam gives a video message. He is standing at the UN Assembly Building in New York City, in front of a monument to non-violence donated by Luxembourg.

UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake says, "Peace and security are the foundation of a world fit for children. Wars not only kill children, they breed disease and destroy economic hope. And in the end, real peace is not found in a piece of diplomatic paper. It is found in the secure and healthy lives of girls and boys." Mr. Lake played a key part in shaping policies that led to peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Northern Ireland, among other hotspots. (From

http://www.unicef.org/about/who/index_53462.html.)

St Martin of Tours - Feast Day

St Martin of Tours is known as the first conscientious objector and a great peacemaker in the Christian church. His feast day of 11 November (or the nearest Sunday) which is also observed as Remembrance Day for remembering those killed in wars (it was called Armistice Day following the First World War).

Lutherans have had a long history of responding to the gospel call to be peacemakers. One of the initial motivations for the formation of a Lutheran peace movement in the US was the need to support those resisting the draft through conscientious objection to military solutions to conflict. LPF traces its roots to this movement dating back to 1940.

For more contemporary information on current issues relating to the military service, see LPF's resource: Youth and the Military

For further information on St Martin of Tours, here are several links:

Martin of Tours

St. Martin's Day

St Martin — patron saint of conscientious objectors

November 11th. St. Martin of Tours.

SAINT MARTIN OF TOURS BISHOP, CONFESSOR—316-400

St. Martin of Tours

World Food Day

World Food Day is celebrated every year around the world on 16 October in honor of the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945.

The World Food Day theme for 2011 is "Food prices - from crisis to stability". Price swings, upswings in particular, represent a major threat to food security in developing countries. Hardest-hit are the poor. According to the World Bank, in 2010-2011 rising food costs pushed nearly 70 million people into extreme poverty. Food prices are now at an all time high and have gone up 40% over the past 4 years. Prices for cereals have gone up even more with staples such as wheat up 64% and corn more than doubling in price in just the last year. This spike in food prices puts at risk the eradication of hunger and child malnutrition.

“FOOD PRICES – FROM CRISIS TO STABILITY” has been chosen as this year’s World Food Day theme to shed some light on this trend and what can be done to mitigate its impact on the most vulnerable.

On World Food Day 2011, let us look seriously at what causes swings in food prices, and do what needs to be done to reduce their impact on the weakest members of global society.

resources:

LPF Hunger Resources, Hunger and Development Links

World Food Day Website

Wikipedia article

FAO warns of high, volatile food price effects

They live in a world of plenty, but one in seven will go hungry today

World Food Day USA Directory of Organizations

World Food Day Sunday Dinner

Bread for the World

ELCA World Hunger Program

"Taking Root" five-part congregation education program on hunger.

Genetically Modified Foods and World Hunger