Dietrich Bonhoeffer´s Birthday - February 4


Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) is known for his leadership role in the Confessing Church, efforts on behalf of peace and justice, opposition to antisemitism, and writings on theology and ethics that have been influential far beyond his German Lutheran context. He was was hanged by the Nazis on April 6, 1945 in the Flossenburg concentration camp.
In addition to the videos below, you can check out our set of quotes by this Lutheran Hero at:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
24 Quotes

LPF Peace Art Contest

Peacemaking at School

No Name-Calling Week

No Name-Calling Week, January 24-28, 2011, 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.

---

National Peace Essay Contest 2011

High school students can win college scholarships up to $10,000.

The United States Institute of Peace is holding its annual NATIONAL PEACE ESSAY CONTEST. This scholarship contest is for high school students who are interested in international issues, conflict resolution, peace studies, justice, and human rights. The 2010-2011 contest's topic is "GOVERNANCE, CORRUPTION, AND CONFLICT." The topic changes every year. The DEADLINE for the 2010-2011 contest is February 1, 2011. Entries must be received by this date.

For more information, visit the United States Institute of Peace website.

---

LPF Peace Art Contest

We are doing a makeover of the main homepage of the LPF website and want to include pictures of people involved in a variety of peacemaking activities and other images and artwork to illustrate the work of LPF.

Please send us action shots of you and other peacemakers in action and images or artwork of what peacemaking means to you. The best entries will be featured on the LPF website.

Ideas include:

• Take action photos of peace related events/activities in your congregation or community.
• Sunday school art projects: draw a picture of what peace means to you.
• Pick out your favorite peace related bible verse to illustrate.
• Download LPF´s Peace Deck and create original artwork based on your favorite quote.
• Illustrate the concepts of active nonviolence and conflict resolution in photos or drawings.
• Take pictures at your local foodbank or feeding program of people helping people in need.

Please submit entries by email to lutheranpeace@gmail.com (5 mb max per email) along with the author´s name so we can give them credit.

---

Jan 4, 2011

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

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

Useful as a bulletin insert.

It boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Trumpet of Conscience

Human Rights Day

December 10, 2010

will focus on human rights defenders
who act to end discrimination.

“Discrimination lies at the root of many of the world’s most pressing human rights problems. No country is immune from this scourge. Eliminating discrimination is a duty of the highest order.”
Navi Pillay
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Discrimination: treating a person or particular group of people differently, especially in a worse way from the way in which you treat other people, based on the group, class, or category to which they belong (skin color, religion, sex, etc.) rather than on individual merit: intolerance and prejudice.

videos:

UN Human Rights Chief urges an end to discrimination

Anthony Romero message for Human Rights Day

Robert Archer Interview

Wilder Tayler

Links:

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights - Human Rights Day 2010

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

LPF resource: Addressing Racism: Challenge for Peacemakers

Lutheran Human Relations Association

The Lutheran World Federation - Office for International Affairs and Human Rights

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

Save Darfur National Call-In Day


SDC/GI-Net and partners are organizing a national call-in day on November 16th for all activists, faith groups and partner organizations. Participants can call 1-800-genocide and follow a recorded script asking Secretary Clinton to appoint a high-level diplomat for Darfur. Please promote the call to your constituents and networks. To learn more or get help promoting the call, please contact Joe Maddens (joe@savedarfur.org).

St Martin of Tours - Feast Day

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

LPF Peace Art Contest

We are doing a makeover of the main homepage of the LPF website and want to include pictures of people involved in a variety of peacemaking activities and other images and artwork to illustrate the work of LPF.

Please send us action shots of you and other peacemakers in action and images or artwork of what peacemaking means to you. The best entries will be featured on the LPF website.

Ideas include:

• Take action photos of peace related events/activities in your congregation or community.
• Sunday school art projects: draw a picture of what peace means to you.
• Pick out your favorite peace related bible verse to illustrate.
• Download LPF´s Peace Deck and create original artwork based on your favorite quote.
• Illustrate the concepts of active nonviolence and conflict resolution in photos or drawings.
• Take pictures at your local foodbank or feeding program of people helping people in need.

Please submit entries by email to lutheranpeace@gmail.com (5 mb max per email) along with the author´s name so we can give them credit.

---

World Food Day

Saturday, October 16th

The theme of this year’s observance is United against hunger, chosen to recognize the efforts made in the fight against world hunger at national, regional and international levels.

Resources:

LPF Hunger Resources

World Food Day USA

World Food Day UN website
World Food Day - Wikipedia

People's Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS)

Indigenous Food Systems Network - Food Sovereignty

La Via Campesina

Tierra Viva Bolivia

Organisations working on Food Sovereignty issues

August 6 - Hiroshima Day


On this day we remember the anniversary of the atomic the bombing of Hiroshima, August 6, 1945. Remarkably, this is the first time in 65 years that the US has sent an official representative to the city for an event that organizers hope will bolster global efforts toward nuclear disarmament. We invite Christians to pray for peace.

From the LPF Archives

For People of Faith: AN URGENT CALL (2003)

Hiroshima-Nagasaki Day of Prayer for Peace, Bulletin Insert (2005)

Other Resources

US, nuclear powers join Hiroshima memorial for first time, on 65th anniversary

Global Zero – A World Without Nuclear Weapons

Countdown to Zero

Animation of Nuclear History

World Refugee Day

Now when they had departed, behold,( an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. (Matthew 2:13-15)

World Refugee Day, observed June 20 each year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the situation of refugees throughout the world.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

World Refugee Day - UN

World Refugee Day - Wikipedia

TUESDAY, JUNE 01, 2010

Torture Awareness Month

National and Washington State Religious Campaign Against Torture.

The suggested June action is as follows:

(1) Please try to have a table for action set up for every Sunday in June, publicizing it with something like "Torture Is A Moral Issue"

(2) On the table, have an adequate supply of postcards (provided by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture--how many do you need ?)
The message on the card is a request for the International Committee of the Red Cross to be given permission to have access to all prisoners held by USA forces in any country.

(3) Also on the table have a petition to be signed, urging Attorney General Eric Holder to move ahead in appointing a Commission of Inquiry about who ordered/authorized USA forces to use torture and include the option of a prosecutor if crimes have been committed.

(4) Try to arrange the showing of a 20 minute DVD "Ending US-Sponsored Torture Forever." (The DVD is free from NRCAT)

National Religious Campaign Against Torture - http://www.nrcat.org/

Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice

Amnesty International

Torture Awareness

National Religious Campaign Against Torture - Wikipedia

The Origins of Mother's Day

It has been 140 years since Mother's Day first came into being, yet few people know that it was originally conceived as a day for mothers to protest injustice and war. Over the years the activist observance of this holiday became squelched by its commercialization by flower and card companies that turned it into billion-dollar industry. There has been a recent movement to return Mother's Day to its original meaning.

read more:

The Original Anti-War Mother's Day

Soap to Ploughshares: How to return Mother's Day to its original meaning.

CODEPINK Observes Mother's Day With Protest

Mothers' Day Proclamation: Julia Ward Howe, Boston, 1870

Mother’s Day for Peace: A Dramatic Reading of Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation

Mother's Day Proclamation

Original Mother's Day a war protest

Mothers Acting Up

---

Conscientious Objectors' Day - May 15th

A conscientious objector (CO) is an “individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion.

Many conscientious objectors can find themselves in a very difficult situation, especially in times of war. 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. Lutheran Peace Fellowship has a long history of supporting conscientious objectors and traces its roots to this movement dating back to 1940.

for more information:

Conscientious objector - From Wikipedia

Youth and the Military

Soldiers of Conscience
film on moral challenges of military service.
Watch clips on Youtube

International Conscientious Objector Day May 15

History of Conscientious Objectors' Day

St. Martin of Tours Feast Day

Dietrich Bonhoeffer´s Birthday - February 4


Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) is known for his leadership role in the Confessing Church, efforts on behalf of peace and justice, opposition to antisemitism, and writings on theology and ethics that have been influential far beyond his German Lutheran context. He was was hanged by the Nazis on April 6, 1945 in the Flossenburg concentration camp.
In addition to the videos below, you can check out our set of quotes by this Lutheran Hero at:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
24 Quotes

Season of Nonviolence

January 30 - April 4, is a national 64-day educational, media, and grassroots campaign dedicated to demonstrating that nonviolence is a powerful way to heal, transform, and empower our lives and our communities. Originally inspired by the memorial anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this campaign honors their vision for an empowered, nonviolent world.

In our culture the word "nonviolence" is loaded down with stereotypes, myths, and misconceptions. It may be among the most misunderstood words in our language. For many, nonviolence is a way of life that is grounded in a deeply held religious or moral conviction. For others it is a strategy, a method of confronting conflict or oppression in a way that seeks to honor life. Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, and Mahatma Gandhi were all pioneers in the philosophy and strategy of non-violence to achieve great things. Check out LPF´s extensive list of resources to learn more about Nonviolence.

---

Atonement Lutheran Church

Reconciling in Christ team presents:

HOPE, HOMOSEXUALITY, and HOSPITALITY

A Bible study by Bishop Dave Brauer-Rieke, Oregon Synod - ELCA

Wednesday, January 27th 6:00 PM – Potluck and fellowship; 7:00 PM – Bible study, followed by questions and answers. Everyone is welcome! (541) 265-2554 (download the flier)

If you are interested in more information about the Reconciling in Christ process and how to hold such an event in your own congregation, check out the following online websites and resources:

Lutherans Concerned/North America

Caring Conversations - Trinity's Affirmation of Welcome

goodsoil.org – Lutheran Alliance for Full Participation

Wingspan

Soulforce

---

World Day of Peace

The 43rd World Day of Peace will be celebrated on 1 January 2010.

The United Nations invited the world to celebrate One Day In Peace - January 1, 2000 - as the beginning of the International Decade for the Culture of Peace & Nonviolence for the Children of the World! Lutheran Peace Fellowship joined with 1000 other organizations in almost 140 nations in this launch for a better world... Throughout the past decade, LPF has developed resources, workshops, and trainings in the effort to create a culture of peace and nonviolent responses to conflict.

links:

International Day of Peace - Wikipedia

Pax Christi - World Day of Peace

USCCB - World Day of Peace

THEME FOR THE WORLD DAY OF PEACE 2010

ONE DAY IN PEACE

Human Rights Day 2009 on December 10

will focus on non-discrimination.

“Discrimination lies at the root of many of the world’s most pressing human rights problems. No country is immune from this scourge. Eliminating discrimination is a duty of the highest order.”
Navi Pillay
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Discrimination: treating a person or particular group of people differently, especially in a worse way from the way in which you treat other people, based on the group, class, or category to which they belong (skin color, religion, sex, etc.) rather than on individual merit: intolerance and prejudice.

videos:

UN Human Rights Chief urges an end to discrimination

Anthony Romero message for Human Rights Day

Robert Archer Interview

Wilder Tayler

Links:

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights - Human Rights Day 2009

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

LPF resource: Addressing Racism: Challenge for Peacemakers

Lutheran Human Relations Association

The Lutheran World Federation - Office for International Affairs and Human Rights

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

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---

Atonement Lutheran Church

Reconciling in Christ team presents:

HOPE, HOMOSEXUALITY, and HOSPITALITY

A Bible study by Bishop Dave Brauer-Rieke, Oregon Synod - ELCA

Wednesday, January 27th 6:00 PM – Potluck and fellowship; 7:00 PM – Bible study, followed by questions and answers. Everyone is welcome! (541) 265-2554 (download the flier)

If you are interested in more information about the Reconciling in Christ process and how to hold such an event in your own congregation, check out the following online websites and resources:

Lutherans Concerned/North America

Caring Conversations - Trinity's Affirmation of Welcome

goodsoil.org – Lutheran Alliance for Full Participation

Wingspan

Soulforce

---

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dramatic new film

"The End of Poverty?"

nationwide premier

Now Showing in Seattle

for other cities see the full schedule and more details . . .

Interview: Filmmaker Philippe Diaz on “The End of Poverty?”

New Resources for Parents and Youth

Three new resources offer concise information on several of the most pressing concerns among parents and young people today. Each offers a brief description of the most useful sources, web links, and more than a few little-known gems. Here are the titles:

Resources for Parents, Especially on the New Media

Recommended Computer Games

Finding Good Books for Young People

LPF resources and expertise build on numerous workshops for parents, teachers, and young people in congregations, teacher in-service days, regional events, and national conferences as well as scores of leadership training programs.

International Day of Nonviolence

International Day of Nonviolence was declared by the United Nations to be marked on October 2nd, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement and a pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of non-violence. Check out our video series on Gandhi's philosophy and its impact.

The Army's video game and a
Pulitzer winner's effort to stop it

Protesters say the game misrepresents the experience of war by making it seem like fun, like a game. read more . . .

LPF Resources for Youth Leaders

Here is a new select list of LPF Resources for Youth Leaders all on one page.