We are pleased to announce that Tanenbaum will host its fourth Peacemakers in Action Working Retreat from August 6-12, 2011. Tanenbaum’s Peacemakers will convene over five days at Drew University’s serene campus in New Jersey to participate in collaborative trainings, community-building and outreach. The Center on Religion, Culture and Conflict at the University, where Peacemaker Yehezkel Landau is a Senior Fellow, will assist in preparations for the event.
Past retreats have been held in 2004 (Amaan), 2005 (New York), and 2007 (Sarajevo). Tanenbaum’s Working Retreats have been established to convene Peacemakers and facilitate the exchange of information between them in a series of formal and informal settings. This creates a forum where they can discuss and assess themes, techniques and effective strategies in religious peacemaking. The Working Retreats further enable us to draw attention to the field of religious peacemaking and increase recognition of the significance of Tanenbaum’s Peacemakers in Action award.
The Peacemakers not only use the Working Retreats as skills-building opportunities but they also become reinvigorated by spending time together. Peacemaker Canon Andrew White, who is working in Iraq, stated:
“We thank God, literally, for the role that Tanenbaum has played in bringing together various Peacemakers in Action. We suddenly find we have so much in common. And our peacemaking activities are never easy. They always involve pain and suffering and brokenness, but we never lose our hope. One of the reasons we never lose our hope is because we are not alone in this. And we come together to seek the future for a broken world, that one day it may be healed.”
Participants observed the power of Tanenbaum’s Peacemakers as a group of individuals to create change during the third Working Retreat in Sarajevo. As a result, the retreat concluded with a unanimous commitment to develop and implement a solid international network of peacemakers that is mobilized and reliable. This vision is now formally known as the Tanenbaum Peacemakers in Action Network.
Since that time a group of three Peacemaker representatives have worked with Tanenbaum staff to realize this vision by developing a structure and recommending parameters together. During our upcoming retreat the Peacemakers to reach consensus on the structure and functions of The Network thereby finalizing a plan to implement and officially launch the Peacemakers in Action Network.
We further hope to raise awareness about the Peacemakers and their work among general audiences in New York and New Jersey, as well as to leaders in the field of religion and conflict resolution and peacebuilding. For example, Drew University’s Center on Religion, Culture and Conflict will organize an event for students, teachers and the general public, featuring the Peacemakers.
This is a unique opportunity for Tanenbaum’s Peacemakers to spend time with their peers, make connections and to grow in fellowship with the Tanenbaum community. We are excited to once again be able to work with the Peacemakers to further the field of religious peacemaking.