A few questions that we keep getting have to do with the relationship between peacebuilding and Christian witness. Is peacebuilding supposed to lead to witness? Does Christian witness simply not matter in light of so much division and conflict? What is Christian witness? Is it mainly about expressing religious convictions through our words? Or is it about serving as a living example of one’s faith? Read on to see our answers.

We’re happy to announce the appointment of Peter Digitale Anderson as Executive Director of Peace Catalyst International! Peter will be replacing Martin Brooks, who served as President since January 2020.

Global challenges like toxic polarization, ongoing violence and war, and climate change are dramatically straining our collective capacity to work together to meet everyone’s needs. Peacebuilding is not just for a few of us; peacebuilding insights and skills are needed to address the everyday challenges we face in our homes and communities, and we need them to work together to address wider societal challenges. Each gift to Peace Catalyst as an organization and to a specific peacebuilder or project is an investment to help shift the culture of the Church to prioritize God’s vision of holistic, just peace. 

Previous times that I have been invited to speak with Christian groups in Northern Ireland, I had been invited to speak primarily about a theological foundation and vision for peace and peacebuilding. This time, the request was for a more practical: How do we do it? What perspectives and skills do we need to cultivate in order to work as peacebuilders in our everyday lives and communities? 

Peace Catalyst International unreservedly calls for a ceasefire in Palestine and Israel, the return of all hostages, secure humanitarian corridors, and an end to the widespread killing and destruction in Gaza.

I am guessing there is a person in your surroundings with whom you do not agree and share the same values. If you are unable to speak to that person, I invite you to imagine walking in their shoes. Imagine spending one day as that person. Think about their life, their struggle, their way of seeing the world. What makes that person unavailable to you? And what makes them relatable?

REGISTRATION IS OPEN for individuals and small groups to come to Bosnia & Herzegovina on our Spring 2024 Catalyze Peacebuilding Pilgrimage. 

Together with our good friend and colleague Orhan Hadžagić, we’re hosting our first 6-week workshop series in September and October on conflict transformation. Learn more about it, and contact us to bring the workshops to your community.

At Peace Catalyst, we’re working to equip and mobilize Christians for collaborative peacebuilding across lines of difference. In light of today’s hyperdiversity, church decline, and polarization, the need for a holistic, healing-oriented framework at a popular level among local pastors and their congregations has never been greater. With a shalom-centered theological framework and PCI’s peacebuilding toolkits, congregations have the opportunity to both reconstruct their faith in ways that fit with their core faith priorities and values and to collaborate with their diverse neighbors on issues that affect all of society.