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Special Package price for the video series and two WCC publications (Peace in Troubled Cities and Overcoming Violence: SFR 45.00 (US$33.00, £20.00) + postage.
PEACE TO THE CITIES! Stories of Hope
The series describes the campaign as a whole, and includes a discussion guide as well as seven locally-produced videos about each city's imaginative efforts to build bridges between and reconcile communities in conflict.
Total running time: 233 min. Versions: VHS/PAL, VHS/NTSC, VHS/SECAM; price: SRF 30.00 (US$20.00, £12.50) + postage.
Becoming a Citizen Again: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil shares how two minute of silence sparked a broad range of creative projects and coalitions offering alternatives to violence in the slums and streets of this city. (30 minutes)
We Want Peace: Belfast, Northern Ireland tells how a Catholic house and a Methodist church opened a common space for their divided communities, how two former paramilitary members work together in community development, and how mediation training gives people the chanace to share, listen, and build understanding and cooperation. (30 minutes)
God Among the Children: Boston, USA tells how ministers in a Ten-Point Coalition "put their feet where their theology is" by walking the city streets at night, offering other alternatives to young people involved in drugs and gangs, helping them and the police to talk to each other, and daring other churches and city organizations to care for youngsters and build a safe community. (30 minutes)
Together Against Violence: Kingston, Jamaica shows how a local health clinic, a school, a community council and a church mnaged to get the leaders of warring "garrison community" gangs to at least try to resolve their conflices and work together, and how the coalition addresses the economic roots of violence. (30 minutes)
These are some of the stories you'll hear about in an eight-part video series on the Peace to the City! campaign. This global clampaign of the World Council of Churches' Programme to Overcome Violence highlighted creative models of community rebuilding in seven cities around the world - Boston, USA; Belfast, Northern Ireland; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Durban, South Africa; Kingston, Jamaica; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Suva, Fiji.
Peace to the City! looks at prevailing "cultures of violence" and calls for a "cultures of just peace". Short examples from the seven cities offer hope and challenges to churches, communities, groups and individuals wishing to engage in active peacemaking. (23 minutes)
Where the Rivers Meet: Suva, Fiji shares how a participatory constitutional reform process and efforts to build interfaith and multicultural understanding helped bring Indigenous Fijian and Indo-Fijian communities together in this "tropical paradise" torn by ethnic, religious, economic and political conflict. (30 minutes)
Voices for Peace: Colombo, Sri Lanka tells how cross-cultural, interfaith and educational efforts in conflict resolution are helping to build an atmosphere for a negotiated peace to a tragic civil conflict. (30 minutes)
PEACE IN TROUBLED CITIES
It is in cities around the world that the destructive forces of violence in today's world are perhaps most visible. At the same time, cities are also the places where courageous groups are working imaginatively to rebuild community out of situations of alienation, violence and hopelessness. This book recounts stories of creative community engagement emerging from the WCC's Peace to the City Campaign.
OTHER BOOKS ABOUT OVERCOMING VIOLENCE FROM WCC COMMUNICATIONS
OVERCOMING VIOLENCE:
In 1997 the WCC established a Programme to Overcome Violence. But what can the churches do together to overcome violence in the home, on the streets, in the media? When conflicting national and ethnic aspirations often seem to lead to repression of armed revolution, can the church live out the conviction that war is contrary to the will of God? What resources for nonviolent resolution of conflicts can they find in the Bible and their theological traditions? This book explores the opportunities and difficulties linked with the vocation of non-violence.
TRANSFORMING VIOLENCE
A collection of essays on the biblical and theological background for peacemaking, with practical examples from local and global settings, by noted writers from Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. This book is a project of the Historic Peace Churches and the Fellowship of Reconciliation in support of the Programme to Overcome Violence. Herald Press: Scottsdale Pennsylvania, USA. SFR 15.00 (US$9.99, £6.50)
COMPANION BOOK
Creative Models of Building Community Amidst Urban Violence
by Daphne Sabanes Plou, 140pp.
2-8254-1256-2 SFR 15.00 (US$9.95, £6.50). WCC Publications, Risk Book Series.
A Challenge to the Church in All Places
by Margot Kässmann, 86 pp.
2-8254-1228-7, SFR 9.90 (US£6.95, £4.50). WCC Publications, Risk Book Series.
Linking Local and Global Peacemaking
edited by Judy Zimmerman Herr and Robert Herr
foreword by Konrad Raiser. 250 pp.