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Nonviolence
The United Nations has declared 2001-2010 to be the
International decade for a culture of peace and nonviolence for the
children of the world. The same decade is declared to be the Decade
to Overcome Violence by the World Council of Churces. During this
decade, SweFOR wants to increase our effort to spread the ideas of
nonviolence to members and the public. We work with workshops,
rollplaying, lectures, visits to schools and parishes, conferences
and dissemination of information. Please contact SweFORs secretary
of nonviolence, Martin
Smedjeback, if you have thougths or questions about nonviolence
or if you want to work with us to spread the word about nonviolence.
The following projects are currently running in SweFOR's nonviolence
decade campaign:
Peace In Our Hands
The UN decade for nonviolence has inspired five Swedish
organisations to work together to reach the goals of the decade. The
cooperating organisations are SweFOR, PeaceQuest, the Swedish UN
Association, The Council of Churches in Sweden and Swedish Teachers
for Peace. Together we give training and information in nonviolence
and conflict transformation. We have made proposals for motions for
the Swedish Congress. The motions want to include conflict
transformation and nonviolence in the teachers' education and in the
Swedish curriculum. We train youth who will train other youth in
nonviolence.
The Peace Network for the Christian Youth
Organisations
The Christian faith calls us to work for peace and justice. In that
spirit five Christian youth organisations have formed the Peace
Network. They are: EFS Youth, SweFOR, The Christian Student Movement,
Swedish Catholic Youth and Swedish Baptist Youth. Together we do
trainings and seminaries in nonviolence. We work to spread the
gospel's news of a world in peace and justice. For more information,
contact the coordinator of the Peace Network, Martin Smedjeback.
Parishes For Peace
SweFOR, together with the Council of Churches in Sweden, wish to
inspire and support parishes who want to include nonviolence and
conflict transformation in their activities. Right now we offer
seminars on these topics. For more information about Parishes For
Peace, talk to our information officer, Karin
Haglind.
Martin Luther King Day
The third Monday every January is Martin Luther King Day, which is
celebrated in more than 100 countries. SweFOR has together with the
Swedish Baptist Church begun to observe this special day in Sweden,
too. The King Day 2004 was observed in several places in Sweden with
theater, demonstration and church services. For more information,
contact Martin Smedjeback. Please visit www.baptist.se/mlk - the
biggest King-site in Sweden?
Co-operation with the Muslim Youth of Sweden
The message of peace is strong in the world religions. In
co-operation with the Muslim Youth of Sweden, we want to uphold the
tradition of nonviolence in both Christianity and Islam, and to be
inspired and to learn from each other's religions. We also want to
develop new ways on how we can co-operate to bring forward peace and
nonviolence. We have evenings together in Stockholm on the theme of
nonviolence.
Ecumenical Conference on Nonviolence
In June 2005, SweFOR and the Council of Churces in Sweden organised
a mid-decade conference to highlight the World Council of Churches
Decade to overcome violence. The purpose was to gather everyone
interested in peace and nonviolence from the whole of church-Sweden
to talk about our joint work for nonviolence and peace. For more
information, contact Martin Smedjeback.
Martin Smedjeback, secetary of nonviolence in SweFOR
Phone +46-8-453 68 41, E-mail martin.smedjeback@swefor.org
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