Greenbelt Christian Arts Festival
July 10th, 2009The Greenbelt Christian Arts Festival takes place at Cheltenham race course over the August Bank Holiday weekend at the end of August. It attracts around 20,000 mainly Christian visitors each year and provides an opportunity for people of all ages to come together for a weekend to experience “love, creativity and justice in the arts and contemporary culture in the light of the Christian gospel”.
Every year, NCPO has a presence at the festival with the aim of:
- promoting peace and nonviolence as central to Christianity
- inspiring people to practice active peacemaking and non-violence in daily life
- giving people a deeper understanding of peace and non-violence
One of the main ways in which NCPO does this is by co-ordinating the festival’s ‘Peace Zone’. The Peace Zone is located in the G-Source tent and aims to engage Greenbelt visitors in peace issues through a variety of fun, interactive and educational resources and activities.
In the past, Peace Zone activities have included painting umbrellas for peace, contributing to a giant peace mandala and transforming a tank covered in newspaper stories of war into a colourful ‘think tank’ embodying people’s aspirations for peace. It has also played host to several high profile speakers including Norman Kember and Walter Wink and has taken visitors on a journey through Christian peacemaking from Jesus’ time to the present day.
NCPO also has a presence at the Greenbelt festival via the various talks and workshops on peace and nonviolence. In recent years, these have included ‘From Violence to Wholeness’ workshops and inspiring talks on aspects of peace activism by NCPO members.
In 2009, NCPO will again co-ordinate the festival’s Peace Zone. A pre-festival press release will be posted here closer to the festival weekend.
Greenbelt
August 27th, 2010Each year the Festival hosts a rich programme of visual and performing arts, spirituality, comedy and talks and discussion. Cheltenham Race Course.
http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/
Pax Christi Annual General Meeting
June 19th, 2010Venue: Blackfriars, St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LY
Speaker: Dr Jane Clements, Director of FODIP, Forum for the Discussion of Israel Palestine
A week with Pax Christi’s Icon of Peace
June 7th, 2010A week of meditations, reflections, workshops on the theme of peace and reconciliation.
Hosted by Pax Christi and St Ethelburga’s Centre for Peace & Reconciliation, 78 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AG
“Strictly Disarming” for Nuclear Abolition Day
June 5th, 2010The Christian Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is hosting an event at the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment on the 5th June to call for a Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC) banning all nuclear weapons.
‘Strictly Disarming’ will bring together supporters of global disarmament in a competition exploring the concept of a Nuclear Weapons Convention. Participants will bring their interpretation of the letters ‘NWC’ through music, theatre, posters or placards, or anything, to be judged by our distinguished panel. It will even be videoed for world-wide viewing!
Those interested in taking part are encouraged to arrive at the Main Gate of AWE at 1pm for a shared ‘Peace Picnic’ ready for the main event to start at 2pm. The event at AWE will be part of a global Nuclear Abolition Day, as thousands of people across the world will take part in local actions responding to the outcome of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, which has been taking place in New York throughout May.
Let us know in advance if you can and we can give you a good spot on the programme and on our website. Email: christians@cnduk.org
NCPO General Election Briefing
March 31st, 2010A 4 page briefing with questions for prospective candidates. themes include the Middle East, the Arms Trade, Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Military Spending and Human Security NCPO_Election2010
Embassies Walks
March 1st, 2010Join CCND as we visit each of the London Embassies of the Nuclear Weapons States, to ask how they are progressing with their ‘unequivocal undertaking… to accomplish … nuclear disamament…’ (Final Document Review Conference of the NPT, May 19, 2000, New York). We will also visit the embassies of the New Agenda Coalition countries.
Join us for some or all of the walk, which will be split into two or three separate walks. Starting with a liturgy in the Dick Sheppard Chapel at St. Martins in the fields at 10am, the walks will begin at 10:30am. More details later. 020 7700 4200 christians@cnduk.org
URC Peace Fellowship Conference
February 28th, 2010Saturday December 13th 2010 at Carrs Lane URC Birmingham
Ash Wednesday: Witness of Repentence and Resistance
February 17th, 2010Annual Christian Witness held on 17 February 2010 at the Ministry of Defence, Horsequards Avenue, London. The focus of the gathering is a Christian challenge to nuclear war preparations.
Liturgy materials will be available on the Pax Christi website for those who wish to organise local events.
Blockade of AWE Aldermaston – Faiths Gate
February 15th, 2010The Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston is in the process of building a new generation of nuclear bombs for the UK. Trident already endangers us all, encourages proliferation and undermines international law. Please come and join in the blockade to call for disarmament now! You can sit, lie down, lock-on or provide support for the blockaders. We need your committed nonviolent civil resistance. The blockade that will start at 7am and continue for as long as possible. We can create the changes we need for a better world. For more information on how to get involved phone 0845 4588 361 or email blockawe@yahoo.co.uk Special Faiths Gate at the Blockade
Note that there will be a special multi-faith presence at Tadley gate. Quakers and other faith groups wishing to participate are encouraged to form affinity groups in advance and read the Trident Ploughshares briefing at www.tridentploughshares.org For more info about the Quaker bloc, contact: 0845 458 8366; sarahllasenby@googlemail.com or blockawe@yahoo.co.uk QPSW’s Turning The Tide programme can provide workshops for groups preparing to go to the blockade. To request training contact 020 7663 1061; denised@quaker.org.uk www.turningthetide.org.uk
Peace Sunday
January 17th, 2010Pax Christi – Peace Sunday celebrated in England and Wales on 17 January. Celebrates the Pope’s World Peace Day message ” If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation’. Materials available on Pax Christi website