A workshop has been used in Cuba and other countries to get children involved in active peacemaking, reports Sarah Kim. Working in tandem with the United Nations, the Global Network of Religions for Children uses a curriculum that focuses on four ethical values: respect, empathy, reconciliation and responsibility.

Both Whole Life Sports and Women’s Centre are efforts to bring peace to the family and community and to collaborate with churches in healing social and societal wounds in Jamaica. Mark Beach reports from the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) in the capital, Kingston.

Deir Zor, the felicitous little village in Syria which bore witness, a century ago, to the death march of hundreds and thousands of helpless victims of an organised genocide against Armenians, is in the news again. Arthur Hagopian reports from Jerusalem.

Is reconciliation realistic? Is it possible to reconcile groups with diverse or contradictory experiences and understanding of the world? The answer to this question depends on what we accept as “realistic”, says Andrew Suderman What is the true story that is being told? The Christian message is that it is ultimately God who reconciles, not us. Our task is to align ourselves with God's action in this respect.

Beyond the raw facts of the bruised and bloodied bodies, and the grief of those mourning the loss of loved ones, says Gordon Lynch, the unfolding story of the Israeli navy’s assault on the Gaza aid flotilla has wider symbolic significance.

To question the sacralized version of violent history and ‘salvation’ embodied in the ANZAC weekend celebrations in Australia and New Zealand is to risk being accused of ‘blasphemy’ and causing great offence, says Jarrod McKenna. Yet Christians have to risk offending in order to witness to the nonviolent overcoming we encounter and are changed by in Christ’s cross, and to point a better way forward for humanity.