Peace Groups

I will add to this listing regularly as I find links. I am in the middle of updating the page I had from my old blog–and correcting broken links, etc. at same time.

Colleges and Universities with Peace Studies Programs

I. Faith Based Peace Groups

     A. Christian Peace Groups

Adventist Peace Fellowship

Adventist Women for Peace

American Friends Service Committee ( AFSC Quaker based–won 1947 Nobel Peace Prize)

The Anabaptist Network (Reviving the witness of 16th C. Christian pacifists for contemporary Britain.)

Anabaptist Association of Australia and New Zealand

Anglican Pacifist Fellowship 

Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America  (Baptist peacemakers from Canada, U.S.A., Cuba, Mexico, & Puerto Rico)

Baptist Peace Fellowship (U.K.)

Campaign Against the Arms Trade Christian Network (U.K.)

Canadian Friends Service Committee (The Canadian counterpart to the AFSC above).

Catholic Peace Fellowship

Church and Peace (European & ecumenical)

Church of God Peace Fellowship (This refers to the Church of God–Anderson,IN which is Holiness, not the Church of God–Cleveland, TN, which is Pentecostal.)

Church of the Brethren (One of the “historic peace churches.” Evolved out of an 18th C. encounter in Germany between Mennonites and radical Pietists.)

Churches for a Middle East Peace. (U.S. ecumenical movement for a just peace in Palestine/Israel)

Christian Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (U.K.)

Christian International Peace Service (CHIPS–U.K. based)

Christian Peacemaker Teams (Christian nonviolent 3rd-party intervention in situations of conflict and war. )

Christian Peace Witness for Iraq (Umbrella organization of Christians opposed to the Iraq invasion and occupation. Needs a similar focus on Afghanistan.)

Disciples Peace Fellowship

Episcopal Peace Fellowship (U.S. branch of the global Anglican Pacifist Fellowship listed above.)

Every Church a Peace Church (The Church could turn the world toward peace if every church lived and taught as Jesus did.  My former employers.)

Friends Committee on National Legislation (A Quaker lobby in the national interest.)

Friends Peace Teams (The Religious Society of Friends–better known as the Quakers–is a “Historic Peace Church.” Since 1660, the Friends/Quakers have rejected war and every form of violence.)

Global Anabaptist Peace and Justice Network

Holy Land Trust (Palestinian Christian peace project to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine.)

International Affairs and Peacemaking Program of the Methodist Church of Great Britain

Just Peacemaking (Website of Baptist ethicist and peace theologian, Glen H. Stassen)

London Mennonite Centre (Rooted in the Anabaptist tradition, cultivating Christian discipleship as a way of life.)

Lutheran Peace Fellowship

Mennonite Central Committee (Relief, Development & Peace in the name of Christ. Mennonites are a 16th C. “historic peace church,” rejecting war and violence and embrace service and peacemaking as central to following Jesus as Lord.)  See also MCC Canada.

Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA mobilizes clergy and laity to take action on issues of peace, poverty, and people’s rights within the church, the nation, and the world.)

Methodist Peace Fellowship (UK)

Methodists United for Peace with Justice (MUPJ is a membership organization for just peacemaking within the pan-Methodist family in the U.S.–African Methodist Episcopal,  AME-Zion, Christian Methodist Episcopal, Free Methodist, United Methodist, and Wesleyan Church. I’d like to see them “go global” and include the British Methodists, etc.)

Network of Christian Peace Organizations (U.K.)

On Earth Peace (An agency rooted in the historic peace witness of the Church of the Brethren. 3 main programs:  Peace education–developing peace leadership in the churches, Peace Witness–empowering public nonviolent action for justice and peace, Ministry of Reconciliation–nurturing skills and habits of conflict transformation.)

Orthodox Peace Fellowship (Full name: The Orthodox Peace Fellowship of the Protection of the Mother of God. The grassroots peace fellowship of the global family of Eastern Orthodox Christians. Based in the Netherlands and publishing the journal In Communion. )

Pax Christi International (The worldwide, grassroots, Roman Catholic peace movement based in Belgium.) See also: Catholics for Peace, the Canadian chapter of Pax Christi International; Pax Christi, USA; Pax Christi, UK; just for starters.

Peace and Justice Support Network (of the Mennonite Church, USA (Official Mennonite agency for enabling local congregations to be more active in their nonviolent work for justice and peace.)  See also Peace and Justice Ministries (of the Mennonite Church, Canada)

Peace Theology (Website and blog of Mennonite theologian Ted Grimsrud).

Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice (Originally called the Pentecostal & Charismatic Peace Fellowship. The original Pentecostal movement–including the Assemblies of God, Church of God–Cleveland, TN, Church of God in Christ & others were pacifist. This is a grassroots movement of Pentecostals and charismatic Christians in non-Pentecostal denominations to reclaim that Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered, on-fire peacemaking.)

Preaching Peace (A website helping ministers communicate the Good News of Peace in Jesus Christ.  Strongly informed by the mimetic theory of Rene Girard and organized according to the Common Lectionary.)

Presbyterian Peace Fellowship (Grassroots peacemakers in the Presbyterian Church, USA.)

Presbyterian Peacemaking Program (The official program for peacemaking of the Presbyterian Church, USA.)

Quaker Peace & Social Witness (UK  Replaces the older (British) Friends Service Council)

United Church of Christ Justice & Witness Ministries (Official justice and peacemaking program of the United Church of Christ includes the UCC Justice & Peace Action Network–JPAN.

United Methodist Church General Board of Church & Society: Peace with Justice Program (Official UMC peace program.)

United Reformed Church Peace Fellowship (U.K.)

   B. Interfaith and Non-Christian Faith-Based Peace Groups

American Muslim Voice (Fostering peace among all communities.)

Buddhist Peace Fellowship (Social engagement and compassionate action.)

Center on Conscience and War (Founded just before WWII as the National Interreligious Service Board for Conscientious Objectors [NISBCO].)

Faithful Security:  The National Religious Partnership on the Nuclear Danger (U.S.)

International Fellowship of Reconciliation (The international and U.S. branches of this pacifist organization are interfaith. The U.K. branch and some others are strictly Christian.) U.S. branch: FOR; FoRE (U.K. branch); France: M.I.R.; Germany: Internationaler Versoehnungsbund; Latin America: SERPAJ. Many others.

International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB) 

Jewish Peace Fellowship (Standing for nonviolence and the Jewish tradition of peace and justice.)

Jewish Voice for Peace (Grassroots U.S. Jewish organization focused on a just peace for Israel & Palestine–and to breaking the media stranglehood that anti-Palestinian Jewish organizations have over what is considered a “legitimate” Jewish viewpoint.)

M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence (Founded by Arun Gandhi, grandson of M.K. Gandhi. Located on the campus of the University of Rochester.)

Muslim Peace Fellowship 

Network of Spiritual Progressives

Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Fellowship

Religions for Peace

Unitarian Universalist Peace Fellowship

II.  Peace Groups Without a Religious Basis for Membership

       A.  Broadly Focused Peace Groups

The Carter Center Founded by former President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, the Carter Center, located on the campus of Emory University, Atlanta, GA works for peace and human rights, fights preventable diseases, and works for sustainable development and better mental health.

Code Pink: Women for Peace  Founded in 2002 by a group of U.S. women desperate to prevent the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq, it’s name is satire on the former Bush admin.’s color coded terrorism alert system.  Code Pink’s goals are to end the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, prevent future wars, and work for a foreign policy based on human rights, international law, and a non-domination.

Fourth Freedom Forum.  Taking it’s name from FDR’s 1941 speech on a world order guaranteed by “4 freedoms,” in which the 4th freedom is “freedom from fear.” The forum works for global disarmament and the creation of a world governed by the force of law rather than the law of force–with economic sanctions replacing the threat of armed aggression.

International Peace Bureau.  Founded in 1891 from the efforts of several 19th c. movements of “political pacifism,” and winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910. The IPB is an umbrella organization based in Geneva, Switzerland working for a world without war. (In addition to the organization’s Nobel Peace Prize, 13 of its officers have been Nobel Peace Laureates over the years with many more awards going to the IBP and its workers.) IPB represents over 300 organizations in over 70 countries.

The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change  Founded by the late Coretta Scott King to promote the philosophy and methods of nonviolent social change espoused by her late husband, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.

The M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence.  Founded in 1991 by Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mohandas K. Gandhi, to promote Gandhian nonviolence and peacemaking.

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