A six week Creators of Peace Circle has just been held in Adelaide
"I have treasured every week" commented one woman on completing six weeks of a Creators of Peace Circle held in Adelaide in May and June. Whilst all call Australia ‘home’ our places of origin stretched across the world, and together we discovered and learnt from insightful truths from our Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Christian and non-believing backgrounds. We were mothers, grandmothers, engineers, teachers, refugees, nurses, students, counsellors, volunteers, managers and social workers, coming together because we believed in peace building and wanted to learn more about what as individuals and together we could do.
The six gatherings highlighted one of the Peace Circle principles which is that each person has a part to play and something to contribute to creating peace. As each woman shared her story our hearts and minds were stretched and bound together through hearing of life journeys from countries where conflict and partition still perpetrate division, to personal family and relationship joys and sorrows.
"I've learnt that peace starts from within – that I need to take responsibility and take time to find that inner strength", shared one. "I am developing the character and the confidence to be a creator of peace", said another. "It's given me fresh energy to move from my fence-sitting position to be willing to share another's pain", yet another shared.
One of the Circle themes explores the power of apology and forgiveness, and we asked ourselves, "who's job it is to start?" Encouragement was gained from case studies of other women peace builders. "It's opened up the concept of forgiveness for me. I want to look at it from personal, family and community levels. It's made me aware that hope exists." And, "how do we teach these concepts to our young people?" considered another.
Another participant wrote out her own personal pledge to be a peace builder, challenging us all to do the same. There was not enough time to talk through all the ideas, so a reunion is planned in a month's time. A second Adelaide Creators of Peace Circle will commence in August, and interest is growing in the international Creators of Peace conference to be held in Sydney in 2009.