The 2001 Quaker Peace Roundtable:
NOTES on Workshop No. 8: PEACE TEAMS, QUAKER & INTERFAITH:
Sallie King & Val Liveoak
Submitted by Lucretia Evans
Sallie King and Val
Liveoak shared time in presenting this workshop.
SALLIE KING WAS THE FIRST ONE TO SHARE. She is a Professor of
Philosophy and Religion at James Madison University in Harrisonburg,
Virginia and co-clerk of Valley Friends Meeting. She is also a trustee of the
International Interfaith Peace Council and former president of the Society
for Buddhist and Christian Studies. She has authored books, articles and
chapters on Buddhism and on Buddhist-Quaker relations and is co-editor of
Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia and of The Sound of
Liberating Truth: Buddhist Christian Essays in Honor of Frederick J.
Streng. She is both a Quaker and a Buddhist and is concerned about the
relationship between religion and concerns.
She told of being invited to be a trustee of the Peace Council when
it was a very young organization around six years ago. The Council came
out of the Parliament of World Religions in 1993. Each religion needs to be itself
and also to connect with other religions. There is a need to identify
common ground. An outcome is global ethics. Important contributons can be
made without any religion having to change its own values. Common values
can be identified, be it Christian, Muslin, etc.
About 1992 there was a meeting of persons who wanted to think of
ways to carry forward the Parliament and would explore ways to bring world
religions together. An Interfaith Council took form, with two tiers:
1) Peace Counselors, and
2) Trustees.
It is a small organization, with
Friends over-represented with two persons, herself and Joe Elder.
Other peace counselors come from France, India, and elsewhere. A lot of care has
gone into the selection of the peace counselors. One counselor is a vocal
feminist Catholic nun. Another is the Dalai Llama. Another is Bishop
Desmond Tutu from South Africa. Another is from Northern Ireland. Yet another
the head of the Buddhist Church in Cambodia, a person who has lost all of
his family in the Pol Pot massacres. He is working to bring peace
to Cambodia.
Others are a Tibetan monk, an Israeli who is leader of
Reformed Judaism, and a Thai Buddhist woman who is a leader for equality
for women in Thailand. There are about eight trustees in all.
One thing the Peace Council does is to hand out literature on
religious intolerance: Seven Threats to Peace. A main purpose is to bring
together leaders to model religious cooperation. She shared a list of
areas where the Peace Council works.
One area is Chiapas, Mexico, where they have persons serving as
witnesses. The persons serving on the Peace Council are of high stature,
but also persons who can listen. They are well-known persons. When they are
present the press turns out en masse. The persons listen, then go home and
have their own way of disseminating information, in this way amplifying the
voices of oppressed people who don't get heard very often. The Peace
Council's concept is a new one. It is still trying to find its way.
Sallie King spoke of several very difficult areas, - Kosovo,
Cambodia, the situation in North Korea, where it is very difficult to get
in and listen and listen and listen. There are only two non-governmental
organizations left in North Korea. They are bringing in medical supplies.
The Peace Council tries to keep people talking. It is a peace
organization.
She spoke of the extremely difficult and complex situation in
Israel/Palestine. The Peace Council went in saying: "What Can we Do?"
They went in to listen, listen, listen. She is glad the organization tries
to find areas of common ground, find a focus. She spoke of the
Palestinians not being able to get to their own land, can't get permission
from the Israelis to build on their own land. They go ahead and build;
their homes are destroyed. The situation is repeated and repeated.
The Peace Council is trying to help stop the demolition. A Rabbis for Human
Rights group is trying to stop the demolition, which is completely wrong.
Palestinian olive trees are taken down by Israelis. This whole situation
spoke to the group from the Peace Council. Most Israelis, she said, don't
realize this destruction is going on. When Peace Council members turned up,
Israelis realized what was going on. The Peace Council's efforts are a
drop in the bucket, but are important. They find a place that needs help
and go from there. It is a way to build for peace.
VAL LIVEOAK WAS THE SECOND ONE TO SHARE. She has been a nonviolent
activist since the early '70s and a Quaker since the mid-80s. She was
released by her Monthly and Yearly Meetings to work in El Salvador from
1986-90. She is a Facilitator in the Alternatives to Violence Project,
most recently on facilitation teams in Cuba with Southeastern Yearly
Meeting's Cuba Quaker Project. In February, she completed training to
become a Victim/Offender Mediation/Dialogue volunteer and is awaiting her
first case.
From 1994-97 she served as a reserve member of Christian Peacemaker
Teams (CPT), serving in Chicago, Washington, DC, and Chiapas, Mexico; and in 2000
was a member of CPT's exploratory delegation to Colombia. She is a
co-founder of Friends Peace Teams and serves as its administrative
co-clerk. Val is a member of Friends Meeting of Austin and a sojourning
member of Friends Meeting of San Antonio. She has served on the Ministry and
Oversight Committee of both of these meetings and is Recording Clerk in San
Antonio. She lives in an "intentional neighborhood" in San Antonio,Texas,
oversees the care of her elderly mother and keeps her income low enough to
avoid paying Federal Income tax.
Val Liveoak is from Texas. Her spiritual journey included reading the
book In His Steps which called on its readers to start "taking Jesus’
example seriously." The conventional religions didn't seem to
correspond. She involved herself in the War Resisters' League and
eventually found Quakerism. In the late 80's and early 90's she spent
four years in a health ministry in El Salvador. She became close to the
Mennonites. She was a Christian Peacemakers Team reservist for three
years and last year spent two weeks of active duty in Colombia. She now
feels she can join the passion and anger of peace activism with her
Quaker beliefs by participating in the Friends Peace Teams. She feels
she needs to be as willing as a soldier to take risks. Her other major
interest is the Alternatives to Violence Project and she recently did
AVP workshops in Cuba. She finds AVP's team model of cooperation,
forbearance, and love of fun consistent with Quaker peace-keeping--
"expect the best, and trust the process."
Val Liveoak spoke of being an administrator of the Friends Peace
Teams, - a stretching experience for her. She hopes to spread the word
about Friends Peace Teams, saying that not many know about these teams.
The program began in 1993 when Friends at the FGC Gathering deplored
the armed "peacekeepers": in Somalia and elsewhere, asking themselves,
"Are you willing to do something? Val has done a lot of
peace work not connected with Quakerism.
Since 1993 she has done much work and expended much energy getting things
together for Friends Peace Teams. Initially the work involved getting Yearly Meetings
involved, for example, and finding ways to work together,
ways to fund basic logistical support. The organization is set up as
non-profit group so that gifts are income tax deductible.
In 1996 the group became clear they wanted to partner with other peace team groups,
with a Quakerly concentration. This is why they are supportive of other
peace teams, or partners with them. She has had support from clearness
committees for her work. CPT is are desperate for Spanish speaking persons
to volunteer, for instance in Colombia, persons with sound training. who
will work with native people. She spoke of teams in Chiapas, Mexico and
in Hebron, Israel. Another siomewhat similar group, Peace Brigades International (PBI),
works in Colombia on human rights. Also in East Timor and Mexico.
A couple of years ago one member had a strong concern for
work in Africa. Out of his work, the African Great Lakes Initiative--AGLI--becme
a project of Friends Peace Teams. The organization's activities are based on the
Alternatives to Violence Program, AVP. They have supported work in Uganda
and most recently in Rwanda. The members go out in teams, support each other,
using AVP as a resource. In partnership with Burundi Yearly
Meeting, a recently-trained team of 2 from the US and 2 Burundians
have just begun to work on the development of a Trauma Healing and Reconciliation Center.
The organization is on the World Wide Web. They have been
blessed with having Elise Boulding involved with the program since the
early days. Peace Brigades International have a more pragmatic approach in their
work. The Quaker approach is more spiritual. Val spoke of different
groups developing their own approaches.
In the Question and Answer period, a participant in the workshop
asked what to do if an interest in joining a Friends Peace Team developed.
The answer: There are various ways of getting involved with FPT--
Learn about the organization. Share the concern with the person's
Friends Meeting as a Meeting
contact.
Get the program on the annual budget of even a small Friends meeting.
Apply to be on a CPT, PBI or FPT team, which may be a short- or
long-term team/delegation, Applications include a copy of the report of
support by a clearness committee. The organization can supply some
financial support. The time involved to apply and be accepted varies,
sometimes 2-3 weeks, sometimes 4-5 weeks.
Another participant mentioned the Witness for Peace having delegations.
1) Learn about the organization.
2) Share the concern with the person's Friends meeting.
3) Get the program on the annual budget of even a small Friends meeting.
4) Apply to be on a team, most of which are
short term, including a copy of support by a clearness committee. The
organization can supply some financial support. The time involved to apply
and be accepted varies, sometimes 2-3 weeks, sometimes 4-5 weeks.
Another participant mentioned the Witness for Peace having funds.
Val replied that the Friends Peace Teams are not yet connected with Witness
for Peace.
Sallie King was asked how the International Interfaith Peace
Council is financed. She replied that the funding is very difficult. It
is funded by donations and an occasional grant. The Council has a website
and newsletter.
Sallie spoke further about the Israel/Palestine effort to listen.
In one situation a Buddhist finally started to speak up, to say that his
religion teaches him to "let go," and how diufferent that attitude was
from what he heard in Israel/Paestine. In another situation involving Tibetan
and Cambodian monks the thought was shared that it can be assumed that
there is some wrong on both sides. Mention was made of the fact that
Buddhists do not use the word "justice" because in this word they see
anger, retribution. Buddhists can't relate to that. You can never work
through a situation satisfactorily with this fundamental approach.
The Peace Council involves different religions who find a common
approach. They think alike. Again, there is the need to " let go."