The Role of the Soldier in Peace-making

Thanks to all the students, teachers, faith and belief representatives, soldiers, and staff at the Tank Museum, Bovington who helped make the day such a success.  Thanks also to Paul Angel for taking wonderful photos that reflect the day really well. We are also grateful to our funders for making the day possible.

Many participants said that they had learnt a lot about the role of the soldier in war and peace. They also said that they had learnt about how different faith representatives have beliefs in common.

We began the day with an opening speech from an army padre and closed it with a five minute reflection on what the day had meant to us.

Throughout the day we visited the Battlegroup Afghanistan exhibition and were privileged to meet two soldiers who have served in Helmand Province. We also toured the reconstruction of a World War II trench and exhibits about the Cold War. Participants then took part in a Q and A session with soldiers and representatives from Islam, Christianity, Humanism and Quakerism.

Following an army style lunch the students divided into Think Tank groups to design their own artwork and statements in answer to two questions 1. what is the role of the soldier in peace-making 2. can war ever be justified.

Here are a few images to give you a taste of what we got up to, more to follow.

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Give Peas a Chance

Looking forward to tomorrow, Peacethread3 at the Tank Museum, Bovington! Seems like a lifetime ago Kitty dragged me on a very wet day to look at the tanks, and a new Peacethread project was born. Tomorrow’s project brings together 60 young people from around Dorset, soldiers from Bovington army base, faith and belief representatives from the community, to discuss the role of the soldier in peacemaking – is it about peace or just War?

Co-operative funding for Peacethread 3

Thank you to the Cooperative Bank’s Community Directplus Customer Donation scheme who have donated some further funding to Peacethread. We are very grateful for this funding as it will enable us to deliver seminars in more schools and hopefully an additional conference in 2012. Exciting times!

Peacethread 3–Peacemaking or Just War?

We are delighted that we have received funding from Trust Greenbelt for our next Peacethread project to be held at The Tank Museum, Bovington in March 2012.

The aim of the project will be to explore the role of the soldier in Peacemaking, from an interfaith perspective. We will be asking the question; to what extent does a soldier consider themselves to be a peacemaker?

Our contacts at the Tank Museum are organising a team of soldiers from the local army camp to meet with a group of sixth form students from Dorset schools. The project will be based in the Battlegroup Afghanistan, Helmand Province exhibition at the Tank Museum, a setting that should provide an interesting back drop for a dialogue that is usually reserved to debates in a classroom.

We are hoping to create the opportunity for an exciting and unique video conference link to young people in Kabul, via the Tank Museum’s contacts at the British Council in Afghanistan.

We will be focusing on the conversations between young people, inter faith representatives and the team of soldiers. As usual our  approach will be enquiry based; enabling young people to thread together their own ideas and values, with the narrative of others.

It promises to be a very exciting venture….watch this space!

Peacethread at Poole High School

We are looking forward to welcoming Mary Foley, a speaker on behalf of the Forgiveness Project to Poole High School tomorrow.

Peacethread is working in partnership with Poole High to deliver a mini F.Word conference to year 12. The aim is to investigate the concept of forgiveness and for students to work as peer mentors throughout the morning session.

Students will be taking part in a Silent Conversation, making a collage from newspapers and reflecting on quotations about forgiveness from figures such as the Buddha.

The key note speaker, Mary, will be telling her story before we share in a faith lunch; if you want to find out more about Mary please go to http://theforgivenessproject.com/about-us/

Peacethread2 - The F.Word piccies

Paul Angel took these photos of the recent Peacethread: F.Word conference at Holton Lee, they really capture the spirit of the day.

Peacethread2–The F.Word

Once again a massive thank you to everyone who participated in Peacethread on Friday. Students from Poole High School, Purbeck School and Queen Elizabeth’s School attended the F. Word conference at Holton Lee, just outside Poole. We were joined by faith and belief representatives from Bournemouth Reform Synagogue, the Church of England, Dorset Humanists, the National Council for Faiths and Beliefs in Further Education and Poole Quakers.

Guests of honour and opening speakers were Camilla Carr and Jon James who inspired and humbled us with their story of being kidnapped by terrorists in Chechnya in the 1990s. The title of their recently published book, ‘The Sky is Always There’ was a symbol for the day of reflection on the theme of forgiveness.

Camilla and Jon represent The Forgiveness Project. Students attending the conference where able to engage with the project’s F.Word exhibition which was on display at Holton Lee throughout the week of the conference. The students were asked to tell the story of one of the people represented in the exhibition, all of whom have a story to tell about how forgiveness has, or indeed hasn’t, been part of a life changing experience. In preparation for their presentations the students consulted with the faith and belief representatives in order to reflect different perspectives. What do Muslims, Jews, Christians, Humanists, Quakers believe about forgiveness? How are their views the same or different?

The student presentations were thought provoking and thoughtful; asking such questions as ‘can there ever be anything that is unforgivable?’, ‘can forgiveness only happen when the perpetrator says sorry?’  These are tough questions in light of the stories the F. Word exhibition presents; people affected by terrorist bombings, rape, murder, kidnap. Not only that but the students were able to reflect on a personal level; one group making a ‘forgiveness box’ and asking us to reflect on the hardest thing we have ever had to forgive or could consider forgiving.

At the end of the day Camilla and Jon led us in some Tai Chi exercises, used by them in captivity to deal with the harrowing experience that went on for over 14 months. Finally we spent some time in reflection together considering what forgiveness means to us individually and collectively.

More reflections and pictures to follow…