{"id":9176,"date":"2014-09-03T00:00:24","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T00:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=9176"},"modified":"2018-11-03T20:22:16","modified_gmt":"2018-11-03T20:22:16","slug":"100-years-for-nonviolence-at-ifor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2014\/100-years-for-nonviolence-at-ifor\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018100 Years for Nonviolence\u2019 Is Celebrated at the IFOR Centennial Gathering"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kristin Flory<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo by Kristin Flory<\/small>
The centennial celebration of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) took place in Konstanz, Germany, at the site that marked the beginnings of the venerable peace movement in 1914.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cPray and resist!\u201d That was the message from Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, Northern Ireland Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 1976, at the Aug. 1 opening ceremony of the Centennial of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR). The centennial celebration was held in Konstanz, Germany, on Aug. 1-3.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

IFOR celebrated its \u201c100 years for nonviolence\u201d at this time and place because a conference of Christian pacifists was to be held in Konstanz on the eve of World War I, about a month after the Sarajevo assassination of crown prince Franz-Ferdinand. However, the international participants at the 1914 conference were forced to leave Germany during those early August days and were sent out of Germany by train; IFOR dates its birth to the Cologne train station platform pact between a German pastor and a British Quaker, who vowed, \u201cWhatever happens, nothing is changed between us. We are one in Christ and can never be at war.\u201d<\/p>\n

IFOR today is a worldwide multi-faith movement of people who \u201cshare a vision of a world where conflicts are resolved through nonviolent means…and justice is sought as a basis for peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2014 conference drew 300 participants from 40 countries. Workshops examined questions of nonviolence and justice in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America; nuclear disarmament and weapons exports; looking at the past in post-conflict societies; conscientious objection; military chaplaincy; the UN; and many other topics.<\/p>\n

The Church of the Brethren through its Brethren Service office in Geneva, Switzerland, has a long history of cooperation with IFOR. That relationship includes a collaboration to create the European peace and development organization called EIRENE (which means \u201cpeace,\u201d in Greek) in 1957, together with the Mennonite Central Committee.<\/p>\n

More than 20 Brethren Volunteer Service workers have volunteered in past decades both in the IFOR headquarters in the Netherlands and in the branch office in Minden, Germany.<\/p>\n

— Kristin Flory staffs the Brethren Service office in Geneva, Switzerland, and coordinates Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) Europe.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cPray and resist!\u201d That was the message from Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, Northern Ireland Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 1976, at the Aug. 1 opening ceremony of the Centennial of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR). The centennial celebration was held in Konstanz, Germany, on Aug. 1-3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[68,1263],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-9176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brethren-volunteer-service","tag-peace"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9178,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9176\/revisions\/9178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9176"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=9176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}