COMMUNITY
ENGAGEMNT
Building Communities of Trust
Creating safe spaces for dialogue establishes new connections and common ground between communities across all lines that keep people divided: religious, ethnic, national or political.
Build a bridge in your community. Host or sponsor an event or plan on closing your event with a Peace Fire or Tea Ceremony. Each provides an opportunity for participants to share their stories and reflect on his or her experiences.
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Discover how circles can be used by anyone in education, business, or social settings. The circles are about listening, respect, and speaking from the heart.
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International Peace Fire
CONNECTING CULTURES - SHARING WISDOM
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Fire has been used for 1.5 million years," Marshak states in The Roots of Civilization. It is the one element that has been valued by all cultures. Fire connects us to the past. It forges a reverence for the natural world and brings back feelings of interconnectedness that have been lost. Fire is the one element that can help forge our energies in a more positive way to change the direction in which the world seems headed. Fire is the one element that connects all cultures at the heart level.
This Peace Fire is from the eternal Fire of the Potawatomi's and comes to camp for ALL people.
Vision
A Peace Fire Circle will help to establish your organization as one dedicated to promoting enduring daily interfaith cooperation, where people from our community and around the world gather for initiatives that foster a culture of peace, justice, and healing for the Earth and all living beings.
Mission
The Peace Fire Circle will continue and extend the traditions established at Northeastern Illinois University by the elders in 1996 and around the world for peace gatherings where spiritual, educational, and corporate leaders come together as one community working for peace.
Peace Fire Ceremonies
Special events afford the opportunity (for those interested) to gather around a sacred Fire in small and large discussion groups to explore how we can manifest peace in ourselves, our families, our communities, and our world.
History
The Sacred Fire was re-lit on Feb. 16, 1996, at the Northeastern Campus by Firekeepers Mukta Thē Bruce Hardwick and Mukwa O Day Duane Kinnart reactivating the ancient energy that was in that land.
Since then, many renowned peace and spiritual leaders have participated in the NEIU peace fire ceremonies, including Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, primatologist Jane Goodall, Mongolian Shamans from the Mongol Tenger Unen Association, Angaanaq (Uncle) from Greenland, spiritual leaders Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Sri Sri jit Telang from India, Tibetan monks from the Drepung Monastery, and Native elders and tribal leaders from many nations. The coal bundles and ashes from this sacred Fire have traveled to every corner of the world.
It's an honor to have the Wisdom Keepers establish a Peace Fire Circle to provide a safe space for the next generation to experience the wisdom of the elders.
Bamboo Bridge - Global Tea House
PEACE THROUGH DIPLOMACY
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The Bamboo Bridge Global Tea House is an inspiring educational event that provides a forum for discussion about solutions to tough problems related to the health of people and the environment in the spirit of cultural diplomacy and peacemaking.
Participants of all ages have the opportunity to meet up and participate in the ritual of taking a tea specially-formulated for the event while exploring new ideas in peacemaking through health and healing.
Events may include educational presentations, success stories, world cafe, and networking circles. Events are guided by wisdom keepers from the local community and organizational thought leaders. Health culture diplomacy seeks to include biomedical, self-care, complementary, and traditional/indigenous worldviews about health, healing, illness, disease, transition, and change for people and the environment.
The Bamboo Bridge Global Tea House encourages people to consider many approaches to health promotion and disease prevention, encourage technology to meet tradition in the formation of new ways for the promotion of health, healing, and whole system reform that will have a positive impact on generations to come.
Other programs include:
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The Five Arrows Program
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The Health Culture Diplomacy Program.
Justice for All Creation
"How can we reciprocate the gifts of the Earth? In gratitude, in ceremony, through acts of practical reverence and land stewardship, in fierce defense of the beings and places we love, in art, in science, in song, in gardens, in children, in ballots, in stories of renewal, in creative resistance, in how we spend our money, and our precious lives, by refusing to be complicit with the forces of ecological destruction. In healing."
~ Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer
Mother, scientist, writer, and Distinguished Teaching Professor
of Environmental Biology at the SUNY College
Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, New York