Promoting Active Nonviolence
Mary Ryan-Hotchkiss – Portland Chapter
Our small community of nonviolent peace-builders, organizing an event to encourage active nonviolence, wanted to show the video, The Third Harmony. Many Maryknollers had viewed it at the Gospel Nonviolence Retreat presented by Pax Christi’s Catholic Nonviolence Initiative in December 2020. MaryBeth Buchner wrote about that retreat in the Jan/Feb 2021 NSFA and reiterated the desire that more people, especially Affiliates, see the video and learn to better incorporate active nonviolence in their lives.
The 44-minute video’s key points echo and harmonize with the Affiliate pillars of Spirituality, Community, Global Vision, and Action. Michael Nagler, the film’s director and author of The Third Harmony, the book on which the film is based, emphasizes that we are spiritual beings. We are all connected, and nonviolence and cooperation are our natural way of interacting.
Many organizations cooperated in bringing the video to even more people. Last spring, the City of Beaverton called for proposals for peace-building and offered small grants. The City accepted our proposal to host an event showing the video on nonviolence and a training in CLARA for handling difficult conversations. The grant allowed us to plan without raising funds or charging for tickets. The grant was also a stamp of approval and led to a City mailing about the event.
Our group met frequently during the summer, in person and by Zoom, shaping and planning our event. Our first tasks were to set a date and craft an announcement. We wanted each contact with the public to provide some learning about active nonviolence. Through our announcement, we connected with various organizations with harmonious philosophies, in addition to the Affiliates: the local Rotary Club’s peace-builder committee, Pax Christi USA, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Friends of Sabeel, On Earth Peace, and many local churches. These organizations then endorsed and publicized our event to their members. Everyone on our team helped by developing and posting flyers, inviting their friends and organizations, sending press releases, and assisting at the event.
The CLARA training we proposed is most effectively taught and practiced in person. We worked with a local church with excellent electronic equipment and a knowledgeable technical team to host the hybrid (in-person and virtual) event. Two weeks before the event, the incidence of COVID cases soared, and we felt it wise to cancel the in-person component and encourage folks to register for the virtual event. The CLARA trainer was experienced in online instruction and we received favorable responses from attendees on his virtual presentation.
To facilitate registration, provide us email addresses, and to increase publicity, we used an online resource, Eventbrite, that was free for us. Their analytics showed that the vast majority of our 145 registrants came to their website through our publicity, rather than Eventbrite’s. For the day of the event, we contracted for Zoom’s large meeting capability, although the actual Zoom attendees maxed at 85. After extending the viewing time for the video by two days there were 161 unique views of the video. Success!
We endorse the film’s path to nonviolence by incorporating a spiritual practice in our lives, avoiding violence in news and media, and connecting with others using active nonviolence. How can you promote active nonviolence in your life?