Twenty-one people finished the first quarter of the PeaceBuilders School of Leadership (PBSL) in Valencia City, Bukidnon from 24-26 April 2013.
They are a group composed of peacebuilders, pastors, church leaders, missionaries and educators. It was designed as highly academic activity with the book “Mediation in Pastoral Care” as the main focus and the books “Yahweh is a Warrior,” “Why did Jesus, Moses, Buddha and Mohammed Cross the Road” and “Just Peacemaking” as reports of some PBCI staff.
Once again, the whole team witnessed an outpouring of the Spirit as the participants shared not only their minds but also their hearts and souls. Personal stories were shared, proving again that peacebuilding begins in one’s “being” or in a person’s relationship with the Creator. It served also as a healing place for some of the participants as they explored peacebuilding.
PBSL is the training program for PBCI’s prospective PAR Consultants and new staff candidates; it is also the continuing education program for current PBCI staff, consultants, and selected volunteers.
PBSL is a two-year program with four quarters in a year. The next session will be held in June.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT PBSL
Mission:
To equip effective peace-building and transformation leaders in the context of 21st century global realities based on an anabaptist peace theology.
Requirements:
This is an advanced leadership development program for those who have finished college or university degree, and have completed PBCI’s Peace and Reconciliation Seminars 1, 2, & 3.
Learning Resources:
- A graduate-level leadership training based on Peace Theology and a set of Social Ethical Values
- Has a well-established field experience in peace-building and conflict transformation in the context of Philippine realities
- Facilitators are immersed, on a continuing basis, in various levels of conflict transformation processes in 19 out of 80 provinces in our country
- Enriched by its national and international interns who bring to each class a rich mix of experiences and knowledge
- A learning program whose learning facilitators are actual practitioners who have gone through academic disciplines in biblical peacemaking and social ethics
- Participants are connected and actively working with local and global networks of peace-building practitioners
Courses Offered:
- PEACE THEOLOGY 101 :: Introduction to Peace Theology. This is a biblical-theological discussion of peace from the perspective of active non-violence. This course will help the students to appreciate and to evaluate a biblical understanding and contemporary practice of Peace Theology. Such evaluation will be done within the framework of social sciences and informed from the perspective of biblical theology. The students will be intellectually involved in the current discussions on the meanings, proposals, and tasks of Peace Theology.
- PEACE THEOLOGY 202 :: Peace and Peacemaking in the Old Testament. A biblical analysis of war and warfare in the Hebrew Bible. The class will study Millard C. Lind’s book, YAHWEH IS A WARRIOR; and, Gordon H. Matties’ commentary on JOSHUA. In his preface of JOSHUA, Matties said: “In an age of fear and insecurity, in which ethnic nationalisms continue to give rise to conflict and war, we dare not avoid critical engagement with biblical texts that have been used to justify colonialism, conquest, occupation, and ethnic cleansing. In this commentary I suggest that the book of Joshua is not a conquest account even though it incorporates several conquest accounts into its narrative. I advocate for the book of Joshua even as I engage in a ‘difficult conversation’ with it.”
- PEACE THEOLOGY 303 :: Peace and Peacemaking in the New Testament. The class will study Willard Swartley’s COVENANT OF PEACE: THE MISSING PEACE IN NEW TESTAMENT THEOLOGY AND ETHICS. “Covenant of Peace” seeks to restore to New Testament theology and ethics the peace that many standard texts have missed. In this accessible volume, Willard Swartley explicates virtually all of the New Testament, relating peace — and the related emphases of love for enemies, non-retaliation, and reconciliation — to core theological themes such as salvation, Christology, and the reign of God.
- SOCIAL ETHICS 101 :: Introduction to Social Ethics. This course will examine the sources for values that underly our personal ethics. It will also introduce the learners to some of the significant ethical theories in Western and Southeast Asian traditions, theories that we will apply to social and political issues in current Philippine society.
- SOCIAL ETHICS 202 :: Culture, History, and Social Ethics in the Philippine Context. A survey and analysis of the cultural and historical factors affecting our social ethics as Filipinos. The class will discuss case studies of corruption and transformation from the lenses of spiritual, psycho-social, socio-political, and economic-ecological aspects of our realities.
- SOCIAL ETHICS 303 :: Roots of Conflict, Violence, and Peace in the Philippines. An examination of influential theories about the sources and nature of conflict, violence, and peace. The class will discuss various levels of conflict — personal, family, community, society — and how Shalom Theology is applied in the conflict transformation processes needed for the healing of our land.