Cultivating Peace
DOV in Australia

Creating Ripples of Personal Peace

DOV in Armidale - May 2003

In May 2003, the churches of Armidale enthusiastically endorsed the beginning of DOV work in their area.  After having one quarter of the population of Armidale attend the peace rally in February, the issue of peace was still on many minds.  Representing the National Council of Churches in Australia's Decade to Overcome Violence, Emily Ninnes therefore travelled to Armidale to co-ordinate the activities and speak with the people of Armidale.

Preparing the way

Prior to the main event on 24 May, Emily spoke to three of the four congregations at the Armidale Wesley Uniting Church on Sunday 18 May.  This involved a presentation covering the basic aims, motives and activities of DOV, as well as the people involved in DOV and the resources offered by DOV.  These were presented with a PowerPoint presentation and ran for about 15minutes each.  The congregations responded very positively about DOV and the upcoming events.
The same presentation was again shown on May 19 at the Ecumenical Prayers for Armidale, attended by about 60 people.  The people there were very enthusiastic about the Ripple of Peace workshop on 24 May and took leaflets to advertise in their churches and work places.

Tuesday 20 May involved a radio interview for two of the local radio stations - 100.3fm, the local youth radio station and 2AD.  This involved talking about the two main events of the following week, the Ripples of Peace workshop and the Reach Out concert as well as a bit about what DOV is and what DOV aims to achieve.  Following this was an interview with Mr David Gee, the principal of Armidale High School regarding practicalities of the Reach Out concert to be held there.  Posters were then put up around AHS and leaflets handed out to the students during their lunch break.  Wednesday found Emily at the New England Girls School and then Duval High School organising to have notices of the Reach Out concert put in each schools daily notice sheet.  Then handing out leaflets at NEGS during the recess break and Duval during the lunch break.  A bus was also organised to take NEGS boarders to and from the concert.
Leaflets and posters were handed out at O'Connor Catholic School and PLC Armidale on Thursday and daily notices organised for the following week.

Ripples of Peace Workshop

The Ripples of Peace Workshop on 24 May opened with a 15 minute presentation on DOV by Emily Ninnes.  Mr Richard Torbay, MP then spoke about what personal violence meant to him, how personal violence related to other types of violence and what was the churches role in overcoming personal violence in the Armidale region.  Rev David Nielson of the Armidale Wesley Uniting Church  followed, speaking on the same topic but from a church point of view. 

After discussion and a break, Rev Ann Van Gend ran a "Spirituality of Peace" Workshop which explored at what the Old Testament said about peace compared with the New Testament, whilst Malcolm and Katherine Smith introduced others to the Alternatives to Violence Project.  These workshops both ran for an hour and were followed by lunch.  After lunch Fiona Ninnes and Anne Chaffey ran a "Peace in the Family" Workshop and Pam Waters and Angela Stanley ran a "Healing Prayer" Workshop.  Then all came together to finish with a final closing worship of reflection on the day which included parts of the healing prayer people had written.  People attending this day were from many different churches including Roman Catholics, Anglicans, UCA, AOG, Christian Outreach Centre, Quakers, as well as the local council and state council offices.

Further connections

The next day, 25 May, DOV activities continued with Emily speaking at the Christian Outreach Centre morning worship.  This was very well received, especially by the youth who were very much involved in the Reach Out Concert.
On Monday, Emily spent the morning putting up posters for the concert around town and in some of the local shops.  Thanks to Kesha Riley and Joe Hardy (members of the two local bands playing in the Reach Out Concert) the local churches and youth groups all had plenty of information on the events.  This was followed by Emily leading the Young Mothers Afternoon Fellowship in their gathering with a focus on peace and DOV.  This group is an ecumenical group of mothers with young children who meet every week for three hours to share and learn more about God.
Tuesday morning was spent with the 4 classes of Stage 2 (years 3 & 4 combined) at St Mary's Catholic Primary School.  This involved a children's version of the PowerPoint presentation used at the churches in combination with a Scripture class on caring for others from the Scripture Union Primary Pack.  This was repeated with each class.
On Wednesday, Emily and Joe Hardy got together to write some "eye candy" - images which would be projected onto the wall at the concert - which would work in time to the music and be relevant to the amount of bass and drum beats etc.  This included DOV contact details as well as help lines for youth in need and local contact details of ecumenical youth networks.  The evening brought Emily to speak at the Simply Sharing Meal (although not a staff member of Forceten, she was the only NCCA staff member in Armidale in that special week).  There was also a separate local speaker on Forceten's work.
Emily spoke with year 8 at Armidale High School on Thursday morning and ran some activities from the books bought as resources for DOV.  The students seemed to enjoy this and learn more about DOV and conflict resolution.  This went for two periods (100minutes) and was followed by Emily addressing the whole school at their weekly assembly regarding the concert the following day.  In the afternoon, Emily ran the same session as in the morning with years 7, 8 & 9 combined at O'Connor Catholic High School.  This was not planned but after the success of the St Mary's presentation, Emily was asked to speak with students at O'Connor as well.

Reach Out Concert

Friday was spent finalising all the details for the concert that night...
...a great end to a busy and fulfilling week!