Earth & Ecology, the project's first theme, explores our relationships to and with Mother Earth and Mother Nature. Although Jewish, Christian, Mayan, Moslem, and other traditions trace humankind's origins to the Earth, modern civilization has imposed an artificial division between them. The first step towards a Culture, Spirituality, and Theology of Peace is a positive relationship with the Earth.

Virgilia Tojin & Chencho Alas dance during the January 2003 Peace Conference.

Peace Conference Texts:

Year Two Project Report -- the achievements and stories from Year Two.

Year One Project Report -- the achievements and stories from Year One.

Project Report -- Photos and updates on Earth & Ecology activities through January 2003.

Conference Minutes -- Presentations, activities, stories, etcetera in English.

Peace Workshop Required Texts:

Biblical Texts

The Invisible Hunters - A Miskito Legend recorded by Harriet Rohmer (click here for text only)

Popol Vuh, (Part I Chapter 1) Mayan sacred text on the creation of the earth.

Popol Vuh, (Part III Chapter 1-2) Mayan sacred text on the creation of humans.

New Genesis, a poem by Robert Mueller

Chief Seattle's Treaty Oration of 1854

Listening to the Land, by Starhawk

Other recommended texts include:

The Columbia River Watershed: Caring for Creation and the Common Good provides an example of how the holy texts of the Christian and Jewish faiths call us to be stewards of the land and ecology.

Additional Biblical Texts

The Popol Vuh (complete text)

What is Appreciative Inquiry? by Joe Hall and Sue Hammond, a brief summary of the methodology used in this project

Giving Away the Farm: The 2002 Farm Bill by Anuradha Mittal explains the effects of US agricultural policy on domestic and foreign economies.

Healing Breath by Ruben Habito (Chapters 1 & 2) courtesy of the Maria Kannon Zen Center

"Greening the Desert." Applying natural farming techniques in Africa.

Boff, Leonardo, Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1997.

Hart, John, The Spirit of the Earth: A Theology of the Land, New York: Paulist Press, 1984.

Lonergan, Anne and Caroline Richards, ed., Thomas Berry and the New Cosmology, Mystic, Connecticut: Twenty-third Publications, 1987.

Resources in Spanish.