YEAR ONE: 2002-2003

1. Project Summary

The Culture, Spirituality, and Theology of Peace Project (CSTP) lays the groundwork for self-sufficient development and sustainable peace. By reinforcing positive principles and values, and promoting interchange among grassroots leaders, it unlocks and focuses the local resources necessary for lasting life, happiness, liberty, and prosperity. Thus, it fulfills its purpose of supporting local efforts in Mesoamerica to build economically and environmentally sustainable communities.

The CSTP Project began in Fall 2002. Since then, it has gained momentum as participating organizations and individuals from Panama to New York have taken the initiative and begun investing their time and resources in the project. Groups as diverse as the Jewish community in New York, Mayan Indians in Guatemala, the Episcopal Church of El Salvador, and peasant cooperatives in Panama are applying what they have learned through the CSTP to strengthen their communities.

2. Achievements, Year 1

The Culture, Spirituality, and Theology of Peace Project (CSTP) is really taking root. One year after its initiation, grassroots participants in Mesoamerica have taken the initiative to organize the project regionally, participate directly in decision-making, facilitate the training of peacemakers, and consolidate the peacemaking network. Thus, local participation and enthusiasm are not only validating the project's activities to date, they will also insure and improve the relevance of this project to the needs of the people of Mesoamerica in their efforts to reinforce principles and values for peace and sustainable development.

Beginning in October 2002, José "Chencho" Alas began conducting workshops in Mesoamerica and the United States to introduce participants to the Culture, Spirituality, and Theology of Peace. These initiated discussion of the theme of Earth & Ecology, and prepared participants for participation in the January 2003 Peace Conference in Guatemala.

Workshop participants included grassroots peace activists, non-profit staff, academics, peasants, and clergy from eight countries. The workshops produced better results than had been anticipated. Not only did participants see a clear connection between their faith, spirituality, or culture with the earth and ecology, but they were also able to associate them with their life, work, and environment. Jewish participants presented their religious principals of tikkun olam and seddakah, Mayas from Guatemala shared their spirituality through experiences and rituals associated with the earth and agriculture, and Nicaraguan participants contributed the Miskito legend The Invisible Hunters (which was immediately incorporated into all the workshops that followed). Participants from many Central American countries shared their concern that Plan Puebla-Panama and free trade agreements currently under negotiation could have a serious and negative impact on the earth and ecology. In every group, participants identified the need for themselves and their own people to live more in accord with their principles and values.

The Peace Conference in Guatemala City gathered, united, and distilled the energy and experiences of the workshops into a more concrete product. It represented the collaboration of 109 diverse people, creating a South-North dialog across the boundaries of 13 countries. Mayas, Christians, and Jews and others contributed from a variety of different backgrounds, including peasants, professionals, and clergy. The fruits of the conference can be summarized as knowledge, solidarity, and commitment. In the experiences of organizations like Esperanza de los Campesinos Cooperative (Panama) and in Mayan spirituality, participants found models that would allow them to better live and promote local values that protect the earth and ecology. By interacting with and listening to the diversity of voices - including peasant farmers, indigenous people, professionals, NGO staff, and Bishop Barahona, Episcopal Primate for Central America - participants drew strength from each other to face challenges. Buoyed by their new knowledge and sense of solidarity, many participants committed themselves to increase their efforts as peacemakers and apply what they had learned to their work in their own communities.

Immediately following the closing ceremony, the leadership of the peasant-run network of 400 community stores, Red COMAL, met spontaneously to discuss the results of the conference. Trinidad Sanchez, the peasant-born Executive Director, related that the organization intends to systematically apply principles and values for the earth and ecology to their work and training. The participating rabbis pledged to increase their time and financial commitment to the project, that a rabbi will participate in all future workshops in Mesoamerica, and they will bring representatives from Mesoamerica to their synagogues in the United States to share their experiences.

In June 2003, 26 outstanding project participants from 8 countries came together for advanced training and study at the Peace Institute in Ciudad Romero, El Salvador. They began work by exploring and defining how people at the grassroots, especially the poor, can do theology. Mark Chupp, a specialist from Cleveland State University, gave a four-day workshop on using Appreciative Inquiry. Finally, participants took 8 days to begin planning and writing the peacemakers' manual on Earth and Ecology.

On August 8, 2003, José "Chencho" Alas met with eight participants in Honduras. These eight had organized the meeting, through their own initiative, to create a regional committee to provide grassroots input into the CSTP project. During this one-day meeting, the participants outlined a structure and goals that will permit Mesoamerican representatives to participate in the project decision-making process and take responsibility for local activities. This meeting culminated in the formal creation of the Mesoamerican Peace Committee (COMPAZ) as a permanent body. Most significantly, participants are taking ownership of the project and making it their own. COMPAZ developed a fourteen-month schedule of activities. It includes 14 workshops in Mesoamerica, a schedule for finishing the first chapter of the peacemaking manual, dates for the next encounter (conference) and institute, and even a plan to raise money in Europe. The responsibility for many of these activities is now passing to local organizers rather than falling on the shoulders of FSSCA staff. This not only indicates the degree of participants' investment in the project; it also reduces the costs incurred by the FSSCA in the project.

3. Activities Year Two

In 2003-2004, the project will address its second theme, Myself & the Other, through a series of workshops in eight countries. An International Encounter will serve to exchange experiences and reinforce bonds and solidarity. Some of the most talented and committed will receive specialized training as grassroots peacemakers in August 2004. Finally, in October outstanding participants will participate in a Peacebuilding Institute to more deeply examine the theme of Myself & the Other and assist in writing a manual for grassroots peacemakers.

March 2004