Author to speak on building bridges of peace

How can people try to build bridges during this polarizing time in the world?

Chris Rice, an award-winning author and global peacemaker who is dedicated to fostering social healing and spiritual renewal, will address this question.

Rice, who directed the Mennonite Central Committee’s office at the United Nations for five years, is being brought to the province by the committee on March 11 to speak on the topic “Being Peacemakers for a World of Surging Polarization.”

Building bridges is tough, but necessary work, said Rice, from his home in North Carolina.

“Today we have too much ‘might makes right,’” with people moving from “disagreement to demonization of others,” he said.

The problem is if the other side is always seen as evil, “there’s no reason to talk to them,” he said.

Basing his message on his work in Mississippi, East Africa and North and South Korea, Rice said building bridges is important work.

“Polarization is not the way things have to be — another way is possible,” he said.

Rice said he hopes his presentation inspires and motivates people to see a different way of dealing with disagreement.

“There are powerful stories of non-violent change,” he said, adding it starts with “creating space for conversation at a time when space for that is shrinking… many are sick and tired of this polarization and are longing for a different way.”

He cautioned that building bridges is not easy, and bridge-builders can be misunderstood. “It’s a long journey and can involve sacrifice and suffering. Progress is not fast or even guaranteed,” he stated.

As an American, Rice said he is also coming to Canada to listen and learn.

“I lament how the church in the U.S. is not speaking up enough about Trump and what he has said about Greenland and Canada,” he said. “Not naming these things as wrong is unchristian, and shows that the church in the U.S. has been captured by the idolatry of power,” he said.

Americans, he said, are “often quite blind to the consequences of our actions… it’s unacceptable for Canada to be treated in this way.”

Darryl Loewen, who directs MCC in Manitoba, said he hopes Rice’s message will help people see that peace is possible from the perspective of spiritual transformation.

“There are so many divides in the world today,” he said. “There is broad pessimism about whether we can ever cross them.”

The divides have been exacerbated by social media, Loewen said, adding he believes one way to cross them is through face-to-face bridge-building conversations such as that being presented by Rice.

“I hope MCC can be part of that bridge building,” he said.

His free presentation will take place at Marpeck Commons at Canadian Mennonite University, 2299 Grant Ave., at 7 p.m.

Rice will also speak on March 14, 7 p.m. at the Neubergthal Commons Barn in Neubergthal. (For information about both events, visit http://wfp.to/icS)

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