Feb. 11, 2025
Learn to build bridges of peace, share strategies for peace and be a peacemaker at the upcoming SEJ Peace Conference set for April 4-6 at Lake Junaluska.
Formerly the InterFaith Peace Conference, this year’s SEJ (Southeastern Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church) Peace Conference will acknowledge that peacebuilders must adapt to the changing landscape in the way they are called to work, including a commitment to “scale up” a younger generation of peacebuilders, said the Rev. Beth M. Crissman, director of Peace Building Ministries of the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church.
“The last Peace Conference was in 2019, and since that time, we, as a people of deep faith and convictions, have experienced a global pandemic, deep political divisions, denominational schisms, and threats to the safety and shalom of many people within our communities,” said Crissman, who also serves as district superintendent of the Uwharrie District of the WNCCUMC. “Now, more than ever, we need to be equipped and empowered to be ambassadors of peace within our homes, our congregations, and our communities.”
This year’s theme is Breaking Down the Dividing Walls, which recognizes that although people are surrounded by escalating divisions and violence, it is not their differences that divide them, but their hostility toward others, Crissman said.
“To be peacebuilders, we must learn to engage one another in our differences by naming the systems and behaviors that divide us and claiming practices that can heal and restore us,” she added.
The three-day conference will feature renowned peacebuilders and use worship, interactive plenaries, workshops, film screenings and informal conversation to strategize how to build bridges of peace across political, theological and social divides. It is open to clergy and laity of all ages, all faith traditions or no faith tradition from across the southeastern United States and beyond. Special scholarships are being offered to high school, college and seminary students to encourage participation and shared learning with younger generations.
“Our hope is that all those who attend will be empowered with new and renewed knowledge and skills to be agents of shalom within their own communities. But most of all, we hope that participants will be inspired and renewed in our shared calling to do this challenging and sometimes daunting work, being reminded that we are not in this alone,” Crissman said.
Speakers for the 2025 SEJ Peace Conference are:
Derrick Scott III serves as creative producer and digital campus minister of Studio Wesley, a ministry that’s exploring how to serve young adults in the digital space. Derrick also serves as co-lay leader for the Florida Conference of The UMC and associate director of learning and innovation for the Texas Methodist Foundation.
Kristen Wall works as a program officer at the U.S. Institute of Peace on the Learning, Evaluation and Research team. Prior to joining USIP, Kristen managed international peacebuilding and democracy assistance programs in Kosovo with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and conducted research on nonviolent foreign policy options at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
The Rev. Dr. Gary Mason is a Methodist minister and directs a conflict transformation organization based in Belfast, Ireland, called “Rethinking Conflict.” Prior to this, he spent 27 years as a Methodist clergy person in parish ministry in Belfast and has played an integral role in the Northern Irish peace process. Gary also serves as a senior research Fellow at the Edward Kennedy Institute for Conflict Intervention at Maynooth University in Ireland, visiting professor at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, and consultant for the Carter Center in Atlanta.
Gloria Hage serves as the executive director of the Institute for Healing of Memories – North America, whose mission is to contribute to lasting individual and collective healing that makes possible a more peaceful and just world. She is a founding member of the Healing of Memories Global Network, which seeks to connect, collaborate, and standardize the organization’s trauma healing, reconciliation and peace work globally.
Learn more about Lake Junaluska and be a part of our community by subscribing to our enewsletters at https://bit.ly/LJStayConnected. For more information or to register, visit https://www.wnccumc.org/peace-conference-2025.
