What is happening in our world? The news is filled with wars and rumours of war, natural disasters, and huge divisions within our societies over vaccinations. Amidst all this terrible news, how can we hold onto and live into the Good News?

Discerning the Times: Global Awareness + Actions for Peace

Join this course from the People’s Seminary, to survey the global scene and reflect on what it means for our beliefs and our actions, as followers of Jesus.

From the course description:

The most famous verse in the Bible brings cosmic good news. John 3:16 leaps in a single sentence from God’s all-embracing love for the world, to the gift of faith here and now, and then to life together with God forever. From the first people who followed Jesus to believers in every land today, this understanding of God and of Creation invites us to live in faith, hope and love.

However, the era we live in is testing our humanity in new ways. More and more of our everyday choices affect other people, just as behaviors and habits of others affect us in return. Lifestyles and consumption in one place may impact lives, livelihoods and the environment on the other side of the world.

Course Format

The course can be taken “live” via Zoom, or as a self-paced webinar.

The live course will run over 8 sessions on Mondays, 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM (PST) / 20:30-22:00 Paris time (check your time zone).
Dates: March 28, April 4, 11, 25, May 2, 9, 16, 23. (every week except Easter Monday)

Course Facilitator

This course will be taught by Jonathan Frerichs, who is Pax Christi International’s representative for disarmament at the United Nations in Geneva. He has served as a program executive and consultant for the World Council of Churches’ Commission of the Churches on International Affairs. He has worked as a reporter, writer, producer, teacher, trainer and 4 executive for international, religious and civil society organizations—including Lutheran World Relief, Middle East Council of Churches, World Health Organization, Lutheran World Federation and Kristen Redio of Papua New Guinea. His professional experience is mostly in faith-based endeavours related to peace, human security, disarmament, development and the environment.

Weekly Themes and Topics

1. Becoming Global Christians.
2. Israel/Palestine: The land where Jesus lived is a crucible of conflict which involves or implicates Christians locally and around the world.
3. Northeast Asia’s Wounded Tigers. Korea, Japan and China.
4. Nuclear weapons and humanity’s fate: an unprecedented threat to our existence and to God’s creation
5. Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Yemen: Wars no one wins, conflicts all parties lose.
6. Out-sourcing the Sixth Commandment: From armed drones to killer robots.
7. Peace with the Planet: Faith-action in our corner of God’s creation.
8. America amid global challenges: How does Christian faith and discipleship figure in the US role in all these issues?

What’s this got to do with Servants?

By immersing ourselves in poverty-stricken urban neighbourhoods, we witness close-up the fall-out of global patterns of domination, greed and violence. So we often find ourselves pondering the state of the wider world, and what God is calling us to do. We are acutely aware that responding to poverty (or any other issue) in one locality is inter-connected with many global issues. We believe that following Jesus demands that we pursue peace and shun violence – see our statement of belief and action, or read our stories relating to violence and nonviolence. This course will inform and equip you to discern how to faithfully follow Jesus in these disturbing and bewildering times.

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