July 20, 2011

Images of Peace

Making peace. Those two words provide a divine imperative that reaches far beyond international affairs, a guiding principle in how we interact with others and ourselves. Students, faculty, and staff at Union College, in Lincoln, Nebraska, find that the busier and more stressful their lives become, the less likely they are to focus on finding the peace the world needs. (See related article Seventh-day Adventists: "People of Peace")
 
2011 1520 page28The college created a sculpture garden built around the theme of peacemaking as a reminder of the peace Christ seeks to bring to and through His followers. Located in the lobby of the Ortner Center, a hub of campus activity, this small series of sculptures has become part of daily life on campus.
 
The Peace Sculpture Garden grew out of a Conflict and Peacemaking class taught by Chris Blake, associate professor of English and communication. “Peacemaking is a large and treasured part of what it means to be truly Christian,” said Blake. “The difference between being a peace lover and a peacemaker is like the difference between loving money and making money. The Peace Sculpture Garden provides artistic reminders of the peace that can exist between people everywhere.”
 
Amanda Clark, a 2010 graduate and leader in Union’s Peace and Social Justice Club, created one of the sculptures as a symbol of the important role education plays in bringing about peace. “Mr. Blake asked me to make a metal sculpture for the garden. He wanted it to show how peace and education are closely related,” said Clark, who created a large steel book with the pages swirling up into doves. “At first I thought I couldn’t do it—I didn’t know how. Learning how to weld and bend metal was not an easy task. It was hot, dirty, and took enormous amounts of strength.”
 
She discovered that her experience learning a new medium in a sculpture class revealed many parallels to the process of peacemaking. “It was the best sculpture I could have done,” Clark said. “Peace isn’t about taking the easy way out. And education helps a great deal when you have to take the more difficult route.”
 
“Liberation” joins three other sculptures in the garden, a gift from Union’s graduating classes of 2007 and 2008. Each piece, including a work by 1980 graduate Victor Issa, a section of the Berlin Wall, and a “Peace Plow,” set against the backdrop of a gurgling fountain, points visitors to the cause of peace.
 
Serious About Peace
Culminating Peace Week on Union’s campus, the unveiling ceremony in April featured remarks by several Lincoln peace advocates, including former mayor Coleen Seng. Dedicated to offering Union students the opportunity to learn more about the four pillars of peace, each day of Peace Week focused on one of the pillars: dialogue, justice, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Through a variety of activities, students learned practical ways to help promote peace, starting in their own lives.
 
2011 1520 page28“Helping people learn to become better at listening, problem solving, and staying aware of issues around the world and how they are a part of it is the purpose of Peace Week,” said Kourtney Shoemaker, a member of the Conflict and Peacemaking class that helped plan Peace Week. “We should always promote this idea, and Peace Week is a great place to encourage it.”
 
“We’re following the call found in the official church statement ‘A Seventh-day Adventist Call for Peace,’” said Blake, who plans to make Peace Week an annual event. “As the statement reads, ‘Each of [The Seventh-day Adventist Church’s] more than 6,000 schools, colleges, and universities is being asked to set aside one week each school year to emphasize and highlight, through various programs, respect, cultural awareness, nonviolence, peacemaking, conflict resolution, and reconciliation as a way of making a specifically “Adventist” contribution to a culture of social harmony and peace.’”

1 SYMBOL OF SEPARATION: “The Wall” is an actual piece of the Berlin Wall. The wire symbolizes walls that stand between people—barriers of prejudice and hatred. Like that wall in Berlin, these barriers can be broken down and peacefully removed. ?
 
2 PROPHETIC SYMBOL: “Peace Plow,” a sculpture by Greg Worthan, carries the scars of past weapons. Isaiah 2:4 proclaims: “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”?
 
3 PEACEMAKER PAR EXCELLENCE: “Prince of Peace,” (At top of article) by Victor Issa (Union College alumnus, 1980), shows Jesus of Nazareth, the one who brings gracious harmony to our weary, hostile, strife-torn world. “Love your enemies” (Matt. 5:44), He commands us. “My peace I give you” (John 14:27).?
 
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Michelle Current recently graduated from Union College with a degree in communication. This article was published July 21, 2011.

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