According to the United Nations, one child in four lives in an unstable, often violent, environment. The World Council of Churches is determined to change those statistics-one city at a time. Last November, the WCC launched its "Peace to the City" project, not in Sierra Leone, but in Boston.
Using Boston's well-known Ten Point Coalition as a prime teaching tool for addressing urban violence, the WCC brought together peacemakers from war-torn cities in Colombia, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Brazil, Germany, South Africa, Jamaica, and Sierra Leone to learn what has made the Ten Point Coalition one of the most successful faith-based anti-violence initiatives in the United States. "What continues to surprise me," says Ten Point Coalition organizer Rev. Jeffrey Brown, "is the way sharing stories of lessons learned yields a common experience on a deep spiritual level, and encourages those who are battle weary to keep going." The next "Peace to the City" teach-in will be held in September 2001.
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