Jesuit peacemaker to visit Britain

Fr John Dear SJ

US Jesuit Fr John Dear, an internationally recognized voice for peace and non-violence, is coming to England this summer.

A Jesuit priest, pastor, peacemaker, retreat leader, and author, he will be speaking about the non-violent teachings of Jesus, as epitomised in the lives of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Dorothy Day.

Fr John served for years as the director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the largest interfaith peace organization in the US. After September 11, 2001, he was a Red Cross coordinator of chaplains at the Family Assistance Centre in New York, and counselled thousands of relatives and rescue workers. Dear has travelled the war zones of the world, been arrested some 75 times for peace protests, led Nobel Peace prize winners to Iraq, given thousands of lectures on peace across the US, and served as a pastor of several churches in the high desert of New Mexico. In 2008, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, along with others, nominated John Dear for the Nobel Peace Prize.

John is the author of many books, and writes a weekly online column for the National Catholic Reporter at www.ncronline.org. In 2007 he was keynote speaker at the annual conference of the National Justice and Peace Network of England and Wales.

Fri 24 - Mon 27 August: Greenbelt Festival, Cheltenham
Mon 3 September: St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham, 7pm
Tues 4 September: St John's, Wigan, 7pm
Wed 5 September: Temple Hall, York, 7pm
Thurs 6 September: St. Joseph’s, Sunderland, 7pm
Fri 7 September: St Benedict’s ,Garforth, Leeds, 7pm
Mon 10 September: London Catholic Worker, London, 7pm

For more information please visit Myddelton Grange web-site: www.myddeltongrange.org.uk

‘The key to changing the world and pursuing justice and disarmament is to allow the God of peace to disarm our hearts, make us instruments of peace, and lead us together on the road to peace.’ Fr John Dear, SJ