CHRISTIAN PEACEBUILDING NETWORK

Join our monthly meetings the 2nd Tuesday of each month, 9am Eastern / 3pm Central Europe Time, via Zoom

 
 

What?

The Christian Peacebuilding Network hosts monthly calls to connect Christian peacebuilders, explore various themes at the intersection of Christian faith and peacebuilding, and to build a collaborative movement.

 
 
 

Who?

We’re an ethnically, culturally, geographically, and organizationally diverse community of Christian peacebuilding practitioners and everyday Christians looking to contribute to the wider Christian peacebuilding movement. See our 2023-2024 core practitioner team below.

 
 
 

2023-2024 Meetings

 

  • September 12, 2023 - Peacebuilding & the Kingdom of God

  • October 10, 2023 - Big Picture of Peacebuilding 

  • November 14, 2023 - Christian Involvement in Peacebuilding: Challenges & Opportunities

  • December 12, 2023 - Decolonizing Faith & Peacebuilding 

  • January 9, 2024 - Theories of Change

  • February 13, 2024 - Peacebuilding, Deconstruction, & Faith Maturation

  • March 12, 2024 - Youth Peacebuilding & Generational Divisions

  • April 9, 2024 - Sustaining the Life of a Peacebuilder

  • May 13, 2024 - Peacebuilding, Power, & Privilege

  • June 11, 2024 - Theological Obstacles for Christians

  • July 9, 2024 - Peacebuilding & Structural Change

  • August 13, 2024 - Practical Steps into Peacebuilding

Meeting goals:

  1. Connection, networking

  2. Mutual learning as we explore various themes related to Christian faith, peacebuilding, and forming Christians for peacebuilding

  3. Organic opportunities for collaboration

  4. Sustaining relationships and partnerships among Christian peacebuilders around the world 

 
 

2023-2024 Core Practitioner Team

Daniel Munayer

Daniel is the Executive Director of Musalaha, an organization that teaches, facilitates and trains reconciliation mainly between Israelis and Palestinians from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds. Born and raised in Jerusalem, Daniel is both Palestinian and British with an Israeli passport. Prior to Daniel's work with Musalaha, Daniel co-founded Lighthouse Relief as a response to the influx of refugees in Greece. He later worked with the Danish Refugee Council and Nonviolent Peaceforce in Greece and Iraq. Daniel holds an MBA with Distinction from Durham University Business School, UK. In addition, he graduated with honors from the highly selective 3-year Global Scholars Program at American University in Washington D.C., focusing on International Relations and Religious Studies. Daniel is the only Palestinian ever to be invited to personally address the UN Security Council in New York.

Kendra DeMicco-Lovins

Kendra is passionate about peacemaking & reconciliation, and has spent the last 6 years working in this field in the Middle East, South America, and North America. Her work focused on facilitating Peace Camps and coming alongside young leaders to support, equip, and build capacity to make holistic change in their local communities. She has her Master's degree in Secondary Education from the University of Delaware, and an undergraduate degree in Literature and Theatre form Eastern University. She works for the Five & Two Network in the convergent space between Peacemaking and Reconciliation and Community Centered Development. Kendra is also on the leadership team of The Peacemakers Collective.

Saji Oommen

Saji was born in Dallas, grew up in California and moved to Philadelphia to complete his MBA at Eastern University. In 2010, Saji and his family moved to Turkey and began working on a reconciliation process between Armenians and Turks which has become the Armenian Turkish Peace Initiative. Along with Kendra, he led a peace camp in 2016 with Syrian and Turkish Muslims and Western Christians to discuss peace and specifically focus on forgiveness and reconciliation. That first peace camp led to invitations to lead camps in Northern Iraq and Colombia. In addition to his current work as the executive director of Kidstown International, he is also on the leadership team of The Peacemakers Collective. As part of his peacebuilding work, Saji helps lead the Multicultural Peace Collaboration (MPC), a joint effort of MCC U.S., West Coast MCC and Fresno Pacific University’s Center for Anabaptist Studies, which engages young people through experiential learning in communities and unfamiliar spaces to grow their understanding of and commitment to peacebuilding. Saji is married to Bindu and they have four children and a golden retriever named Cleo!

Bob Mayonza

Bob is the National Director and senior facilitator for the Uganda office of the Pilgrim Center for Reconciliation Uganda (PCR). PCR’s mission is to bring hope and healing by renewing individuals, restoring relationships, and revitalizing communities through the work of reconciliation. Beyond Uganda’s borders, Bob is also the lead coordinator for PCR’s South Sudan office and his work takes him to Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi, and Congo, focusing on peacebuilding training, menstrual health, community development, and youth empowerment. Prior to joining PCR Bob worked for over 13 years with World Outreach Ministry Foundation as communication liaison and media & communication officer for Uganda Christian Outreach Ministries. He earned a B.A. Honor’s Degree and his Master’s in Operations Management.

Scott Sotomayor

Scott is originally from the USA and has lived and worked with YWAM An Cuan in Northern Ireland for the last 10 years. For the last 13 years YWAM An Cuan has been a reconciliation-centred missional community engaging with both local and international peacebuilding. In 2021, Scott along with his wife Yasmine accepted the role of Director at YWAM An Cuan. In July 2022 they welcomed their first child, Mateo. He is now juggling leading an international, intergenerational and interdenominational missions community towards a more holistic vision of missions, cooking his family dinners and being the best father he can be.

Phil Wagler

Phil Wagler joined works as the Global Director of the Peace and Reconciliation Network (PRN), a commission of the World Evangelical Alliance. Phil first joined PRN as the North American regional coordinator in 2019 and became PRN Global Director in 2022. Phil grew up in Ontario, Canada and by God's grace became a follower of Jesus in his late teens. His theological, leadership and mission studies and life experiences have equipped him for the pastoral, mission agency, and college ministry assignments God has called him to. He is deeply committed to inspiring and equipping the local church for holistic mission and the ministry of reconciliation and is author of numerous publications. Phil and his family live in British Columbia, Canada.

David Katibah

David works for the Telos Group as the Director of Communications and Christian Engagement, Washington, DC. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received degrees in Economics, Political Science, and Philosophy, graduating with highest distinction from the Honors College and receiving the James M. Johnston Distinguished Senior Award. Prior to joining Telos, he spent time living and working in East Asia and completed the Falls Church Fellows program in 2019-2020. David is passionate about supporting transitional justice and conflict transformation in the Middle East as an American of Syrian descent. He also believes in the transformative power of Christian communities claiming their call to be peacemakers in the US and beyond. His voice can be heard hosting the Telos Check-in podcast and his writing can be read on his substack, “Awakenings.”

Bryan Carey

Bryan is a peacebuilding consultant and Director of International Partnerships at Peace Catalyst International. Bryan and his family have lived in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina since 2017, where they have been learning alongside and supporting the work of Muslim, Catholic, and Orthodox peacebuilders. Bryan also hosts workshops, conducts trainings, and teaches about peace-oriented theology, peacebuilding practices, and how Christian groups can get involved in community peacebuilding. He regularly organizes learning experiences for international and regional Balkan participants that cultivate understanding and empathy for the narratives of other groups, ultimately with the aim to deepen relational connections that allow for collaborative work.

 

More About the Christian Peacebuilding Network

 

  • The Church too often responds to conflict with domination or avoidance instead of connection and care. This leads to churches and Christians perpetuating harm and violence in communities and society, rather than following Jesus as healers and peacebuilders.

  • To equip, support, and amplify the work of the Christian peacebuilding movement.

  • We envision God’s holistic peace and peacebuilding mission at the center of Church culture and defining the ways we train, disciple, teach, pray, work, and partner for the just peace and flourishing wholeness of our world.

  • To explore the Christian Peacebuilding Network online community, join our Facebook group and explore the Learning Guides.

 

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