There is a small Christian community in this Hindu Kingdom which has been torn apart by a war with a Maoist insurgency. At the invitation of my International Ministries colleagues I provided training and consultation for church leaders about how to play roles supportive of peace in their society as well as how to deal in a healthy way with their own internal conflicts. The recent peace agreement has provided a bit of respite for the nation, but there are still huge challenges with conflicts that threaten to return the country to war.
For BBC’s country background information:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/country_profiles/1166502.stm
About Me
- Daniel Buttry
- I am the Global Consultant for Peace and Justice with International Ministries of the American Baptist Churches. That means that I work around the world, usually on short term peace projects. My area of specialty is conflict transformation. Simply put, conflict transformation means turning conflict from negative, destructive experiences into positive, constructive experiences… in which problems are solved, unjust relationships are structured in more just ways, violence is replaced by nonviolent means of dealing with disagreements, torn relationships are reconciled, decisions become more participatory and traumatized people are supported for healing. About 70% of my work involves training people in nonviolent conflict transformation. I occasionally am involved in mediation. I write a lot and have published a number of books on various peacemaking topics.