2007 Conference
January 2007 | Mennonite Central Committee | Akron, PA
Theologia Pacis
In the summer of 2006, Tom Nicoll, an Episcopal priest in Larchmont, New York, and Tony Bartlett, professor of theology at Bexley Hall, then the Episcopal seminary in Rochester, first broached the idea of a theological society convened around one question:
What might change if we took the implications of mimetic theory seriously for the practice of Christian peace?
James Williams, professor of New Testament at Syracuse University and one of the founding figures of COV&R, and Michael Hardin, director of Preaching Peace, soon joined Nicoll and Bartlett in the project.
No photographs survive from that first gathering, but the hopes that took root there continue to thrive.
Together, they invited a selected group to “a first theological conversation” under the name Theologia Pacis. That gathering took place in January 2007 at the Mennonite Central Committee in Akron, Pennsylvania, and was especially noteworthy for the participation of members of the peace churches.
What emerged from that gathering was a sense that this conversation needed to continue.
After that first convention, a steering committee — including Tom Nicoll and Tony Bartlett, both Episcopal; Dorothy Whiston; Rev. Mary McKinney, UCC; and Jonathan Sauder, Mennonite — took on the task of shaping the purpose and direction of the fledgling organization. The name Theology & Peace was chosen to reflect our commitment to the Gospel’s revelation of our violence and our responsibility to live more peacefully in its light.
