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Center for Faith and Human Flourishing lithuanian

“WELCOME FROM THE DIRECTOR”

As the African quote reminds us, “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” The Center for Dialogue and Conflict Transformation seeks to engage with LCC students, staff, local and international researchers, practitioners, activists, and communities to promote and strengthen a culture of peace both locally and globally.  We invite you to join us on our journey towards building peace.

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Naomi Enns
Director, Center for Dialogue and Conflict Transformation

Purpose statement

LCC’s peace center, grounded in Christian faith, offers opportunities for building bridges of trust, transforming relationships, and equipping communities. The center aims to strengthen, transform, and sustain servant change agents towards the creation of a more just and peaceful world. Opportunities for gathering and growing together strengthens the LCC ethos of non-violent peacebuilding guided by 4 pillars articulated below. These pillars advance our understanding and action towards peace in local and global pathways through dialogue, trainings, and action. The Center is a catalyst for strengthening communities in nonviolent social change, generous hospitality, and holistic justice to promote the greater common good of our society.

Conflict Transformation & Resilience

We work with people to transform conflict on personal, interpersonal, community and societal levels by building bridges of trust, fostering reconciliation, and strengthening resiliency. Through respectful engagement we equip communities to live justly and nurture a sustainable peace. 

Applied Research & Dialogue

We work with students and researchers in the areas of conflict and peace studies and promote events that stimulate dialogue on critical issues that impact our world.  The goal is to invite students, international researchers, and others to connect academic research to practice.

Action, Advocacy & Awareness Raising

We challenge a culture of oppression, promote actions which pursue justice, increase understanding and engagement in human rights issues, and strengthen positive service and citizenship. We use dialogue, learning events and workshops to empower communities to live generously.

Peace, Dialogue & Trainings

We foster an awareness of the cycles of violence and provide tools to nonviolently engage conflict, oppression, and trauma. We use human encounters to transform relationships, expand our understanding and actions toward peace, and nurture health and healing towards a more just and peaceful world.

News and Events

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Peace Encounters: Folk Songs

2024-10-18

Submitted by Yuliia Duleba, 4th year IRD peace intern Peace Encounters is a series of events hosted by the Center for Dialogue and Conflict Transformation at LCC International University that aim to broaden perspective of peacebuilding in daily lives. “Peace Encounters: Folk Songs” happened on October 3rd and united a multi-cultural community by looking at the importance of folk songs from a peace perspective. Sofya Detkina, the event facilitator, shared her knowledge on how music can positively affect our nervous system and how folk songs resonate with people’s experiences.  The event highlighted a Ukrainian-Polish song “Hey, Sokoly” that tells a story about a Cossack who leaves his beloved one for far-away travel.  Sofya shared her surprise by “how people of today could relate to the song which was written centuries ago. “We sang as a group in two languages - English and Ukrainian – which sparked many insightful conversations about what home is, how to feel home, and what it feels like to be separated from home”. Also, participants had a chance to share about their national folk songs with a similar topic.  Sofya shared her feelings of it being “a pure blessing to see people sharing their bits of home together in small groups”, and by doing so explored how some key figures in the narratives tend to change based on culture differences. Ana Maisuradze, a senior Georgian IRD student who participated says that “Folk songs are crucial in fostering sincere national identity. The event made a good point of it - through discussion our team played songs from each of our countries and provided stories about the songs.  Even though we all left a bit teary-eyed, the event ended with a last rendition of a beautiful Ukrainian-Polish song which we all sang and felt a certain connection to our homes (maybe) and to each other”.  Valentyna Bober, a junior IRD students from Ukraine, shares that “folk songs event helped me to relax and reconnect with home. Sharing the original of the song with others was a beautiful experience that created some special depth of this event for me”.  “The power of folk songs was confirmed” says Sofya, as she “discovered that many people were uplifted and energized because of this short 2-hour event (during a busy week). Singing folk songs {together} gave the participants hope in this world. The evening was a time of recognizing that this peace encounter was all about creating connections, building community, and exploring how music through folksongs interacts with conflict, can build resilience, and recognizes needs we share with humanity regarding meaning-making, belonging and identity.  

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From Surviving to Thriving: International Peace Days 2024

2024-10-11

Submitted by peace interna Yuliia Duleba 4th year IRD student International Peace Days is an annual international event happening across the world, including LCC International University. The event's objective was to strengthen ideals of peace and raise awareness about conflicts in different regions and daily life situations. This year the Center for Dialogue and Conflict Transformation ran it from September 18th to 21st with five major events looking at moving from violence to more peace featuring multiple journeys from “Surviving to Thriving”. The opening gallery, “Stories of Survivors,” was a special exhibition that allowed LCC students to share their personal stories and highlighted stories of other peace heroes who have shown resilience in different areas of life around the globe.  Our “Panel of Stories” gave voice to four LCC students to share their stories of surviving and thriving, on journeys through and out of violence. The panel shed light on stories of poverty and child labour in Afghanistan, femicide in Albania, hatred towards the queer community, and domestic violence. “International Peace Days spread a loud awareness message about resilience and domestic violence; story panels made me emotional and motivated me to be a better person and understand the pain of individuals who went through traumatic experiences in their life” shared LCC 3rd year IRD student and Peace Center volunteer Vilius Višinskis. During the event, the peace center introduced “Thursdays in Black”.  This is a World Council of Churches advocacy campaign now running at LCC that aims to raise awareness in solidarity and constructive resistance to support victims of gender-based violence. “Minute of Silence” is a Peace Wave tradition taking place around the globe. It promotes reflections on the ideas of peace, unity, and solidarity. This year the minute of silence was also expressed through an interfaith group of LCC students, faculty and staff as the community gathered to remember countries in conflict praying give us peace- with the song “Dona Nobis Pacem “Releasing the Flames” was an extraordinary performance by the Lithuanian dancer Gina Žukauskienė inviting people to look at love as an effort rather than a feeling. A discussion followed about the power of love in our lives. International Peace Days this year was a reminder that our world needs peace. The focus of cultivating a culture of peace allowed us to come together as a community and acknowledge violence at all levels of society. As a way of laying the groundwork for peace, LCC students, faculty, and staff visited brave and vulnerable spaces to express unique and strong stories of resilience and thriving.  
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Past events

The opening conference for the center offered 3 strands of critical thinking on the theme of narratives, the place of storytelling and their role in healing and building a democratic society. Be engaging with our heads, hearts and hands we nurtured our walk together towards peace.

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Countless people around the world have experienced and been affected by wars, violence, and genocides. We recognize that the wounds that were inflicted by these events affect each society differently. Wounded societies share many of the same questions. How can we overcome historical legacies, remember truthfully, and find hope for the future? How can we bridge the gap between victims and perpetrators, friends and perceived enemies, using language as a tool for reconciliation? How might we heal divisions in fragmented societies?

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