Peace Week, September 17-22, 2018

Every year, on September 21, the world celebrates the International Day of Peace.

Peace Week began when Conrad Grebel University College initiated a series of community events for the week surrounding the International Day of Peace. Since 2017, we have been opening up this initiative to Kitchener-Waterloo and beyond.

We invite you to continue to make Peace Week a region-wide celebration by attending an event in your community or planning your own event to mark the occasion your way!

Community Event listing

Friday, September 21, 2018 - 8:00 pm

#ChurchToo Theatre of the Beat Performance

$15

#ChurchToo is uniquely designed to cater specifically to the questions and concerns of each community that hosts it. Nine playwrights from across North America have each written a scene to explore the realities of sexual misconduct, power, and abuse within our church communities.

The show opens at the Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts in Kitchener, Ontario on September 21-23, 2018.

'Sites of Nonresistance: Ontario Mennonites and the First World War' Exhibit

free

An exhibit of the Mennonite Archives of Ontario that highlights 12 Canadian "sites of nonresistance".

War monuments, cenotaphs and honour rolls remind us daily of the most dramatic and familiar stories of war. This exhibit tells war stories of a different kind, and lays out an alternative memorial landscape—the landscape of nonresistance. These stories are gleaned from letters, diaries, newspapers, photographs, government documents and family histories found in the Mennonite Archives of Ontario. Together, they paint a picture of the Great War from a “peace church” perspective.

You can find this exhibit in the Milton Good Library and Mennonite Archives of Ontario gallery on the 3rd floor of Conrad Grebel University College. Exhibit hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30 am - 4:30 pm.

Sunday, September 23, 2018 - 6:00 pm

Join Queen Street Yoga's Basics Class for a Cause

free

Queen Street Yoga in DTK is participating in KW’s Peace Week 2018! Drop in for their $5 Basics Class on September 23, at 6pm, and the proceeds will go to the Healing of the Seven Generations, an organization that does intergenerational healing for the effects of residential schools on First Peoples.

If you enjoy it, you can keep going after Peace Week is over – classes run every Sunday night at 6 PM and proceeds will continue to go to the Healing of the Seven Generations.

Saturday, September 15, 2018 - 9:00 am to Saturday, September 29, 2018 - 6:00 pm

All Nations Grand River Water Walk

free

The All Nations Water Walk will begin at the headwaters of the Grand River and follow the beautiful river-ways. The walk is intended to honour the water and connect all peoples to creation. It is also a walk in memory of the late Violet Caibaiosai, one of the original Water Walkers.

Join Mary Anne Caibaiosai and others in following the footsteps of Josephine Mandamin, an Anishnaabe Elder, who has honoured the water by walking the perimeter of the Great Lakes.

This journey on both sides of the Grand River will run from September 15-29 2018.

Saturday, September 22, 2018 - 12:00 pm

St. Pauls 15th Annual Pow Wow

free

Every year in the fall, the Waterloo Indigenous Student Centre hosts a Pow Wow and it usually falls within Peace Week!

A Pow Wow is a coming together of the first peoples to celebrate and honour our traditional teachings. The Pow Wow includes drumming, dancing and other elements of Indigenous culture. Craft and food vendors are on site, and there are different stations where visitors can go to learn about different aspects of Indigenous culture.

St. Pauls 15th Annual Pow Wow will be at Waterloo park (near the band shell) on Saturday September 22, 2018 with the grand entry at noon and the closing ceremony at 5pm.

Tuesday, September 18, 2018 - 4:30 pm

Book Launch for The Orie Miller Diary

free

Please join us on September 18, 2018 at 4:30 p.m. for the book launch of The Orie O. Miller Diary (Pandora Press, IAMS Mennonite Reflections Series). There will be a short presentation and light refreshments will be served.

The diary captures the mundane (“I have purchased from the Near East Relief 3,000 yards of white flannelette 28 in. at 25 cents a yd.”) along with the dramatic (“The closest [shell] burst about two hundred feet from our car.”). In its unadorned simplicity, the diary provides an almost tactile impression of the lived experience of MCC’s first relief mission, seen through the eyes of its first field director, Orie O. Miller.

Friday, September 21, 2018 - 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Human Peace Sign & Singalong

free

Every year Waterloo Region Nonviolence celebrates the International Day Of Peace by making a human peace sign.

There will be a Peace Song Singalong, reading inspirational messages written by leaders of the Peace Movement such as Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi, and, of course, people working together to display the international symbol for peace.

Location TBA.

Wednesday, September 12, 2018 - 8:00 am to Sunday, November 11, 2018 - 7:30 pm

The World Remembers

free

In fall 2018, the Mennonite Archives of Ontario Gallery (Conrad Grebel University College, 3rd floor landing) will again be a display location for "The World Remembers." Every day from September 17-November 11, 2018 the names of more than 850,000 soldiers and nurses on all sides of the First World War killed in 1918 will be displayed at more than 60 locations around the world.

The commemoration is a unique expression of remembrance, reconciliation and education, and shows the enormous human cost of the war.

The display will be accessible during the following times. Please note that there is no Sunday access.

Monday to Friday 8:30 am - 7:10 pm
Saturday 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Friday, September 21, 2018 - 7:00 pm

An Evening of Peace, Hosted by Bobcat Bartolo & The Liberation

free

In celebration of the UN International Day of Peace, Bobcat Bartolo & The Liberation present An Evening of Peace.

50% of proceeds will be donated directly to Amnesty International, and each ticket is your entry to our exciting selection of door prizes.

Thursday, September 20, 2018 - 4:00 pm

A New Era of Peace and a Peaceful Land Art Exhibit Reception

free

This exhibition, sponsored by Mennonite Central Committee and curated by the Korean Art Forum, collects rarely seen works by American, Chinese, North and South Korean artists.

Responding to the speeches given by leaders of North and South Korea at an inter-Korean summit in 2018, this exhibition serves to communicate the following thesis: Peace is not an absence of war, but the living process of freely interacting with others and understanding their values and perspective, while realizing truth and justice.

Exhibit reception: Thursday September 20 at 4:00 PM in the Grebel Gallery. Please click here to register for the event.

Monday, September 17, 2018 - 11:45 am

MMMeditations: Prayers for Peace

free

All staff, students, and faculty at the University of Waterloo are welcome to join this inter-religious event on Monday September 17th, 2018 at 11:45 a.m. The fifteen minute pause will include the opportunity to pray for peace in honour of Peace Week. The group will gather in the Quiet Reflection Room in the Spirituality Centre found on the first floor of the Library and Classrooms building (SJ1) on the St. Jerome’s campus. For more information, contact Erika Toffelmire (Erika.toffelmire@uwaterloo.ca).

Friday, September 21, 2018 - 1:00 pm

Conrad Grebel Conversation Circle

free

Come participate in this Circle hosted by the PACS department to learn with fellow students and faculty and discuss peace to create acceptance for Peace Week! Conversation will be focused on what peace means to you and how communities can work together to achieve peace. Refreshments will be provided.

Friday, September 21, 2018 - 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm

STEAM for Good at WPL

free

Want to make the world a better place? Science, technology, engineering, art and math can do that! It's Science Literacy Week AND Peace Day (plus a PD Day) and the WPL is ready to celebrate.