The first session does one thing: it tells the truth about what we are about to spend ten weeks learning. Peacemaking is not peacekeeping. It is not avoiding conflict. It is not neutrality. It will cost us something. We name all of this in the open, so no one is here under false pretenses.
The principle
Week 01
Peace is more than the absence of conflict. It is the recognition that every person has worth — regardless of identity, community, circumstance, or action. Peace is what happens when people stay honest with each other and willing to repair what breaks. It has to be built every day, often at cost.
The session at a glance
Week 01 follows the standard cohort rhythm — except the opening. Because there is no previous week to report back on, we use that time for introductions and to set the ground rules together. From Week 02 onward, the opening becomes report-back.
Movement 01
15 min
Movement 02
30 min
Movement 03
40 min
Movement 04
20 min
Movement 05
15 min
The five movements, in detail
Movement 01 · Welcome
15 min
The facilitator opens with a single honest sentence: "We're here to learn how to be peacemakers, which is one of the hardest things a human being can try to do." No throat-clearing. No icebreakers. The seriousness of that opening sets the tone.
Round one — introductions (8 min)
Each participant shares three things, in 60 seconds or less:
No one responds. No fixing, no comforting. The group simply listens. Witness is the practice.
Round two — the ground rules (7 min)
The facilitator names the four ground rules. The group agrees out loud.
Movement 02 · Learn
30 min
The teaching for Week 01 is short on purpose. Three distinctions and one truth — that's all. Most of the work this week happens after the teaching, not during it.
Distinction 01
Peacekeeping preserves the status quo, even when the status quo is unjust. Peacemaking changes things. A peacekeeper smooths the surface so no one is uncomfortable. A peacemaker goes deeper, even when the surface gets stirred up in the process.
→ Research and practiceDistinction 02
Often, peacemaking requires conflict — but a different kind of conflict. Not the kind that humiliates or destroys. The kind that opens something up that was closed. Avoiding conflict is not the same as making peace. Sometimes it is the opposite of it.
→ Research and practiceDistinction 03
Peacemaking takes a side. It always sides with the dignity of every person in the room — including the person you disagree with, and including yourself. That is not neutrality. That is a clear moral commitment carried out in a non-violent way.
→ Research and practiceThe principle, pressure-tested
The principle that every person has worth is easy to agree with. It is harder to live as if you believe it. Most of us — including the ones drawn to a peacemaking course — quietly keep a list of people we have excluded from the principle. They are usually the people we are most certain are wrong. The whole rest of this course rests on noticing that list. Week 02 names this directly. Week 01 only asks you to admit it exists.
The hard truth
This work will cost you something. You will be misunderstood. Relationships will be tested. There will be very few visible wins. The work will often feel like nothing is happening — until something is. We say this out loud in Week 01 so we don't pretend later that it was supposed to be easier.
Facilitator note: Some participants will resist the "this will cost you" framing. Don't argue with the resistance. Let it land. They will return to it on their own in Week 03 or 04.
Movement 03 · Discuss
40 min
Pairs first, then the full group. The discussion isn't trying to reach agreement. It's trying to reach honesty.
In pairs (15 min, 7 min each)
Each person takes a turn answering one of these questions while their partner listens without interrupting. No back-and-forth. No advice. Just listening.
In the full group (25 min)
Each pair shares one observation from their conversation — not what their partner said, but what came up for them. The facilitator's only job is to keep the silence safe. Don't fill quiet moments. They are part of the work.
Facilitator note: The first session almost always has at least one person who shares something heavier than expected. Don't redirect. Don't lighten. Witness, thank them, and move on. The group will track that this is a place where the truth can be told.
Movement 04 · Practice
20 min
Silent writing (5 min)
Each participant writes by hand on two prompts. The facilitator times it and stays quiet.
Pair share (10 min)
Same partner as Movement 03. Each person shares whichever of the two they want — they choose. The listener does not respond. They simply receive what was shared. Five minutes each.
Group close (5 min)
Anyone who wants to may share one sentence with the group. No pressure. Silence is also a contribution.
Movement 05 · Commit
15 min
Each participant chooses one concrete thing they will do before Session 02. Specific is the rule — not "be more patient," but "have the conversation with my brother I've been avoiding since March." Vague commitments don't survive the week.
Suggested commitments (pick one or write your own)
Partner check-in
Each person tells the same partner from Movements 03 and 04 what they're committing to. Partners agree to one short check-in text or message during the week — not to nag, just to remember each other. The cohort is built on these small reminders.
Sources referenced
Peacemaking shows up in every major wisdom tradition — and in the modern disciplines of international relations, communication, and civil society. Week 01 introduces nine sources, not as authorities, but as voices in the room. Participants are invited to bring their own.
Christian
"Blessed are the peacemakers."
Matthew 5:9, from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus does not say "blessed are the peace-lovers" or "blessed are the peaceful." He says peacemakers — those who actively make peace, often at cost.
Jewish
Shalom — wholeness.
Hebrew. From the root sh-l-m. Shalom is not the absence of trouble. It is wholeness, completeness, right relationship between people, the land, and God. Peace as flourishing, not quiet.
Islamic
Salaam — peace and submission.
Arabic. Shares its Semitic root with shalom. Salaam is both greeting and orientation — peace through right relationship with God and neighbor. Islam itself comes from the same root.
Hindu, Jain, Buddhist
Ahimsa — active nonviolence.
Sanskrit. Often translated "nonviolence," but more accurately the active refusal to cause harm — in action, in speech, and in thought. Mobilized in the modern era by Gandhi as a strategy of social change.
Lakota
Mitákuye Oyás'iŋ — all my relations.
A prayer and a worldview. Peace begins with the recognition that every life — human, animal, plant, land — is in relation with every other. Harm to one is harm to all.
Civil rights tradition
Negative peace vs positive peace.
From Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail. Negative peace is the absence of tension; positive peace is the presence of justice. The first is shallow. The second is what we are after.
Latter-day Saint
"Charity is the antidote to contention."
From President Russell M. Nelson's April 2023 address, Peacemakers Needed, delivered to a worldwide audience of millions. Nelson named contention as a defining problem of our time and called peacemaking — across religious, political, and personal difference — a primary discipleship calling. "Anger never persuades. Hostility builds no one. Contention never leads to inspired solutions." The talk has shaped countless conversations across the Latter-day Saint community since.
United Nations
A culture of peace, built daily.
The 1999 UN Declaration on a Culture of Peace defines a culture of peace as "a set of values, attitudes, modes of behaviour and ways of life that reject violence and prevent conflicts by tackling their root causes to solve problems through dialogue and negotiation among individuals, groups and nations." The framing matters: peace is not the absence of war. It is a daily, practiced set of behaviors. The same language threads through the modern UN peacebuilding architecture, including Sustainable Development Goal 16.
Communication research
Observe without evaluating.
Psychologist Marshall Rosenberg's framework of Nonviolent Communication — developed over more than four decades and applied in places of severe conflict, including post-genocide Rwanda, Israel/Palestine, and Northern Ireland — rests on a single core move: separating observation from evaluation. Most everyday speech compresses the two ("you're being selfish") and creates conflict where none was needed. NVC slows the move down: observe what happened, name what you feel, identify the need underneath, then make a request. Simple discipline. Hard practice.
For the facilitator
Before next week
Each participant leaves with their one chosen action for the week, and a single question to carry in the back of their mind between sessions.
The question for the week
"What part of my life is peaceful — and what part is just quiet?"