>> Find out more about the 50th anniversary conference, held Aug. 5-7, 2022, in Washington, D.C.

On January 1, 2022, we officially launched the opening of Pax Christi USA’s 50th anniversary year with a special kickoff event on the World Day of Peace. (In case you missed it, you can view it here.)

As this year continues, we’ll be inviting you to engage with a variety of activities, actions, and events that honor the legacy of our movement and help us imagine and work towards another 50, 100, 150+ years! All of our jubilee anniversary activities and events will be archived throughout the year on this page, so bookmark it and check back often! 

>> For a complete listing of our 50th anniversary events, click here.
>> To see the members of our Honorary 50th Anniversary Committee, click here.
>> To see our special prayer card commemorating the 50th anniversary, click here.

host a peace fair at your school, college or parish!

We’ve developed this toolkit as a resource to offer suggestions for hosting a Peace Fair at your school or parish in honor of Pax Christi USA’s 50th anniversary year. Included are a sampling of activities/projects that can be used in a classroom, at a meeting, at a Pax Christi celebration or special event.

You will find many ideas for community celebrations of peacemaking and peacebuilding in this document. We invite you to use them as an individual, family project, in a classroom or as part of a Peace Fair. A Peace Fair can be one day or a week of activities in which a group of people, young and old, come together to celebrate and learn about peace. Many of the activities presented in this resource are for children and can be adapted for teenagers and young adults.

Each idea is developed enough that the coordinator does not have to research or spend time looking up each activity.

Please feel free to make a booklet from these pages to use not only on the 50th anniversary of Pax Christi USA but anytime you have the opportunity.

Click here for a toolkit for hosting a peace fair.

Weaving Heaven & Earth for Peace Through Justice:
A Pax Christi USA Reflection Process

Using Diane Goodman’s Tapestry Model article and imagery of our year’s theme, “Weaving Threads of Peace for 50 Years”, we invite you to watch the January 1st Kickoff Event and reflect on your own, or in your local Pax Christi, campus ministry, parish or other small group, the multiple identities that inform who you are and are perceived to be, how these identities interact on both a personal and a communal level. We also invite you to explore how you interact with people of differing identities and how this interaction informs, broadens and strengthens peace work. Click here for some specific prompts for reflection, discussion and action.

Photo credit: Getty Images, Bart van den Dikkenberg

Weaving Threads of Peace Art Project

From January to July of this anniversary year, we invited you to send pieces of fabric, prayer intentions, and hopes for Pax Christi USA to Kathy O’Leary, Pax Christi New Jersey coordinator, for a communal art project that was used at the National Conference in August. The tapestry is now complete and you can visit this link for more information.

Local Group Videos  

To celebrate 50 years of weaving peace throughout our PCUSA grassroots network, we welcome video contributions from our local groups, high school and college chapters, religious communities, Catholic Worker Houses, and state chapters! For this project, which is due February 28, 2022, you can send in video, paragraph, and/or photos: 

  1. Upload a 5 minute video (no longer than 10 minutes) which responds to any of the following prompts to our PCUSA video submissions Google folder (preferred option) or email videos to National Council Member Jeff Sved, jeffsved@gmail.com. 
  • What do you want the PCUSA family to know about your local group?
  • When was it founded?
  • Who are some of your local peacemakers?
  • What are some of the initiatives, priorities, or actions that you are working on?
  • What is a moment of peace that you would like to celebrate in your chapter’s history?
  • Describe something that the national office has done that you’ve appreciated.
  • Is there a way that your chapter has responded to Bryan Massingale’s challenges to PCUSA? 

>> Bryan N. Massingale in 2013: “If Pax Christi is to be relevant and on the frontier as a  Catholic peacemaking movement with justice then it has to become more intersectional in both theory and practice.”

>> Bryan N. Massingale in 2021 upon receiving the Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace Award: “The greatest threat to peace is white nationalism. The crises that face us, militarism, racism, ecology, and poverty are interlocking, overlapping and compounded… Genuine peace, the goal, dream, and passion of Pax Christi is impossible without a cultural evolution so profound and far reaching it is almost impossible to envision and terrifying to envision…“

  1. Send us a written paragraph describing your local group, contact person, and how to get involved. Email to National Council Member Jeff Sved, jeffsved@gmail.com. 
  2. You are welcome to send in electronic images that can be edited into your video. Email to National Council Member Jeff Sved, jeffsved@gmail.com. 

Helpful hints for recording 50th anniversary videos

On a smartphone:

  • Choose a good background, and film in a well lit area. Face the light but avoid lighting that produces shadows on your face. Neutral colors are best for the background
  • *Also check to make sure the camera is focused on the speaker and not something in the background
  • Shoot your video horizontally
  • Keep your phone level – use a tripod, set up the phone on a level surface, or make sure to keep your hand steady

To capture the best audio:

  • choose a quiet location with limited background noise
  • use headphones with a quality microphone
  • speak clearly

Not tech-savy?! No problem! If you would like help recording a Zoom interview with local leaders, please contact: lbailey@paxchristiusa.org or msherman@paxchristiusa.org.

Upload by February 28, 2022 (extended through March) to our PCUSA video submissions Google folder (preferred option) or email videos to National Council Member Jeff Sved, jeffsved@gmail.com. 

The 50th Anniversary working group will highlight these videos on the PCUSA website and social media this year. 

Promote & share our Jubilee on social media throughout 2022!

If you don’t already follow Pax Christi USA on our social media channels, this is a great time to follow us! For every remaining week of the year 2022 (that’s 50 weeks!), we’ll be posting “Thoughts of the Day” as part of #WednesdayWisdom4Peace. Follow Pax Christi USA on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook and tag using #Pax50, #PaxChristi50 and #WeavingPeace50.