Core Values
In 1986, Dr. Betty Reardon put forth three core values to guide her peace education work: Planetary Stewardship, Humane Relationship, and Global Citizenship. In 2023, our founder and co-director Rev. Dr. Leonisa Ardizzone reformulated these with more inclusive language and content to be: Holistic Earth Care, Relational Existence, and Global Consciousness. These updated core values provide a framework for knowing, learning, and acting to create positive peace in a wide variety of settings.
Holistic Earth Care
We acknowledge interdependence, interconnection, and interbeing as described by Vietnamese Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hahn.
- We are all responsible for the planet on local and global levels because we are of the Earth and all of its components are within us. We are not separate from the Earth but deeply dependent on it.
- We must see all life (including things typically deemed “non-living” or abiotic) as fundamentally one or united, so that we don’t continue to fall into a trap of separation and superiority.
Holistic Earth Care serves to mitigate the effects of structural, cultural, and direct violence as they show up in a culture that views the planet as a commodity to be exploited. We all have a responsibility for the interconnected web of life of which we are a part.
Relational Existence
Our existence is founded upon relationships; therefore we are called to mindfully interact with others and to cultivate reciprocity.
- We see ourselves as relational beings.
- We acknowledge that our current state of brokenness is a result of creating hierarchies in relationships, and of deeming certain peoples as beneath the need for relation.
- We must seek to right the wrongs of the past by deferring to historically marginalized voices, many of whom demonstrate a relational spirituality and/or model of living in relational community with all beings.
- We must see and honor the inherent worth and dignity of all beings and act in accordance with their rights, whether humans, other mammals, or other forms of being.
Relational Existence diminishes manifestations of violence by inviting us into mindful, compassionate relationships via authentic communication.
Global Consciousness
We are part of a global system, not merely individuals or members of exclusive communities.
- We see ourselves as co-travelers of the cosmos and thus must live with a sense of responsibility to all inhabitants of said cosmos—not just those who think or look like us, or those who live next door.
- Climate Change, for example, has proven that local choices—especially lives lived in excess that require fossil fuels and extractive, exploitative capitalism—have global impacts.
Global Consciousness can counteract the manifestations of violence by expanding our understanding of the human condition and the nature of interdependent existence.