Saturday, November 01
9:00AM - 3:45PM CST
First Mennonite Church
418 Queen St,
Saskatoon SK S7K 0M3
Canada
Get directions
Walking the Long Path: How to Build Peace Sustainably
If you are working to make your community better, you are a peacebuilder!
Join us as we explore being peacebuilders grounded in hope amidst turbulent times. Be inspired to action within unstable and uncertain realities. Leave equipped to keep doing the work of building peace within ourselves, with our neighbours, and in our broader world.
Learn from Heather Peters, MCC Saskatchewan’s Peacebuilding Coordinator. With 20 years of experience teaching peacebuilding, restorative justice, and conflict transformation around the world, Heather brings practical skills and inspiring stories. Join her and MCC partners to explore local and global peacebuilding throughout the day.
Practice hands-on peacebuilding skills in workshops.
Hear from Gareth Brandt, artist, scholar, and author, on the roots of Anabaptist nonviolence. With decades of experience as a professor, pastor, and speaker across Canada, Gareth brings creative insight and deep knowledge of faith and peace traditions.
Conference Schedule
9:00am: Welcome & Treaty Land Acknowledgement
9:15am: Theological Grounding, "From the Violence of Muenster to the Peace of Menno"
In the voice of early Anabaptist leader Menno Simons, this session will tell the story of how, after a most violent incident, peacemaking became a central belief and practice for him and subsequent generations of Mennonites. Then it will reflect on how this story might inspire and instruct us in sustainable peacemaking today.
10:00am: Break
10:15am: Plenary, “Peacebuilding Resilience”
Peacebuilding is a dynamic process that has no absolute endpoint. As we strive to do peace in a world that is continually shifting, how do we keep going? Bringing the voices and insights of peacebuilders from around the globe we will be guided to practices that sustain us, our communities and the world.
11:00am: Debrief
11:15am: Workshop Sessions #1 Peacebuilding Practices (choose one):
A. Concentric Circles
Practice the skills of empathy and understanding through active listening. In a series of pairs, participants will take turns sharing a story or a reflection while the other person responds to what they have heard, in a way that demonstrates they have been actively listening.
B. Dialogue & Debate
Learn the distinct differences between debate and dialogue. Through fun conversational roleplays, we’ll explore dialogue as a cooperative form of conversation that leans into relationship and learning and invites curiosity and collaborative action.
12:15pm: Lunch
1:15pm: Workshop Sessions #2 (choose one):
A. Peacebuilding and the Church in Rwanda: Thirty Years After the Genocide
Thirty years after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, Rwanda continues the journey of healing and reconciliation. An MCC Rwanda staff member will share how churches have become places of peace, forgiveness, and transformation, while facing the challenges of justice and rebuilding trust. This session invites reflection on the church’s role in peacebuilding and what Rwanda’s experience can teach the world today.
B. Meadowgreen Youth Program
Since its beginnings in an apartment on Appleby Drive, MCC Saskatchewan’s youth program has become an integral part of the Meadowgreen community. For 20 years we have provided a safe place for kids to have fun and learn peacebuilding skills. As we’ve journeyed with the youth and broader community, we have witnessed and been a part of big changes! Hear key learnings about how to maintain programming and retain trust in a changing community.
2:05pm: Break
2:15pm: Workshop Sessions #3 (concurrent):
A. Stoney Knoll Land Justice
The Stoney Knoll land claim story has been told by two Reserve 107 documentaries (2016, 2025). It’s a long story, with a few well-known highlights. This panel discussion will focus on the in-between times, and the motivations and practices that have fostered longevity. The panel will include members of both the Mennonite and Cree communities that are linked by a common connection to the land of Reserve 107.
B. Long-term Refugee Sponsorship
Grace Mennonite Church in Regina has a long history of refugee sponsorship in partnership with MCC. Within the past five decades, the church has helped almost 40 refugee families establish new homes. Come and learn about their rewarding journey, the multicultural growth of their church, and how they have traversed challenges along the way.
3:15pm: Closing and Sending