Our latest blog highlights case studies from The Corrymeela Community and The Ohio State University Mershon Center for International Security Studies’ joint exploration around the use of ritual practices in transitions from violence to peace.
A key area of attention in our Peacebuilding Healing & Wellbeing efforts has been on the role of ritual as a powerful thread that weaves through and strengthens peace and reconciliation processes. The case studies below from Sierra Leone and Northern Ireland show the different forms that the integration of ritual can take, offering rich insights and wisdom for others in the field.
In spring 2020, the Corrymeela Community and The Ohio State University’s Mershon Center for International Security Studies began a joint exploration around transitions from violence to peace. This began as a series of virtual dialogue platforms between academics and practitioners whose work engages questions and challenges around the processes of these transitions as experienced by communities and societies navigating conflict.
As these conversations unfolded, two pieces became very clear: (1) dominant practices of peacebuilding and reconciliation have not proved effective to bring about sustainable transformation for individuals, communities, or societies; and (2) there is something unique about ritual and ritualized practice that opens a different kind of space of relating, healing, and being together. Ritual holds a powerful potential to foster individual and collective healing and support transitions from violence to peace.
Following this thread, subsequent virtual and in person gatherings were organized to explore how ritual practices were/are supporting reconciliation and individual and social healing across diverse settings of conflict. After the initial virtual platform, the group met in person to look at rituals more broadly. The following year, the group met again to consider transformative practices specifically.
From these conversations, various case studies were envisioned, crafted, and published by The Mershon Center, two of which are featured below: