Zen Peacemakers International
Executive Director’s Note
Spring 2021
Dear Members and Friends of Zen Peacemakers around the world,
As we grow and expand our global community of social action based on and gently rooted in meditation and the Three Tenets, we deeply value and appreciate both your participation and your support. Thank you. We go forward because of your participation, your peacemaker work, your love and your generosity.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, we have not rested, and in fact, have vastly expanded and increased our program offerings and activities.
Our membership has grown over 60% since Covid began and our Affiliate groups have grown from 27 to 40 in that same time.
Our Members Circles continue with engaging guest speakers and we added a new Peacemaker Chat format that is shorter and more casual, distributed live on Facebook.
We continue with a robust schedule of Councils and daily meditations.
We offered our first Plunge Into Race virtual retreat at the end of February and had a powerful response with over 140 participating in three days.
In June we will be presenting our Zen Peacemaker Order training program, which a committed group have been working on nearly a year. This program will offer an in-depth curriculum of Peacemaker training, mentorship, community, a schedule of coursework and more.
In July, we plan to be back on the land, with a return to our in-person Native American Plunge in Wyoming and Montana, July 8th through the 14th.
We are hopeful we will be able to do the same with our annual Auschwitz Bearing Witness retreat in Poland in October 31 through November 5.
And there is much more underway.
We need your support to continue.
Thank you for your memberships and for your donations. They are our sustenance.
If you are not a member, please consider joining (HERE) and making a monthly offering, even small. These help so much. If you are able, please consider a one-time donation.
Zen Peacemakers derives its income through the generosity of members and donors.
Most all ZPI program offerings (Members’ Circles, Peacemaker Chats, Council sessions, among others) are free to members. Bearing witness retreats and plunges are fee-based, but expenses for those events exceed fee income, and we offer sliding scale fees and scholarships.
Our expenses include retreat costs (travel, hotels, meals, honoraria, venue fees, marketing), accounting, banking costs, Zoom fees, Hive fees, website fees and maintenance, social media services, product costs for the store, communications, insurance, staff costs (we have the equivalent of two full-time staff) and legal.
We maintain a 100% virtual footprint with no leased office space and a virtual mailbox and phone in order to minimize expense. Our Board of Directors serves pro bono, and all meetings are held virtually. So, we manage a very lean structure and focus our attention on what we can offer members and the world.
Thank you very much for helping us do this profound work. Please feel free to contact me any time. I so enjoy talking with you: geoff@zenpeacemakers.org
With sincere appreciation and three bows,
Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe
昭 雲
Executive Director
Zen Peacemakers International
geoff@zenpeacemakers.org
