Angie O'Gorman - Australian Tour
July 28 to August 15, 2009

Angie O’Gorman, noted advocate of nonviolence and theologian from the United States, will be visiting Australia later this year. She will visiting Brisbane (28 - 29 July), Ballina (NSW) (31 July – 4 August), Adelaide (6 – 10 August) and Melbourne (12 – 15 August).

Click here for details of Angie's public events.

She is currently teaching a course, Theology for Peacemakers, at the Department of Theology, St Louis University, as well as being as advocate for immigrant services. During her time in each city she will be holding public meetings and reflective retreats on the theology for peacemakers. She will lead us in reflections for spiritual formation (how do we deepen our spiritual centre and our spiritual resources for our work in nonviolence?) and for the practice of nonviolence (how can we become more consistent in our lives and adopt nonviolence as a way of life?). She is also aware that the time of her visit coincides with the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nakasaki.

In 1986 she spent six months in Guatemala with Peace Brigades International. The entire leadership of the Families of the Disappeared had just been killed during Holy Week that year and Angie and several other international people went to Guatemala to accompany the new leadership group as a form of nonviolent protection.  She has also travelled to Nicaragua on a fact-finding mission. Her most recent trip abroad was to the West Bank. She was part of the International Solidarity Committee and went there to participate in the olive harvest and to work on project with local communities. This trip gave her the opportunity to observe the realities of the Israeli occupation firsthand. Her reflections were published as “An Occupational Hazard” in America Magazine, and in a book review of Live from Palestine in the National Catholic Reporter. The book, Live from Palestine, is highly recommended; it traces various nonviolent campaigns which the Palestinians have waged over the years.

Angie is the editor of The Universe Bends Toward Justice: A Reader in Christian Nonviolence in the U.S. and her latest book, The Book of Sins, (an account of the effects of capitalism on Christianity) will be published later this year. At the invitation of Pax Christi/USA she has developed a training program in nonviolent response to personal assault.