The Community of Christ International Peace Award was established to honor and bring attention to the work of peacemaking and peacemakers in the world. It has been bestowed on an individual each year since 1993 (except 1996, 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2020 to 2022).
Overview
The award was instituted as part of the peace and justice ministries associated with the Independence Temple, which was dedicated in 1994, the year following the inaugural award. The Community of Christ International Peace Award includes a cash gift for the benefit of the recipient's project or endeavor.
The Community of Christ International Peace Award has been given annually (with the exception of 1996, 2015, 2017, and 2018) since 1993 at Community of Christ World Headquarters during significant events, including the annual Peace Colloquy, the biennial World Conference, and the International Youth Forum (held every four years). The cash value of the Community of Christ International Peace Award ranks among the top 20 international, non-governmental peace awards in the world (in a list topped by the Nobel Peace Prize) and among the top seven in the United States. As of 2006, the award includes $20,000 for the recipient to donate to a charity of his or her choice."Community of Christ International Peace Award," (Visited: 14 October 2006).
Recipients represent diversity in terms of ethnicity, gender, and faith. The Community of Christ International Peace Award honor roll includes Craig Kielburger, Rev. James Lawson, Jean Vanier, Ela Gandhi, Swanee Hunt, John Paul Lederach, Jane Goodall, Marie Fortune, Juan M. Flavier, Marian Wright Edelman, M. Scott Peck and Lily Peck, and Jehan Sadat.
2005 recipient Craig Kielburger, founder of Free the Children, stated in his acceptance address that: "It is an honour to receive this commendation from an organization with such a long and acclaimed history as champions for international peace and justice. The Community of Christ has been a social-justice advocate since its early beginnings among the poor on the USA frontier in the 1830s. Your movement began with young people; Joseph Smith Jr. was only fourteen when he had his first vision, only twenty-four when he began your church. Today an international movement in over fifty nations, Community of Christ carries the torch forward through child advocacy, campaigns to support conscientious objection to war, and in their fight to bring recognition to the crisis in Darfur, Sudan."
Accepting the award in 2004, Rev. James Lawson said: "You can resolve the war in your own life. You can resolve the war in your community, your congregation. You can heal the war in our nation. We can make war a relic of a dead past that need never again threaten the well-being and the security of the human race."
Honorees YearIndividual(s)1993Dr. Jehan Sadat1994Dr. M. Scott Peck and Lily Ho Peck1995Marian Wright Edelman1996No award1997Senator Juan M. Flavier of the Philippines1998Rev. Dr. Marie Fortune, founder of FaithTrust Institute1999Dr. Jane Goodall2000Dr. John Paul Lederach2001Dr. Swanee Hunt2002Ms. Ela Gandhi, MP, ANC, South Africa2003Dr. Jean Vanier (revoked)2004Rev. James Lawson2005 Craig Kielburger2006Dr. Howard Zehr2007Dolores Huerta and Virgilio Elizondo2008Koinonia Partners2009Dr. Halima Bashir2010Greg Mortenson2011Terry Tempest Williams2012Tadatoshi Akiba2013John L. Bell2014Bread for the World2015No award2016Leymah Gbowee2017No award2018No award2019Gary White and Sister Andrea Kantner2020No award202120222023Community Peacemaker Teams
Notes
References Peter van den Dungen, "Peace Prizes," Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict, Volume 2, 1999, pages 795–808.
External links Official web page Additional information about the recipients' work, including video excerpts from their acceptance addresses