About This Event
Can the church as we know it be transformed?
For many people, Christianity is a source of harm and violence, not healing or care. From exclusion over politics, theology, and identity, to the horrors of endorsing imperialism, militarism, genocide, and supremacist beliefs, the church has a long track record of being a place of domination and destruction.
But this is not the whole story. For as long as dominant Christianity has preached a gospel of fear, control, and conformity, there have been believers and communities on the margins living out a better story, a counter-narrative pointing toward a faith rooted in love, justice, and peace. We can see throughout history, as we have seen in these 12 Days of Peace, that Jesus’s Way of Peace continues to bear witness in the church today.
These different stories of Christianity, these two broad understandings of the Way of Jesus, compete against each other in our nations, our traditions, and within congregations. How do we find ourselves within this global movement for peace within the church? How do we cultivate a different vision of the faith in our communities, and shift our institutions and practices to grow that vision? And how do we understand our local expressions of peace and justice as part of a larger and historic movement for the Way of Jesus transforming and renewing Christianity from the inside out?
Join Ciara Taylor from Freedom Church of the Poor, Diana Oestreich from The Waging Peace Project, and Peter Digitale Anderson from Peace Catalyst International for a lively conversation about movement building in the church, growing and embodying a liberating faith, and charting a path forward in the years to come.
MEET THE PRESENTER
Diana Oestreich
Diana Oestreich is the founder of The Waging Peace Project, a movement activating everyday people to disarm violence and cultivate lives marked by courage, justice, and joy. Her approach is both practical and disruptive—she insists that peacemaking is not reserved for the extraordinary—it belongs to all of us, ordinary people in action.
She is a nationally recognized speaker and has appeared at major conferences, faith gatherings, and global forums. As an artist, she engages in material acts of transformation, and through creative culture making initiatives like the Duluth Peace Hero Awards, she centers a culture of peace through community storytelling by putting unsung and unseen voices in public to be celebrated and supported.
Diana is a registered nurse who has worked with hospice and cancer patients, and later as a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, where she advocated for survivors and helped bridge the gap between survivors of violence and justice.
Her book, Waging Peace: One Soldier’s Story of Putting Love First, became an Amazon #1 new release and challenges the belief that violence is necessary or inevitable. Instead, it calls for a radical allegiance towards love—not as sentiment, but as the most powerful force capable of transforming our future, our communities, and our planet.
Ciara Taylor
Ciara Taylor is an educator, artist, movement strategist, and minister with the Freedom Church of the Poor, a spiritual and political home for leaders committed to building a movement led by the poor to end poverty. Rooted in the belief in the fundamental dignity and value of all life and in a world of abundance where all can thrive, the Freedom Church seeks to cultivate a practice of faith grounded in truth, justice, love, and collective liberation.
Minister Taylor serves as Director of Culture, Faith, and Organizing at the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice and is a founding member of Songs in the Key of Resistance (SKOR). Ciara’s work draws on song, prayer, poetry, visual art, and historical memory as practices of resistance and collective transformation.
Her projects include Songs in the Key of Resistance: A Movement Songbook, Power in the Air, We Do Not Move Alone, and contributions to We Pray Freedom: Liturgies and Rituals from the Freedom Church of the Poor (2025). SKOR’s recently released self-titled album, Songs in the Key of Resistance, is available on all major music platforms.
Peter Digitale Anderson
Peter is Peace Catalyst’s Executive Director and Program Director in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he is equipping community peacemakers and collaborating with others for racial justice and healing. His projects include facilitating a healing and practice space for white men undoing white supremacist and patriarchal cultures; organizing white folk, especially people of faith, to work for racial justice alongside BIPOC partners; providing nonviolent protection for civilians and training others in safety skills; building community and inspiring activists through singing circles; and more. In addition, Peter leads trainings in conflict transformation, nonviolence, trauma awareness and healing, and community-based peacebuilding.
About This Event
Can the church as we know it be transformed?
For many people, Christianity is a source of harm and violence, not healing or care. From exclusion over politics, theology, and identity, to the horrors of endorsing imperialism, militarism, genocide, and supremacist beliefs, the church has a long track record of being a place of domination and destruction.
But this is not the whole story. For as long as dominant Christianity has preached a gospel of fear, control, and conformity, there have been believers and communities on the margins living out a better story, a counter-narrative pointing toward a faith rooted in love, justice, and peace. We can see throughout history, as we have seen in these 12 Days of Peace, that Jesus’s Way of Peace continues to bear witness in the church today.
These different stories of Christianity, these two broad understandings of the Way of Jesus, compete against each other in our nations, our traditions, and within congregations. How do we find ourselves within this global movement for peace within the church? How do we cultivate a different vision of the faith in our communities, and shift our institutions and practices to grow that vision? And how do we understand our local expressions of peace and justice as part of a larger and historic movement for the Way of Jesus transforming and renewing Christianity from the inside out?
Join Ciara Taylor from Freedom Church of the Poor, Diana Oestreich from The Waging Peace Project, and Peter Digitale Anderson from Peace Catalyst International for a lively conversation about movement building in the church, growing and embodying a liberating faith, and charting a path forward in the years to come.
MEET THE PRESENTER
Diana Oestreich
Diana Oestreich is the founder of The Waging Peace Project, a movement activating everyday people to disarm violence and cultivate lives marked by courage, justice, and joy. Her approach is both practical and disruptive—she insists that peacemaking is not reserved for the extraordinary—it belongs to all of us, ordinary people in action.
She is a nationally recognized speaker and has appeared at major conferences, faith gatherings, and global forums. As an artist, she engages in material acts of transformation, and through creative culture making initiatives like the Duluth Peace Hero Awards, she centers a culture of peace through community storytelling by putting unsung and unseen voices in public to be celebrated and supported.
Diana is a registered nurse who has worked with hospice and cancer patients, and later as a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, where she advocated for survivors and helped bridge the gap between survivors of violence and justice.
Her book, Waging Peace: One Soldier’s Story of Putting Love First, became an Amazon #1 new release and challenges the belief that violence is necessary or inevitable. Instead, it calls for a radical allegiance towards love—not as sentiment, but as the most powerful force capable of transforming our future, our communities, and our planet.
Ciara Taylor
Ciara Taylor is an educator, artist, movement strategist, and minister with the Freedom Church of the Poor, a spiritual and political home for leaders committed to building a movement led by the poor to end poverty. Rooted in the belief in the fundamental dignity and value of all life and in a world of abundance where all can thrive, the Freedom Church seeks to cultivate a practice of faith grounded in truth, justice, love, and collective liberation.
Minister Taylor serves as Director of Culture, Faith, and Organizing at the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice and is a founding member of Songs in the Key of Resistance (SKOR). Ciara’s work draws on song, prayer, poetry, visual art, and historical memory as practices of resistance and collective transformation.
Her projects include Songs in the Key of Resistance: A Movement Songbook, Power in the Air, We Do Not Move Alone, and contributions to We Pray Freedom: Liturgies and Rituals from the Freedom Church of the Poor (2025). SKOR’s recently released self-titled album, Songs in the Key of Resistance, is available on all major music platforms.
Peter Digitale Anderson
Peter is Peace Catalyst’s Executive Director and Program Director in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he is equipping community peacemakers and collaborating with others for racial justice and healing. His projects include facilitating a healing and practice space for white men undoing white supremacist and patriarchal cultures; organizing white folk, especially people of faith, to work for racial justice alongside BIPOC partners; providing nonviolent protection for civilians and training others in safety skills; building community and inspiring activists through singing circles; and more. In addition, Peter leads trainings in conflict transformation, nonviolence, trauma awareness and healing, and community-based peacebuilding.