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Vulnerable Peacemakers

By Steve Krout
October 2022

Steve and Angela attended the Nurturing Communities Gathering October 7-10. More than 200 people gathered from the United States, Canada, and Mexico at Camp Loucon in rural Kentucky for the weekend to discuss Revolutionary Peacemaking in a World of Conflict. Due to COVID it was Nurturing Communities first full gathering since 2017. Koinonia hosted the Southeast Gathering in 2019.

I was thrilled when I heard that the Nurturing Communities Gathering would be at Camp Loucon in Leitchfield, KY. I was eager to see old friends and meet new ones. The topic of the year– Revolutionary Peacemaking in a World of Conflict– was one that I thought a lot about through my life. But there was something else stirring in my soul: in May of 2017, I went camping for a week in Bardstown, KY (less than an hour from Leitchfield.) It was a pilgrimage– I was there to visit the Abbey of Gethsemani, where Thomas Merton was a monk, and the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University in Louisville.I discovered Merton’s work one day in a used bookstore in 2012 and in him I found a mentor and a friend.That week in Bardstown and the surrounding area gave me a deeper understanding and appreciation of Merton. It also gave me a sense of awe as I took in the beauty of Kentucky with its rolling hills, fields of wildflowers, and vast number of streams. I was eager to now take in its Autumn beauty.  

When it comes to peacemaking, I have always tried to begin with what Merton wrote in New Seeds of Contemplation: “Instead of hating the people you think are war-makers, hate the appetites and disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed – but hate these things in yourself, not in another.” Peacemaking must first take place within ourselves and within our communities. And this, I’m convinced, begins with vulnerability— presenting our true selves to God and to one another. If we ever wish to be revolutionary peacemakers in a world of conflict, we must begin by making peace within ourselves and with those we share our day to day lives with. If I witnessed anything in our few days together, it was a people allowing the Spirit to move through their true selves, in their joys and their sorrows. Our gifts and our struggles were shared with one another.

As I walked around the pond one day after lunch, this thought came to me: though we gathered at Camp Loucon from all over, our common home is the wounds of our Healer. We can become vulnerable because Jesus allows us to dwell in his vulnerability.

Originally posted on the Nurturing Communities Network website here.

Nurturing Communities Gathering, October 2022

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Jimmy Carter was the same person under the glaring light of politics as he was under the streetlight’s soft glow in Plains. A good and decent man, he lived with integrity no matter the circumstance.

In the 1950s, when others heeded the call to boycott Koinonia—refusing to sell to or buy from us—he did not. Our neighbor sold us fertilizer to keep our farm going, even when it meant his business became the next target of boycott. He did not back down.

When his presidency ended sooner than he hoped, his values held firm. Our paths crossed again. Koinonia Partnership Housing built 192 homes in Sumter County, planting the seeds of what would grow into Habitat for Humanity. President Carter and Mrs. Rosalynn Carter did more than lend their names and voices to the fledgling organization; they rolled up their sleeves and worked on countless Habitat builds themselves.

The stories of Koinonia’s friendship with Jimmy Carter are many. At the heart of them all is a shared commitment to peacemaking, service, faith, equality, and common decency. Koinonia was founded as a demonstration plot for Christian living, but often, we only had to look seven miles down the road to see someone demonstrating it for us.

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Jimmy.

Former president Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, giving a speech to a group of people at Koinonia's Picnic Hill
President and Rosalynn Carter on Picnic Hill, Koinonia Farm