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After a week with four mass shootings and more than 700 other deaths from gun violence, the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship opens registration for Atwood Institute for Congregational Courage, a national training academy for gun violence prevention for church members and leaders.
Known as the James Atwood Institute for Congregational Courage, the annual ecumenical event welcomes clergy and lay leaders to gain new skills, courage and community for the ministry of gun violence prevention with their congregations.
The Atwood Institute for Congregational Courage will run Sept. 24-27 at the Massanetta Springs Camp & Conference Center near Harrisonburg, Virginia. The 2025 theme is “Gun Violence Prevention for Such a Time as This.” Learn more and register here.
“If the Spirit tugs at you to take action to prevent gun violence,” says the Rev. Margery Rossi, the Peace Fellowship’s Minister for Gun Violence Prevention, “plan now to come in September to learn how to make your action more effective and sustainable.” Honoring the late Presbyterian prophet of gun violence prevention the Rev. James Atwood, the Institute will offer intense continuing education for clergy and lay leaders in a range of educational, pastoral and action strategies for gun violence prevention.
This year the Institute’s keynote speaker, the Rev. Sharon Risher, marks 10 years since her mother and other relatives were killed at the Mother Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina. A graduate of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Risher helps to guide the Everytown Survivor Network and is the author of “For Such a Time as This: Hope and Forgiveness after the Charleston Massacre,” published by Chalice Press.
Risher will emphasize the importance of telling our stories, rather than relying only on statistics about gun violence. She will also lift up a call for courage in the face of a new political climate where recent gains in saving lives are now at risk. Risher’s address on the evening of Sept. 24 will be open to the public and area congregations.
Each year, the Atwood Institute trains clergy and lay leaders in Gun Violence Prevention (GVP) practical skills for congregational use, including preaching on and discussing GVP effectively, managing opposition and trauma, emergency response to gun violence, and engaging congregations and communities in practical GVP education and action, such as secure storage efforts. The institute is ecumenical, open to all denominations. It will offer hands-on training for Guns to Gardens events, including the opportunity to transform a gun into a garden tool. Additionally, participants will have the option to follow up the event with quarterly online gatherings with their Atwood Institute community, with a goal of encouraging one another over time.
In 2024, the first Atwood Institute for Congregational Courage was held at the Ghost Ranch Education and Retreat Center in New Mexico with an initial community of 72 faith activists. They returned home to offer pastoral care and action steps in their communities following mass shootings or as part of education, action and outreach strategies learned at the Atwood Institute.
For 2025, faculty members will include Joshua Horwitz, Jim Atwood’s long-time colleague and co-director and Distinguished Professor of Gun Violence Prevention and Advocacy at the Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Gun Violence Solutions at Johns Hopkins University, and the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, director of Advocacy for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the author of “The Shaping of Black Identities,” published this month by Westminster John Knox Press. Hawkins will offer the send-off sermon for the Institute as participants commit to taking faithful action. Other faculty will include Quaker artist and blacksmith Scotty Utz of RAWTools South, who will lead training for Guns to Gardens, and the Rev. Rosalind Hughes of the Episcopal Archdiocese of Cleveland, Ohio, and the author of “Whom Shall I Fear? Urgent Questions for Christians in an Age of Violence,” published by Upper Room Books.
The cost for the three-and-a-half-day Atwood Institute will be a $180 registration fee per person. In addition, participants are responsible for their own travel and lodging at Massanetta Springs. Participation is limited to the first 150 registrants.
Thanks to sponsors for the event, some scholarships will be available, and more sponsors are needed. Contact the Rev. Jan Orr-Harter, Moderator of the Peace Fellowship’s Gun Violence Prevention Working Group, at gvp@presbypeacefellowship.org
About Massanetta Springs Camp & Conference Center
Located in the heart of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, near Harrisonburg and Interstate 81, Massanetta Springs offers a setting of renewal, natural beauty and Christian hospitality, two hours outside of Washington D.C. More than a dozen states are within an eight-hour drive of Massanetta Springs, making the 2025 Atwood Institute a convenient destination for individuals and church teams.
Who was the Rev. James Atwood?
Atwood was a Presbyterian missionary, pastor, author and avid hunter whose life was re-directed when a member of his Virginia congregation was murdered with a $20 handgun in 1975. For nearly 50 years, he called the church of Jesus Christ to take action to balance the rights of responsible gun owners with the right to live free from an epidemic that now takes more than 43,000 lives in this country each year.
His books include “America and Its Guns – A Theological Exposé,” “Gundamentalism and What It is Doing to America,” and “Collateral Damage.” Links to these books and study guides are available in the Education Section of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship’s Gun Violence Prevention Congregational Toolkit here.
About Presbyterian Peace Fellowship
Founded in 1944, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship is a nationwide community of Christians committed to the nonviolence of Jesus Christ. PPF equips congregations and individuals to seek practical alternatives to violence and war, including gun violence. An independent nonprofit group, PPF operates with volunteers and a small staff, collaborating with the PC(USA) and encouraging this work in congregations and with ecumenical partners. Learn more here. For more information, email gvp@presbypeacefellowship.org.
