Soldiering on in Bean Town.

According to the United Nations, one child in four lives in an unstable, often violent, environment. The World Council of Churches is determined to change those statistics--one city at a time. Last November, the WCC launched its "Peace to the City" project, not in Sierra Leone, but in Boston.

Using Boston's well-known Ten Point Coalition as a prime teaching tool for addressing urban violence, the WCC brought together peacemakers from war-torn cities in Colombia, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Brazil, Germany, South Africa, Jamaica, and Sierra Leone to learn what has made the Ten Point Coalition one of the most successful faith-based anti-violence initiatives in the United States.

"What continues to surprise me," says Ten Point Coalition organizer Rev. Jeffrey Brown, "is the way sharing stories of lessons learned yields a common experience on a deep spiritual level, and encourages those who are battle weary to keep going." The next "Peace to the City" teach-in will be held in September 2001.