The Rev. David Peck started a weekly series of gatherings at St. James Episcopal Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, called “Contemplative Citizenship.”
LANCASTER, Pa. — The Rev. David Peck knows first-hand how divided communities wracked by violence can be gutted by that repeated devastation.
In his previous work as an Anglican church representative for international development, Peck saw on his trips to Africa how religious groups could be part of the problem — but also part of the solution.
Now, Peck is a pastor in the heartland of Pennsylvania — a state that is the epicenter of a bitterly contested presidential campaign that has stoked deep anxiety, conflicts among families and friends, even fears of election-related violence.
Opposing groups can find reconciliation by drawing on common spiritual traditions, Peck said. It can be the shared belief in mercy or the recognition of the human dignity of all.
He’s realized “just how …