What Is Bethany?

It is a Spiritual Community Responding to a World of Violence.

Human Beings do not know who they are without community. In the past local community was everything, but now faceless forces of media and money shape us. To be truly human is to take a decision in your personal life and in relationship with others. At Bethany we have chosen the story of Jesus in the Gospel with the Hebrew Scriptures behind him as the shaping value and meaning of our lives. In a world of rivalry, scapegoating and violence God, in Jesus, leads us to his kingdom of peace, nonviolence and new humanity.

A journey, a place, a community and a teaching. Bethany center, a movement of Christian transformation for individual seekers, for churches, for a world waiting to be born.

What’s New - 2026!

Here is what is happening at Bethany this summer:

  • The Bartletts will be handing over curation of Bethany House to Heather & Chris Scanlon in July. The local community will be continuing the Bethany mission while also reimagining the use of this special place.

  • Tony, Linda, Reuben, Mack and Dixie traveled to Australia to witness to the Gospel of Nonviolence through a series of workshops, lectures, meetings and presentations in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. Check out our special Australia edition of the Newsletter by clicking on the Newsletter page above, and/or check out some of the Oz presentations on our YouTube channel “Bethany Center for Nonviolence” (link at bottom of page).

  • August 13th-16th is BethFest Mid-West in Traverse City, Michigan. More details in the Newsletter. Come and join us!

  • Tony’s new book “Love’s Entanglement” has just been published. Check it out on Amazon!

  • The 3rd edition of Seven Stories is out now in paperback with revised Girard chapter, corrections and updated links. We have also reduced the price on all Amazon sites to just cover the printing costs— we will soon be offering a text only Kindle version free of charge in both English and Spanish.

  • The Follow up to 7-Stories is 10-Letters (of Paul) and this is being written and formatted now -watch this space for updates!

We invite you to join Us For:

Prayer for Peace online every Thursday evening from 6:30 - 7:00 p.m. EST

Bible Study on Zoom on Friday evenings 7-8:45 p.m. EST

Bethany Sunday Spirituality, at Bethany House & online 8:30 - 10:30 a.m. EST

Reach out to bethanycenter7@gmail.com for the Zoom links.

Our Bethany Center website is dedicated to sharing Jesus’ gospel of nonviolence. We believe that this is a revelation of God in the world. God is nonviolent, always has been, and always will be.

Find here an account of our activities as a community. Plus a response, as best as we are able, to the actual wars & violence in the world.

Bethany has two new online 7-Stories classes (our foundational Bible Study Course that teaches a nonviolent interpretation of the Bible) starting in the September and October. Everyone welcome, no previous Bible study required!

E-mail Linda at bethanycenter7@gmail.com for more details or to sign up

Check out Tony’s blogs on the Hope in Time Blog Page - “Moments of Divine Nonviolence”

Please consider contributing to the Bethany…click the button in the header to donate

It is so easy for us to surrender to despair in the face of human violence and the political decisions made by those in power. We follow Jesus who proclaimed a message of nonviolence, but ultimately his path led him to surrender his life on the cross. He lived in turbulent times and at the end of his life was alone in the face of the political and religious powers of his time. He calls us to remain faithful. Just as he surrendered his life believing that his Father would not let him fall, so we are called to remain faithful in his path of nonviolent love.