MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the Peace Abbey Foundation is to create and install public works of art that promote peace and nonviolence; and to administer and care for Abbey Interfaith Peace Chaplaincy, The Pacifist Memorial, The Animal Rights Memorial, Abbey Cremation Cemetery for Conscientious Objectors, and the National Registry for Conscientious Objection.  Throughout the year, the Foundation presents the Int’l Courage of Conscience Award at conferences and peace ceremonies and extends the impact of the Peace Seeds interfaith prayers for peace through their dissemination worldwide.

We conduct and support programs that bring together and promote the cooperation of people of different faith traditions and non-theists as well. We do this in the spirit of the 1986 International Day of Prayer for World Peace, as celebrated that year by religious leaders from around the globe in Assisi, Italy.

The Foundation supports grassroots efforts to link the many dimensions of the peace movement with a committed emphasis on human rights and animal rights. We recognize these two dimensions of intrinsic rights as inextricably interconnected, just as social and economic justice require environmental sustainability and deep respect for the biosphere. Central to our universalist approach is the premise that nonviolence is the most effective and long-term strategy in addressing the multitude of challenges that now threaten our increasingly imperiled planet.

Short video of plaque installation at the Pacifist Memorial

A Tribute to Plymouth and
Lillian and Dick Gregory

Forevermore—let that word linger in your mind for just a moment: forevermore. This word perfectly captures the enduring spirit and legacy of the Gregory family. READ MORE
December 20, 2025    The Abbey Road crosswalk is one of the most recognizable images in modern culture. It’s forever tied to the Beatles and to a time when music and the peace movement were changing the world. Those simple white lines, just meant to help people cross safely, ended up standing for something much more.

In Plymouth, a town that tells and retells the story of people fleeing oppression in search of refuge, a group of residents echoed that image during the Requiem Peace Chain Walk starting at the entrance to the Plymouth County ICE Detention Center. They carried a long chain, used for more than a quarter of a century by the Peace Abbey to denounce war and violence with messages of grievance, grief, and remembrance, as they crossed a familiar striped crosswalk, the kind found at intersections across America.

The walk became both a memorial and a protest, honoring a Vietnamese man who fled to America as a young refugee, built a life in the U.S., and was later detained at the Plymouth ICE facility and deported back to Vietnam, where he died by suicide. This thoughtful, gentle, caring man was someone I knew well, deeply admired, someone who deserved to remain in our country.

The Peace Chain Requiem March, led by members of The Peace Abbey, took place against the backdrop of a protest against ICE, organized by Together We Can, Plymouth Indivisible, and several other local activist groups. The suicide of this Vietnamese refugee showed how the wounds of war can linger long after the fighting ends, even in a place that calls itself America’s Hometown, where the Wampanoag people once welcomed those on the Mayflower seeking refuge.

Decades earlier, the Vietnamese Zen master Thích Nhất Hạnh visited and stayed at The Peace Abbeyin Sherborn when he came to receive the International Courage of Conscience Award. His presence with us deepened our understanding and awareness of the suffering of Vietnamese refugees and the war’s lasting impact. READ MORE

Photos by Karen Wong