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 spring & summer:

  • The Bartletts will be handing over curation of Bethany House to Heather & Chris Scanlon. 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. Sign up for the e-newsletter to read our special Australia edition and/or check out some of the Oz presentations on our YouTube channel (“Bethany Center for Nonviolence”).

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

  • We also anticipate the publication of Tony’s new book “Love’s Entanglement” in May 2026.

  • We are working on the sequel to Seven Stories — Ten Letters and plan to get this out within the year.

  • We are updating and revising Seven Stories as a third edition and will be offering a text only version free of charge over Kindle soon.

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 new online 7-Stories classes (our foundational Bible Study Course that teaches a nonviolent interpretation of the Bible) in person at Bethany House and online over Zoom - reach out to sign up, everyone welcome!

The Hope In Time Blog has relocated to this site and has its own page. Check out archived blogs from Tony Bartlett there.

Check out Tony’s new blog 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.