The founders of the Friends Peace Center in San José had a mission. They wished to investigate, come to know, and to help eliminate the causes of war and violence. They desired to facilitate human understanding by looking for nonviolent resolutions to humanity’s personal, common, social and political differences. In short, they wanted to promote peace.

This desire for peace is an inherent characteristic of Quakerism. Since the founding of Quakerism in the seventeenth century, Quakers have believed that elaborate ceremonies, rituals and dogma as well as a priestly class and formal churches are not necessary for individuals to have direct spiritual access to God and peace. Their previous unorthodox style led to their initial persecution in England, and later in colonial America. However, their nonviolent methods and respect for the disadvantaged have helped to promote social changes over the last few centuries. These changes include their role in fighting for the abolition of slavery, fair treatment of Native Americans, universal suffrage, prison reform and improvement in mental hospitals in the United States.

In 1950, a group of Quakers who did not wish to live anymore in a country with strong militaristic characteristics and who did not want a large part of their taxes going toward military expenses, moved from the United States to Monteverde, Costa Rica. These emigrants wanted to live in a country that invested its resources in social services such as health and education, and not in military expenses.

Later, in 1980, members from the Quaker Prayer Group in San José and other Central and North Americans, including members from the original Quaker group in Monteverde, began to meet to try to develop and attain the vision, mission and necessary funding for a “Friends Peace Center” in San José. In November of 1983, the Center was officially founded. Since then, the staff and volunteers of the Friends Peace Center have supported peace and justice through forums, talks, workshops and marches, often in collaboration with other social groups.

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