The name and mandate for Project Ploughshares come from the ancient biblical vision in Isaiah in which the material and human wealth consumed by military preparations are transformed into resources for human development and in which such transformation removes the roots of war itself -

"God shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more." (Isaiah 2:4)

Project Ploughshares was established in 1976 as an agency of The Canadian Council of Churches to give practical expression to the fulfilment of God's call to bear witness to peace, reconciliation, and non-violence and to contribute to the building of a national and international order that will serve the goals of peace with justice, freedom, and security for all. The mandate of Project Ploughshares is to work with churches and related organizations, as well as governments and non-governmental organizations, in Canada and internationally, to identify, develop, and advance approaches that build peace and prevent war, and promote the peaceful resolution of political conflict.

Project Ploughshares operates under the belief, shared by all of our sponsoring churches, that war is to be and can be avoided, that the use of force in national and international relations is to be minimized, that conflict is to be resolved as much as possible in the interests of justice and without resort to violence, that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons cannot be justified under any circumstances and are contrary to the will of God, and that scarce resources are to be used for human development rather than for arms and the build-up of the capacity to destroy.