International Ecumenical Peace Convocation

offers a challenge to churches in the U.S.

By Jordan Blevins

Kingston, Jamaica, May 27, 2011 -- These words, from the concluding “Message of the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation," summarize the spirit of the nearly 1,000 Christians who came from across the globe to consider what the Decade of Overcome Violence had offered the churches in terms of seeking peace:

"God blesses the peacemakers. Member churches of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and other Christians are united, as never before, in seeking the means to address violence and to reject war in favor of “Just Peace” – the establishment of peace with justice through a common response to God’s calling. Just Peace invites us to join in a common journey and to commit ourselves to building a culture of peace."

The resounding conclusion of the delegates is that there is work to do.

“The DOV has given us the tools, information, and connections we need as Christians to be effective peacemakers,” said Jordan Blevins, Ecumenical Peace Coordinator and Advocacy Officer for the National Council of Churches of Christ, USA, and Church of the Brethren. “It is now up to the churches to use all of that to build a culture and community of Just Peace in their context.”

"The IEPC was an incredible opportunity for representatives of US churches to participate in a global conversation on Just Peace as the emerging consensus for peacemaking in the church," said Michael Neuroth, policy advocate for international issues in the United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries’ office in Washington. "The United Church of Christ declared itself a Just Peace Church in 1985 and welcomes the opportunity to work ecumenically to sharpen our witness on Just Peace and address the inequality and violence all too common in our world today."

Over the course of the week, participants considered how the four themes -- Peace in the Community, Peace with the Earth, Peace in the Marketplace, and Peace Among the Peoples -- worked towards building Just Peace. 

Rachel Stacy, a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) and a Steward from the United States, offered these words of how challenging this could be for U.S. based churches during a youth presentation, “My country suffers as its hatred, the poison drunk in pursuit of revenge, dominance, and righteousness sinks deeply through its veins and murders not only the indigenous, the immigrant, the union worker and the poor."

For churches in the United States, the confluence of the four topics could not have been more timely -- as evidenced by events happening back home.  During the Convocation, Congress and President Obama were visited by Prime Minister of Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and considered bills that will have an impact on funding for programs supporting persons living poverty. Congress is also wrestling with issues from the war in Afghanistan to Environmental Protection Agency rules for clean air and water. 

“Each of the issue areas bear witness to the need of the US based churches to take an active role in the direction of our country,” said Blevins. “This Convocation made clear what we have been seeing at home -- all of these issues are connected."

The Convocation took place on the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies, a former sugar plantation. The reality of the scars of the location were not lost as participants considered the legacy of violence that has persisted throughout human history in all of its forms, and what response the churches can bring in casting an alternative vision -- God’s vision.

As participants headed home after a week of bible study, workshops, plenary sessions, prayer, and the community of Jamaica, the call to action from the Message was clear. “The church is called to go public with its concerns, speaking the truth beyond the walls of its own sanctuary ... We as churches are in a position to teach nonviolence to the powerful, if only we dare.”

Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA has been the leading force for shared ecumenical witness among Christians in the United States. The NCC's 37 member communions -- from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living Peace churches -- include 45 million persons in more than 100,000 local congregations in communities across the nation.

NCC News contact:  Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office), 646-853-4212 (cell), pjenks@ncccusa.org