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Why a Decade to Overcome Violence? Entering a new century, not to mention a new millennium, provides a ready opportunity for the human family to take stock of where we have been and where we are headed. If ever there was a moment in history where we have needed to pause in this way to catch our breath and look around us, it is now at the entryway to the 21st Century and Third Millennium A.D.
The 20th Century brought remarkable advances, incredible inhumanities and, more than anything, unbelievable change. For all the other events and personalities and accomplishments for which it may be remembered, it will be the bloody stain of two world wars, the perpetration of mass killings, and the dropping of two atomic bombs that will forever color the pages of the history of this tumultuous century.
We are also leaving behind a century in which the gap between the world's rich and poor reached ghastly proportions. When one-quarter of the world's people struggles to survive on less than a dollar a day while the richest one-quarter lives on 100 times that much, we are reminded that there cannot be peace without justice.
While we may have thought that a century of amazing advances may have also led to advances in basic respect of people for one another, we are saddened to see that ethnic, racial, and gender hatred and violence continues to thrive. Religion itself often plays a role in this polarization, or at the very least refuses to speak out against the propagation of violent attitudes and behavior of person against person and group against group.
Christians of the world recognize the threat of violence to God's people more pointedly than others, given the absolute rejection of violence by our Lord Jesus and his steadfast call to peace, justice and reconciliation. We also know that we have often not done our part to restrain violence or to proactively do the things that make for peace.
In light of this, Christians around the world have inaugurated "Decade to Overcome Violence" at the beginning of the new century. The hope is that Christians will take the lead in setting a different, more peaceful course for the next century.
The Church of the Brethren, through its representatives to the World Council of Churches, was instrumental in calling on global Christianity to set this theme for the years 2001-2010. For more DOV background from the WCC see Message from the Central Commitee. At the 2000 Annual Conference, the Church of the Brethren pledged itself to participate in the Decade as a denomination.
The Decade is not organized around set programs, but rather is an invitation for all Christian bodies to offer their own gifts for peacemaking according to their own particular calling. Within the Church of the Brethren, this same thinking prevails: even though denominational staff will offer resources and propose common emphases, each congregation will be free to choose the manner of its participation.
Important components of Brethren participation in the program include a network of contact persons in all 23 districts; resources and leadership provided by the staff of the Brethren Witness/Washington Office of the General Board and of On Earth Peace; the recruitment of a BVSer to assist in launching the program; a congregational resource folder with ideas for worship, study and action; and training events for district contact persons and congregational representatives.