CHICAGO-AREA PASTORS MAKE ADVENT PEACE STATEMENT

(Dec. 19, 2005) -- A group of Church of the Brethren ministers in the Chicago area made a “Statement on Peace” at an annual Advent service for Chicago-area congregations on Dec. 11. The statement was based on the Living Peace Church initiative of On Earth Peace, said Orlando Redekopp, pastor of First Church of the Brethren in Chicago.

The statement called the Chicago area congregations and members to “clearly and publicly announce that all human beings are created in God’s image” and made statements against war, torture, prisoner abuse, and “state-sponsored lies and deception.”

Among those who signed the statement were Jim Yaussy Albright, executive minister of Illinois and Wisconsin District; Jeanne Davies, associate pastor, and Joel Kline, pastor, of Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren in Elgin, Ill.; Christy Waltersdorff, pastor of York Center Church of the Brethren in Lombard, Ill.; and Redekopp.

The full statement follows:

Pastors’ Statement on Peace

“`…The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.’ Matthew 4:16

“In this Advent season, we, the Chicago-area Church of the Brethren pastors, renew our commitment to lead our congregations to be living peace churches.

“We call our members and our churches as a whole to clearly and publicly announce that all human beings are created in God’s image. When any human being is violated, tortured or killed, our Lord is again violated, tortured and killed. When our government advocates in guarded or obscure language that chemical warfare may be used on soldiers but not on civilians, or says that the Geneva Convention does not apply to US-held prisoners, or when, for our so-called security, torture is committed in a third country, silence is a betrayal of our faith and witness.

“We urge our members and congregations to deepen their commitment and witness to the Author of Life and Peace. We have a Christian and moral obligation to refuse to participate, in whatever ways God leads us, in the warring madness of our leaders. In order to follow the Prince of Peace and promote the gospel of peace, we also have a Christian and moral obligation to interrupt the state-sponsored lies and deception.

“May God lead us to strengthen our Christian discipleship this Advent season.”

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