By Brigitte Zawadi, with contributions from Bwambale Sedrack, Nathan Hosler, and Jennifer Hosler
What can a lump of clay teach us? Peace, like clay, begins as something formless, but ready for a touch of transformation. On Aug. 15-17, a Church of the Brethren Peace Conference in Mwanza, Tanzania, brought together church leaders as potters of hope, molding visions of amani (peace) and tumaini (hope) into forms that can serve their communities.
The emerging Church of the Brethren in Tanzania hosted the conference and its bishop, Rhobinson Baiye, asked two Church of the Brethren denominational staff–Jennifer Hosler and Nathan Hosler–to lead the teaching at the workshop teaching. Both have prior experience equipping churches in peacemaking, working with global church partners, and serving as pastors. Jennifer Hosler, manager of the Global Food Initiative, represented the Global Mission office, and Nathan Hosler attended as director of the Office of Peacebuilding and Policy. They presented a range of peacebuilding topics including biblical peacemaking; introduction to peacemaking as contextual; church, government, and advocacy; peace and holistic ministry; and leadership values that support peacemaking.
Other church leaders provided support and added teachings related to their African contexts. Esther Muhagachi and Amos Muhagachi from the Mennonite Church in Tanzania shared from the Tanzanian context and Muhagachi shared about the role of the church in peacebuilding through gender justice. She explained that “women and girls are still experiencing suffering violently” and need nonviolent support. Two other global Church of the Brethren leaders provided insights from their contexts, including Bwambale Sedrack, national director of the Church of Brethren in Uganda, and Expert Bukene, bishop of the Church of the Brethren in Burundi.
Recounting his experience at the conference, Sedrack said that it “offers vital lessons to Uganda, which continues to wrestle with legacies of past conflicts while facing new pressures of political polarization, migration, climate change, economic inequality, youth unemployment, and violent extremism.” What became clear to him is that “peace cannot be imposed from above; instead, it is cultivated within church communities.” His takeaway lesson was that “peace is not given, instead it is built, lived, and accessible.”
This conference reflected the mission of the Church of the Brethren, a peaceful church tradition where nonviolence, reconciliation, unity, and service make up the glue that shapes the community vessel we share in the world.
— Brigitte Zawadi is a Bethany Seminary student from the Church of the Brethren in Rwanda.
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