{"id":10654,"date":"2015-11-06T00:00:10","date_gmt":"2015-11-06T00:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=10654"},"modified":"2018-11-09T00:43:45","modified_gmt":"2018-11-09T00:43:45","slug":"presidential-forum-at-bethany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2015\/presidential-forum-at-bethany\/","title":{"rendered":"Presidential Forum at Bethany Seminary Explores the Intersections of Just Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/small>
James Samuel Logan addresses the 2015 Presidential Forum at Bethany Seminary<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An array of speakers addressed many intersections of Just Peace at the 2015 Presidential Forum at Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, Ind., on Oct. 29-31. With a focus on \u201cRejecting Cruelty, Creating Community, Rediscovering Divinity\u201d the event juxtaposed a variety of ways to address and understand the concept of Just Peace. It was the seventh Presidential Forum held by the seminary and the first hosted by Bethany\u2019s president Jeff Carter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have dreamed of this gathering since the moment I was called to be president of the seminary,\u201d Carter said as he welcomed the congregation to the opening worship service of the main forum event. Bethany Seminary is more than just committed to Just Peace, it is engaged in Just Peace, Carter said, \u201cas an ongoing conversation of faith and faithfulness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the course of the two-day forum and pre-forum, the history of Just Peace was presented with a theological analysis of the concept and what it means for churches, biblical exegesis addressed Joshua–a text traditionally considered most difficult for peace churches, and added input came from presentations on current \u201chot\u201d topics including the Syria refugee crisis, mass incarceration that targets Black people in the United States, racism and #BlackLivesMatter, ethical eco-tourism, and other challenges for Christian peacemakers.<\/p>\n

Other peace church members presented \u201cbreak out\u201d sessions on related questions. Concurrent with the forum, Bethany also held an \u201cEngage Visit Day\u201d for prospective students.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Worship helped shape the event<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cPeace is not easy, or popular, or even possible,\u201d said Richmond pastor Matt McKimmy in the opening worship service of the pre-forum. \u201cBut we cannot ignore what Jesus said about peace.\u201d McKimmy was one of several speakers at the first of the four worship services that were interspersed with speakers\u2019 presentations.<\/p>\n

Preaching for the opening worship of the forum was Sharon E. Watkins, general minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). She called the gathering–and, implicitly the peace churches–to live \u201cas if\u201d God\u2019s reign of justice and peace proclaimed in Isaiah 61 and re-proclaimed by Jesus in Luke 4 is a reality today, in this world.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/small>
Fernando Enns (left), a German Mennonite theologian and one of the main speakers at the Bethany Seminary Presidential Forum, listens intently to a presenter. At right is Bethany Seminary president Jeff Carter.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cJesus calls us to live \u2018as if\u2019…as if the reign of God is already here, as if justice and peace have already kissed,\u201d she said. \u201cLiving \u2018as if\u2019 means giving up privilege, releasing comfort…. Can we join that pilgrimage? That\u2019s where Jesus calls us to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a question and answer time following the service–an opportunity also offered after every major presentation–Watkins fielded questions about inclusion of those on the margins and focused attention on racism, noting \u201cthe nature of injustice that is in our society…because of racism…. This demon racism, that will not be completely exorcised.\u201d Asked how she leads her church in addressing such injustices, she called Christians to be in touch with places of brokenness, and to \u201ctravel light\u201d by leaving behind lesser concerns that she characterized as weighing churches down in this 21st century.<\/p>\n

Watkins told about how the Disciples have tried to maintain a \u201ctouchstone\u201d in order to \u201cfind our way back when we start to get lost from each other,\u201d reporting that her denomination\u2019s touchstone has been their profession of faith in Jesus Christ. That has enabled them to maintain unity at Christ\u2019s table despite differences. \u201cYou come to the table with your differences…realizing it\u2019s Christ\u2019s table. We don\u2019t invite and we can\u2019t exclude. It\u2019s Christ\u2019s table.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What Just Peace means for Christians and churches<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/small>
Sharon Watkins, preaching at Bethany Seminary for the opening worship service of the forum.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fernando Enns repeated the call for Christians to be in places of brokenness in his address the next morning. Enns is a German Mennonite theologian and a member of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee. He has been a leader in the Decade to Overcome Violence, and is a leading proponent of Just Peace in ecumenical circles.<\/p>\n

He presented the history of Just Peace and the process that brought it to the consideration of the WCC, which has adopted a major document on Just Peace. \u201cJust Peace is embedded as a new model of doing theology and ecumenical [work],\u201d he told the forum.<\/p>\n

Simply stated, Just Peace is \u201ca pattern of life that reflects human participation in God\u2019s love for the world,\u201d Enns said, quoting from a WCC document.<\/p>\n

He presented a theological framework for understanding Just Peace as a trinitarian approach, based on the work of German Lutheran theologian Dorothee S\u00f6lle, who he said has been influential in ecumenical circles in recent decades.<\/p>\n

S\u00f6lle\u2019s work and theological concepts help place Just Peace in the realm of spirituality, not just peacemaking techniques, Enns said. \u201cTo be agents of God\u2019s peace requires putting on the mind that was in Christ Jesus,\u201d he said, referencing Philippians 2:5. This is what is necessary to keep hope alive, for Christians concerned with justice and peace, and also what is necessary for those involved in Just Peace to be in regular and deep communion with God, he added.<\/p>\n

Enns presented S\u00f6lle\u2019s trinitarian formula as a three-step process for living into Just Peace:<\/p>\n

— First, to take the \u201cvia positiva\u201d or the way of blessing, celebrating the blessed and life-giving nature of God and the Creation;<\/p>\n

— Second, to take the \u201cvia negativa\u201d or the pilgrimage of discipleship to Jesus Christ that leads inevitably to the cross, and leads Christians to witness to the gospel of Christ in the midst of brokenness–which Enns characterized as seeking out the places where the Crucifixion is happening today; and<\/p>\n

— Third, to take the \u201cvia transformativa\u201d of becoming one with Christ through the Holy Spirit, being saved and being healed ourselves, and in the process gaining strength to face and heal violence in the world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Speakers address hot topics in connection with Just Peace<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/small>
Bethany Seminary professor Scott Holland was one of the group of ecumenical colleagues who wrote the main Just Peace document for the World Council of Churches.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A number of speakers addressed some of the current \u201chot topics\u201d for the peace churches. Another of the architects of the WCC\u2019s Just Peace document, Scott Holland<\/strong>, asked whether religion has a role in peace anymore, given the widespread questioning of religion around the world. Holland is Bethany\u2019s Slabaugh Professor of Theology and Culture and director of Peace Studies. Telling a story about an encounter he had with young people in Indonesia, he pointed out that \u201cradical politics and radical religions do not lead to peace in the public sphere.\u201d He emphasized the positive nature of Just Peace, as opposed to the negative ways that religion–Christianity as well as Islam and others–have influenced the world in recent decades, marked by terrorism and radical right-wing religious groups. Just Peace is a positive peace, he said, and means among other things efforts at eco-justice or peace with the earth, as well as economic justice or peace in the marketplace, peace between the nations, and just policing rather than the use of military force.<\/p>\n

A review of the world\u2019s refugee crisis was presented by Elizabeth Ferris<\/strong>, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. She reviewed the unprecedented numbers of refugees and displaced people around the world, and the places where movements of populations are occurring. This crisis of displaced people is a clear sign that our global order is breaking down, she said. Factors include the lack of concerted international effort to care for refugees, in particular the Syrian refugees who are making their way into Europe by the thousands every day. Another sign of global break down is the lack of enough trained humanitarian workers to serve in the numerous places that are experiencing population shifts all at the same time. The Syrian crisis has become a focal point, and an indicator of the depth of the concern and the desperation of the refugee population, she told the forum. At the nexus of the Syrian crisis, however, are the besieged communities within Syria, where there is no hope for relief from the outside. These besieged communities are the result of government bombing, where \u201cpeople have starved to death,\u201d she said. In 10 years, she warned, we will look back in shame on the Syrian crisis, because the international community did not act. She called for Americans to work without ceasing to convince their own government to carry out the measures that are proved to actually aid refugees, such as giving effective humanitarian aid to the countries surrounding Syria, and radically simplifying and shortening the application process for Syrian refugees to come to the United States.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/small>
Christina Bucher led in an exercise of studying Joshua, a book of the Bible which has often been ignored by the peace churches.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Christina Bucher<\/strong>, Carl W. Zeigler Professor Religion at Elizabethtown (Pa.) College, took on the question of \u201cPondering Joshua in Search of Just Peace.\u201d The Old Testament book of Joshua with its injunctions to slaughter the enemies of ancient Israel, characterized in the text as divine commands, and the genocide of the Canaanite people that resulted, has been a difficult text for peace churches. Bucher acknowledged that often Christian peacemakers simply ignore Joshua, and offered five possible ways of reading and interpreting it. In the end, she recommended a \u201creader response approach\u201d that takes the Bible story seriously, yet engages it as a \u201cconversation partner\u201d and allows for dialogue between the text and the reader. This approach encourages attention to details and \u201cfractures\u201d in the Joshua story that may lead to new understandings, she said. \u201cJesus does not treat his scripture as objects,\u201d she noted. \u201cHe engages with the Torah and the prophets and we should treat scripture in the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question of ethical tourism, how to travel in a just and peaceful way, was tackled by Ben Brazil<\/strong> of the faculty of Earlham School of Religion. A former journalist and freelance travel writer, he presented the variety of ways that concerned organizations are promoting eco-tourism and ethical tourism, analyzed them, and offered a critique of each. No one answer deals with all the challenges, which include the carbon footprint of air travel, the numerous ethical questions raised by cruise ships that dump waste at sea and pay low wages to their workers, the privilege enjoyed by white North Americans in many of the tourist destinations in the southern hemisphere, among others.<\/p>\n

Challenges of the world\u2019s many oppressions, and how to undo them in our personal lives and in our churches, were presented by Carol Rose<\/strong>. She is a former director of Christian Peacemaker Teams who is now serving as co-pastor of Shalom Mennonite Fellowship in Tucson, Ariz. Rose focused on racism as a foremost oppression faced in the United States. Among other questions raised during her presentation, she talked about the way institutional racism has affected the peace churches in many detrimental ways.<\/p>\n

Also focusing on racism was James Samuel Logan<\/strong>, National Endowment for the Humanities Endowed Chair in Interdisciplinary Studies at Earlham College, and a Mennonite minister. In a frank and hard-hitting presentation, he read a personal account by a young Black man about the sexual abuse and torture endured during a prison sentence. He then addressed the reasons why Black Lives Matter is so important for the United States today. Logan characterized the mass incarceration that unjustly targets Black people as key for an understanding of race relations. However, key for the peace churches is making connections with the young activists who are leading what he calls the \u201cEverywhere Ferguson\u201d movement, and their \u201chip hop\u201d generation. He made it clear that the work at undoing racism and collaborating with young Black activists is the make-or-break challenge for the peace churches today–a challenge that has huge moral significance for American Christianity as a whole.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

For a photo album of the forum, go to www.bluemelon.com\/churchofthebrethren\/bethanyseminarypresidentialforum2015<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An array of speakers addressed many intersections of Just Peace at the 2015 Presidential Forum at Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, Ind., on Oct. 29-31. With a focus on \u201cRejecting Cruelty, Creating Community, Rediscovering Divinity\u201d the event juxtaposed a variety of ways to address and understand the concept of Just Peace. It was the seventh Presidential Forum held by the seminary and the first hosted by Bethany\u2019s president Jeff Carter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1268,1262,1263],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-10654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bethany-seminary","tag-ecunemical","tag-peace"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10654"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13104,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10654\/revisions\/13104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10654"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=10654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}