{"id":7382,"date":"2013-11-08T00:00:30","date_gmt":"2013-11-08T00:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=7382"},"modified":"2018-11-13T04:11:16","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T04:11:16","slug":"world-council-of-churches-adoptts-just-peace-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2013\/world-council-of-churches-adoptts-just-peace-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"World Council of Churches Assembly Adopts Statement on Just Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Delegates hold up orange cards signifying their support for inclusion of conscientious objection in the statement on just peace<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

A \u201cStatement on the Way of Just Peace\u201d was adopted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) 10th Assembly on Friday, Nov. 8, with an expression of strong support from the delegate body.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust peace is a journey into God\u2019s purpose for humanity and all creation,\u201d the statement\u2019s first paragraph asserts. \u201cIt is rooted in the self-understanding of the churches, the hope of spiritual transformation and the call to seek justice and peace for all. It is a journey that invites us all to testify with our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement follows on a series of conferences and documents focusing on the concept of \u201cjust peace,\u201d undertaken in conjunction with the council\u2019s Decade to Overcome Violence that ended in 2010. A main document, the Ecumenical Call to a Just Peace, has been adopted by the Central Committee of the WCC. The International Ecumenical Peace Convocation held in Jamaica produced a message on just peace that was received with appreciation in peace church circles.<\/p>\n

Also informing the ecumenical conversation on just peace was an \u201ceconomy of life\u201d document highlighting economic issues as they affect life in the world today, as well as ecological problems and concerns about climate change.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Nate Hosler of the Church of the Brethren Office of Public Witness, who also served on the WCC Assembly’s Public Issues Committee, reads the recommendations of the just peace statement to the delegate body<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

A series of conferences held by the Historic Peace Churches in several continents of the world helped contribute a peace church perspective to the overall ecumenical conversation.<\/p>\n

The \u201cStatement on the Way of Just Peace\u201d includes sections titled \u201cTogether We Believe,\u201d \u201cTogether We Call,\u201d \u201cTogether We Commit,\u201d and \u201cTogether We Recommend\u201d with a number of recommendations to the World Council of Churches and its member bodies, and recommendations to governments.<\/p>\n

Subtitles in the section on call pull on the four peacemaking emphases highlighted at the convocation in Jamaica and the message that emerged from that gathering: \u201cFor just peace in the community–so that all may live free from fear,\u201d \u201cFor just peace with the earth–so that life is sustained,\u201d \u201cFor just peace in the marketplace–so that all may live with dignity,\u201d and \u201cJust peace among nations–so that human lives are protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recommendations to the WCC and the churches<\/strong><\/p>\n

The recommendations start off with a call for the WCC and its member churches and specialized ministries to undertake \u201ccritical analysis of the \u2018Responsibility to Prevent, React, and Rebuild\u2019 and its relationship to just peace, and its misuse to justify armed interventions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recommendations to the WCC and churches also call for support to just peace ministries, nonviolence prevention and nonviolence as a way of life, communication strategies that adovcate for justice and peace, advocacy with regard to international norms and laws, encouragement of interfaith programs to address conflicts in multi-religious societies, environmental efforts and the use of alternate sources of renewable and clean energy as a part of peacemaking, sharing of resources in line with the \u201ceconomies of life\u201d concept, work with international bodies on human rights protections, nuclear disarmament, and the Arms Trade treaty.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fernando Enns, at right, is shown here with Church of the Brethren general secretary Stan Noffsinger–two peace church leaders who were in the delegate body to support the statement on just peace adopted at the World Council of Churches’ 10th Assembly.<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

After repeated requests from the floor for the statement to include a reference to conscientious objection, the final revision reaffirmed support for the WCC\u2019s existing policy that supports conscientious objection.<\/p>\n

Recommendations to governments<\/strong><\/p>\n

Recommendations to governments started off with a strongly worded call for action on climate change. The recommendation to \u201cadopt by 2015 and begin implementing binding regulations with targets for lowering greenhouse gas emissions\u201d kicked off a list of recommendations on other issues that relate to the viability of life on the planet including nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, cluster munitions, drones and other robotic weapon systems.<\/p>\n

Governments are called to \u201creallocate national military budgets to humanitarian and developmental needs, conflict prevention, and civilian peace-building initiatives\u201d and to \u201cratify and implement the Arms Trade Treaty by 2014 and on a voluntary basis include weapon types not covered by the ATT.\u201d<\/p>\n

The full text of the statement is at www.oikoumene.org\/en\/resources\/documents\/assembly\/2013-busan\/adopted-documents-statements\/the-way-of-just-peace<\/a> .<\/p>\n

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

A \u201cStatement on the Way of Just Peace\u201d was adopted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) 10th Assembly on Friday, Nov. 8, with an expression of strong support from the delegate body. <\/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":[1262,1263,32],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-7382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ecunemical","tag-peace","tag-world-council-of-churches"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7382","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=7382"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13348,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7382\/revisions\/13348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7382"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=7382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}