{"id":7394,"date":"2013-11-07T00:00:32","date_gmt":"2013-11-07T00:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=7394"},"modified":"2018-11-03T20:19:55","modified_gmt":"2018-11-03T20:19:55","slug":"noffsinger-takes-part-in-peace-plenary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2013\/noffsinger-takes-part-in-peace-plenary\/","title":{"rendered":"Church of the Brethren General Secretary Takes Part in Plenary on Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Jesus said \u2018Love your enemies,\u2019 I think he probably meant don\u2019t kill them,\u201d said Stan Noffsinger at the plenary on peace at the World Council of Churches 10th Assembly. He was quoting a popular Brethren bumper sticker written by San Diego-based peacemaker Linda Williams.<\/p>\n

Church of the Brethren general secretary Stanley J. Noffsinger was asked by the WCC to present at the peace plenary on behalf of the peace churches. His part in the event followed a conversation between Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Laureate and leader in the women\u2019s movement that helped stop the war in Liberia, Korean theologian Chang Yoon Jae who is an advocate for a world free of nuclear weapons and nuclear power, and South African church leader Thabo Makgoba who moderated the session.<\/p>\n

The stage was set like an outdoor caf\u00e9, with a group of young adults observing from bleachers, raising up signs for peace and bringing the sounds of drums and songs to the event.<\/p>\n

A powerful moment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Noffsinger invited forward two of the young adults–Agata Abrahamian from the Armenian Apostolic Church in Iran and Fabian Corrales, a scholar in disabilities studies in Costa Rica–to tell their stories.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was a powerful moment as an American church leader stood with an Iranian Christian. Abrahamian talked about how the sanctions against Iran adversely affect people like her family. \u201cEvery day I see and I feel how ordinary people are struggling with problems…caused by the sanctions,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I hope that the sanctions will be removed soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noffsinger showed his emotion as he responded. \u201cWhat courage to speak truth to power,\u201d he said. \u201cMay God have mercy on our souls.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then turned to Corrales, and explained that the two had met at the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in Jamaica. Corrales, who is hearing impaired, shared through spoken word and signing. \u201cBrothers and sisters, hear me, as I cannot hear you,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s time to be a church of God, a church of action…. I want you to look beyond my disability, beyond my country and nation. I want you to look beyond what makes us different…. The message of God [is] love one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

A peace church witness<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

In his own remarks to the plenary, Noffsinger highlighted some of the understandings of the Church of the Brethren peace witness. But he also confessed there have been times when the church was tempted \u201cto walk away from Jesus\u2019 command to love.\u201d<\/p>\n

He lifted up the Church of the Brethren witness to the sinfulness of war, the witness of Ekklesiyar Yan\u2019uwa a Nigeria (EYN–the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) during a difficult time in Nigeria, and the church\u2019s call to \u201clive on the margins.\u201d He also spoke of the \u201ccost to our own souls\u201d if Christians rely on weapons and violence.<\/p>\n

Noffsinger cast the peace witness and the Christian commitment to nonviolence as a \u201cmovement toward the cross, a movement on the way of Jesus…a call to engage in radical, compassionate discipleship.\u201d<\/p>\n

A personal confession<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a Facebook post the night before, Noffsinger wrote about how he first heard the Iranian woman\u2019s story during a rehearsal for the plenary. It became a moment of personal confession for him, he wrote. \u201cShe finished her story and I looked at her and said, \u2018I cannot speak for my government, but as for me, I am so sorry that I have not spoken loudly enough over the voices of hatred and fear so that the sanctions might stop.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the other is a sister or brother in Christ, how can we keep silent about violence imposed by those we elect?\u201d Noffsinger wrote. \u201cBeing a peace church doesn’t not mean [being] complacent or standing idly by while violence continues in our world, in our land, in our cities, and in our neighborhoods. Jesus calls us into the midst of this chaos to speak God’s shalom and Christ’s peace.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cBeing followers of Jesus, it also means carrying the burden of our sin before our sister or brother, that we might be forgiven and the community of the people of the Cross might again be one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find the WCC release about the peace plenary, \u201cBusan assembly highlights significance of peace,\u201d at http:\/\/wcc2013.info\/en\/news-media\/all-news\/busan-assembly-highlights-significance-of-peace<\/a> . A recording of the webcast of the peace plenary may be available in the future .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen Jesus said \u2018Love your enemies,\u2019 I think he probably meant don\u2019t kill them,\u201d said Stan Noffsinger at the plenary on peace at the World Council of Churches 10th Assembly. He was quoting a popular Brethren bumper sticker written by San Diego-based peacemaker Linda Williams.<\/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":[1262,1261,1263],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-7394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ecunemical","tag-general-secretary","tag-peace"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7394","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=7394"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12263,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7394\/revisions\/12263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7394"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=7394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}