wfn.org | WCC general secretary issues his 2000 Christmas message

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Note #6285 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

5-December-2000
00429

WCC general secretary issues his 2000 Christmas message

by the Rev. Konrad Raiser 
World Council of Churches General Secretary

GENEVA -- It has been a centuries-old unwritten rule that at Christmas a
cease-fire be observed in all situations of military conflict. Will this be
the case this year as well? What do those warlords who force young people --
and often enough children -- to fight their dirty wars know and care about
this rule? From Sierra Leone to Indonesia, from Israel and Palestine to Sri
Lanka, from Colombia to Chechnya, our world seems to be engulfed in a deadly
cycle of war, violence and destruction. A real culture of violence has taken
root and is spreading, in open contempt of all the rules of humanitarian
law. It manifests itself not only in armed conflict. Violence has become
omnipresent in the streets, in subways, in schools and sports stadiums, in
families and homes.  Its victims are most often those who are different:
members of ethnic, racial or religious minorities; refugees; people with
disabilities; or simply the poor and marginalized.

	Can this dynamic be stopped? In many places, people have begun to stand up
and to form alliances resisting the culture of violence. Through its
"Program to Overcome Violence," the World Council of Churches has tried
since 1994 to support such initiatives and give them greater visibility. Now
at the beginning of the year 2001, the WCC will reinforce its efforts and
launch a "Decade to Overcome Violence." This Decade is rooted in the
conviction that Christians and their churches are called "to provide to the
world a clear witness to peace, to reconciliation and non-violence grounded
in justice." It is the objective of the Decade to open the space where an
alternative culture of peace and reconciliation can grow.

	Building a culture of peace and non-violence is an urgent demand, not only
for political reasons.  Churches are called to articulate the protest of the
gospel against the cult of force and greed, against unbridled competition
and impunity where fundamental human rights are being violated.  The culture
of violence is the result of a perversion of basic values; it manifests the
inability to sustain relationships. Overcoming violence therefore has to
begin in the hearts and minds of people. A culture of peace cannot be
imposed from above. It grows where space is provided for learning how to
resolve conflicts peacefully, to sustain difficult relationships, to
encounter the stranger without anxiety.

	Each year at Christmas, we hear the message of the angels: "Glory to God in
the highest Heaven, and on earth peace to those whom he favors" (Luke 2:14).
We celebrate the birth of the "Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6), the one who
reconciled us to God and with each other and thus proclaimed peace (Eph.
2:17) and a new relationship between those who had been separated by
alienation and hostility.

	As we celebrate Christmas this year, let us consider what we can contribute
to overcoming violence and building a culture of peace. Living in a
situation where violence has become omnipresent, those who have heard and
accepted the gospel of the peace of Christ are entrusted with the message of
reconciliation. They are made ambassadors for Christ and called into a
ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20).

	This, then, is our mission today as Christians: wherever the walls of
hostility are being broken down, wherever communal conflict is being
resolved peacefully, wherever women and children  are being saved from
becoming victims of violence, the peace of Christ is being proclaimed to the
glory of God.

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