wfn.org | ABCUSA: Ecumenical Effort to Overcome Violence in U.S. Underway

["SCHRAMM, Richard" <Richard.Schramm@abc-usa.org>]

American Baptist News Service (Valley Forge, Pa. 2/19/04)--A year-long effort
to confront and overcome violence in the United States, involving Christian
faith communities around the world, was launched at a worship service Jan. 12
at the Interchurch Center in New York City.

Under the theme "The Power and Promise of Peace," the focus on the United
States in 2004 is part of the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Ecumenical
Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) begun in 2001.  The effort is being
coordinated by the U.S. DOV Committee under the auspices of the U.S. Office
of the World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches U.S.A. 

In his Jan. 12 worship service sermon at the Interchurch Center honoring Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr., the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss Jr., pastor of the American
Baptist-related Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio,
challenged Christians to fervently pursue peace and justice.  "It is a
contradiction of life to put peace ahead of justice; there will be no
international peace until there is international justice." He urged
Christians never to forget the lessons of history as they pursue both peace
and justice: "To forget is exile, to remember is redemption."  

"What can we do to follow in Dr. King's footsteps?" Moss asked. "We must be
about the business of building a new generation of prophets of justice.  We
must be disciples of love, apostles of liberation, teachers of nonviolence,
and ambassadors of reconciliation."  Those endeavors "will not come
automatically, nor without institutional and individual risks," and will
necessitate leaders who "have the courage to lead, to mold consensus, and to
act despite the risk of being persecuted." 

Efforts to pursue peace must originate "in our commitment to break the bonds
of injustice, and to bring justice and peace into our homes, and into our
collective house - the White House," Moss said. "When we break the bonds of
injustice and oppression, then we become God's peacemakers."

Another American Baptist leader, the Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, senior pastor
and chief executive officer of Canaan Baptist Church of Christ, Harlem, N.Y.,
who served as Dr. King's chief of staff, was honored at the Jan. 12 worship
service for his lifetime commitment to seeking reconciliation and peace. 

After launching the Decade to Overcome Violence in 2001, the WCC focused its
efforts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2002, and on Sudan and Africa
in 2003. 

The goals of the Ecumenical Decade to Overcome Violence include:

* addressing holistically the wide varieties of violence, both direct and
structural, in homes, communities, and in international arenas and learning
from the local and regional analyses of violence and ways to overcome
violence; 

* challenging the churches to overcome the spirit, logic and practice of
violence; to relinquish any theological justification of violence; and to
affirm anew the spirituality of reconciliation and active nonviolence; 

* creating a new understanding of security in terms of cooperation and
community, instead of in terms of domination and competition; 

* learning from the spirituality and resources for peace-building of other
faiths to work with communities of other faiths in the pursuit of peace and
to challenge the churches to reflect on the misuse of religious and ethnic
identities in pluralistic societies;  

* challenging the growing militarization of our world, especially the
proliferation of small arms and light weapons.

The Rev. Rothang Chhangte, director of Ecumenical Formation for American
Baptist Churches USA, is a member of the planning committee for the WCC's
U.S. Conference annual meeting Oct. 6-7, 2004, which will focus on the "The
Power and Promise of Peace."

Information on the Decade to Overcome Violence is available at:
www.wcc-coe.org/dov.  Photos of the service are available at:
www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/press_corner/us-focus.html.  Resources for the DOV Lenten
Call to Fast From Violence are available at www.overcomingviolence.org and
www.ecumenismnow.org; the Web sites include a downloadable flyer for the
Lenten Fast from Violence, a calendar of events in U.S. for 2004, Bible study
materials and other resources.	

The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of 342 church communions in
more than 120 countries from virtually all Christian traditions.  The
National Council of Churches U.S.A., the nation's leading ecumenical
organization, includes 36 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican member
communions.  American Baptist Churches USA is a founding member of both
ecumenical bodies.

K/2004ABNS/04ABN17

American Baptist News Service: Office of Communication, American Baptist
Churches USA, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851; (800)ABC-3USA x2077
/ (610)768-2077; fax: (610)768-2320; www.abc-usa.org;
richard.schramm@abc-usa.org