wfn.org | Unity, Peace, and Justice Are Linked

["Daphne Martin_Gnanadason" <Daphne.Martin_Gnanadason@warc.ch>]

>Uniting General Council 2010 
>News Release 
>19 June 2010

>Unity, Peace, and Justice Are Linked
>By Chris Meehan, News Editor
>Ina keynote presentation on Saturday morning at a meeting of the
>newly formed World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), four
>panelistsurged delegates, observers and visitors to walk the walk
>and not just talk the talk when it comes to the issues of unity,
>diversity, social justice and peace.
>The presentation was held on the second full day of the Uniting
>General Council, which on Friday formed the WCRC out of the World
>Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical
>Council (REC) in ceremonies on the campus of Calvin College in
>Grand Rapids, Michigan, located in the upper Midwest of the
>United States.
>Although coming together and forming a new organization is a
>powerful sign of unity,panelists said,it is crucial to realize
>that out of unity flows diversity, social justice and peace,
>helping form a circle in which these matters become more than
>mere words and good intentions. They become a sacred way of
>living, said Sabine Dressler-Kromminga, a minister of an
>Evangelical Reformed congregation in Braunschweig, Germany. 
>“When we speak of diversity, we are referring to a diversity
>that recognizes itself as variety in individuality,” she said.
>“The group and the individual are linked to and exist in
>relationship to one another.”
>Other speakers picked up on this theme, making the point that
>unity is called for by the words and example of Jesus Christ and
>consists much more than simply organizations merging into one
>body.It involves an entire process of relationships and the
>search for equality for all people.
>Ruth Padilla DeBorst, a Christian Reformed Church in North
>America missionary who also serves as General Secretary of the
>Latin American Theological Fellowship, spoke of a new kind of
>peace that came to this world at the time of a shaky peacebetween
>warring factions inthe First Century Roman Empire.
>“One holy night, into this fragile peace, pounded precariously
>together with cross nails and oppressive taxation, another peace
>was announced in the form of a poor child born in an obscure part
>of the world,” far from the seat of the Roman empire and of the
>temple, she said. 
>This baby grew into the man who showed the world the connections
>between unity, diversity, social justice and peace. It is
>impossible to have one of these without the other, she said.
>Christ’s life and teachings, as well as his death on the cross
>and resurrection, became living examples of this process.
>“As we come together during this Uniting General Council, and we
>depart from here as members of the World Communion of Reformed
>Churches, may we not merely celebrate that our merger increases
>our number,” DeBorst said.“May we see ourselves as fruits and
>agents of Pax Christi (the peace of Christ), as a community
>brought together by God’s reconciling will in Christ and sent as
>such into the world by the power of God’s Spirit to incarnate
>God’s good purposes for the entire cosmos.”
>Park Seong-Won, a pastor and professor of theology at the
>Youngman Theological University and Seminary in Korea,
>remindedpeople that “unity is the major thing that God is looking
>for... From God’s standpoint,unity and social justice are not two
>things.”
>Significant to consider is the fact that God’s unity and justice
>encompass all creation and allpeople, from the rich to the poor,
>from the mighty to the lowly, panelists emphasized.It is often
>misunderstood how unity and justice help to create peace. 
>Unfortunately, many churches today only give these truths lip
>service, said Jennifer Ayana McCalman, an active member of the
>Guyana Congregational Unionandanattorney.Unity can mean more than
>just meeting and worshipping under the same umbrella. Then there
>is justice.
>“For too many churches, justice means doing charity,”
>McCalmansaid. Admitting the need for charity, she added churches
>must examine themselves and become agents of change through
>works,prayers and godly personal lifestyles that join to bring
>about justice in communities.
>“Unity, peace and justice are more than words,” she said. “It is
>how we make those words become meaningful by the way we live and
>act.”
>The Uniting General Council 2010 in Grand Rapids, United States
>(June 18-28) marks the merger of the World Alliance of Reformed
>Churches and the Reformed Ecumenical Council to form the World
>Communion of Reformed Churches. 

>Contact: Kristine Greenaway
>Executive Secretary, Communications
>World Communion of Reformed Churches

UGC News Room – Calvin College - Hoogenboom Center Room HC 204
Cell phone: 1-616-826-5540 or 1-616-826-8636
email: kgr@warc.ch
web: www.reformedchurches.org (
http://www.reformedchurches.org/#_blank )