WCC FEATURE: Jamaica and the vision of a just peace

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World Council of Churches - Feature

JAMAICA AND THE VISION OF A JUST PEACE

For immediate release: 21 February 2011

Jamaica – a proud and independent Caribbean nation struggling with a
high level of violence and criminality – is the location of the
International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) facilitated by the World
Council of Churches (WCC) from 17 to 25 May 2011.

The convocation, which is prepared in cooperation with the National Council
of Churches of Jamaica, will take place near the capital Kingston and will
be the largest peace gathering in WCC history, with an expected
participation of about one thousand people from around the world.

The theological basis of the peace convocation is an ecumenical call for a
just peace – a milestone in the developing of an ecumenical theology of
peace.

The peace convocation’s theme is “Glory to God and Peace on Earth”
and is the “harvest festival” of the WCC Decade to Overcome Violence,
which since 2001 has been coordinating and strengthening peace work among
WCC member churches.

“The peace convocation is the moment when we will bring together the
fruit of the work of the past years”, Dr Fernando Enns, moderator of the
IEPC preparatory committee said during the meeting of the WCC Central
Committee this week. “But it will also be the moment when we will admit
our omissions and mistakes. At the same time, it will be the moment for us
to ask how to move on.”

In Bible study, worship, workshops, seminars and plenary sessions the
convocation participants will deal with four thematic areas: Peace in
Community, Peace with the Earth, Peace in the Economy, and Peace between
Nations. In particular young people will have many opportunities to
contribute their talents and ideas.

There will be 140 workshops in all. The Rev. Micheline Kamba Kasongo from
the Congo has prepared one of them, which will have as its theme how women
with physical handicaps living in areas of conflict are making their
contribution to peace and reconciliation.


“Women who have speech problems, are blind or handicapped have the worst
chance to protect themselves from sexual abuse and rape.” The aim of the
workshop, which has already been tried out with women in the Congo, is,
she says, to provide information on the situation, share their experiences
and insights, and strengthen and support women in their struggle against
abuse.
Preparations are moving up a gear
For the churches of the Caribbean the peace convocation is a high watermark
event according to Gary Harriot, general secretary of the National Council
of Churches of Jamaica which is the local organizer for the event.

“This year is the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the National
Council of Church of Jamaica,” he said. “It is a real privilege for us
to be able to celebrate this anniversary together with the worldwide
ecumenical community.”

Local preparations are going well, according to Harriot. Many people from
the churches are involved and helping with the logistics and organization.
Political leaders are also wishing the peace convocation well. Harriot was
happy to be able to report that “The country’s political leadership,
the Governor General Sir Patrick Allen and the Prime Minster Bruce
Golding, have promised their support.”

However, it is not only the support of political decision makers that is
important for the churches in this violence-ridden land. Harriot also
believes it to be important that the peace convocation should make contact
with local peace projects.

Participants will have an opportunity to do that on the very first day.
“It is our hope that these visits will lead to a real exchange of
experiences and stories. Dialogue and listening to one another is an
important step on the way to a just peace.”

A cultural high point for the Jamaican churches will be the Concert for
Peace, to which musicians have been invited to bring their own message of
peace. The concert will take place in Kingston, and will be broadcast by
radio throughout the island.
The vision of a just peace
On the first day of the convocation in Jamaica delegates will be invited to
take the path as churches to a just peace. They will be called to become
multipliers of the message as they take it back to their home churches.

The just peace which the call envisages is seen “as a collective and
dynamic yet grounded process of freeing human beings from fear and want,
of overcoming enmity, discrimination and oppression, and of establishing
conditions for just relationships that privilege the experience of the
most vulnerable and respect the integrity of creation.” (para. 11).

As part of the work of the peace convocation there will be eight study
seminars that will reflect theologically on the theme of a just peace in
four thematic areas.

Theological students can register to participate (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=12dfc387d7660cb28fe7
) in this programme by 1 April 2011. It is being arranged in cooperation
with the United Theological College of the West Indies and the Boston
University School of Theology. The aim of the seminars, for which credits
can be obtained by students’ from their own universities, is to
strengthen ecumenical education through theological reflection and
students’ own experiences.
How to participate from a distance
On Sunday 22 May (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=ebaf5f6f038d800784be ) Christians in 
all parts of the
world are invited to relate worship in their own churches to the peace
convocation. Hymns, Bible texts and prayers – for example the “peace
prayer (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=42365455be8ec6dd27ff
)” written by the Caribbean churches can be included in worship services
everywhere on earth. The hope is that there will be a worldwide wave of
praise and prayer for peace, radiating out from Jamaica to Africa, Europe
and Asia.

(*) Annegreth Strümpfel is a theologian and scholar of Latin American
studies. She is currently working on a doctoral thesis about the history
of the WCC in the 1960s and 1970s.

IEPC website: www.overcomingviolence.org (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=cfd3707ccf2aba0bc12c )

Ideas how to celebrate World Sunday for Peace:
www.overcomingviolence.org/sunday (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=a8d10c20c5f00c12ac99 )

Information on the IEPC course for seminarians (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=ec61dd7dd0cad86f3a3d
)

More information on the Central Committee meeting (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=959b3c94b0a9e9d9385e )

Photos of the meeting (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=7798218aa1e1530262ac )


The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness 
and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of 
churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, 
Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million 
Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman 
Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, 
from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.



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