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Note #8028 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Pillars Of Peace
03513
November 25, 2003

Pillars Of Peace

Stated Clerk urges recommitment to post-WWII principles

by the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick
General Assembly Stated Clerk
Presbyterian Church (USA)

LOUISVILLE - We are approaching the season of Advent, when we joyously await
the Prince of Peace. This year, peace seems a long way off for our world,
which makes our hope for and expectation of the Prince of Peace all the more
urgent and our ministry as peacemakers all the more important.

This summer I read about John Foster Dulles, the secretary of state in the
Eisenhower administration. Dulles was a Presbyterian elder, international
lawyer, and consummate diplomat. In the 1940s, when the world was consumed by
war, Dulles became convinced that an institution like the United Nations was
crucial for the long-term peace of the world.

However, he found that it was very difficult to get the nations' states, then
in a wartime situation, to devote much energy beyond their own national
interests.

Dulles was convinced that the one institution that could truly promote the
foundations of a peaceful world order was the church, whose first loyalty was
to God. Dulles, as a representative of the Presbyterian Church, became the
leader of the World Order Commission of the then Federal Council of Churches,
which played a major role in creating the United Nations and shaping its core
mission.

That Commission proposed six "pillars of peace," which they thought, based on
the scriptures, were foundational for a just and peaceful world. They were:

	* A strong United Nations to be a political framework for continuing
collaboration;
      * A global system of economic institutions to ensure the economic
well-being of the people of all nations;
      * A comprehensive system of international law to ensure global justice;
	* A commitment to the liberation and empowerment of oppressed people;
	* An active program for conflict resolution and the building of a
culture of peace; and
      * An upholding of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The six pillars of peace enabled churches to make a dramatic contribution to
a world weary of war and in search of sustainable peace with justice.

Sixty years later, we again have a world weary of war and violence, and we
could scarcely do better than to call our nation and our world to a fresh
commitment to these pillars as the foundations for our global future.

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