wfn.org | Kinnamon: peace is the message of the church ecumenical

["Philip Jenks" <pjenks@ncccusa.org>]

>Peace is the message of the church

Editor's Note: NCC General Secretary Michael Kinnamon brought greetings  January 13 to the opening session of Heeding God's Call: A Gathering on  Peace in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious  Society of Friends and the Church of the Brethren, both member  communions of the National Council of Churches USA, joined with the  Mennonite Church USA to bring together an ecumenical group with  peacemaking as its aim. In his remarks, Kinnamon said peacemaking is the  role not only of historic peace churches, but of the church ecumenical.

>January 13, 2009 

Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And  greetings from the 35 member communions of the National Council of  Churches. With violence the order of the day in such places as Gaza,  Afghanistan, Congo, Somalia, Darfur, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, it is  imperative that the followers of Christ proclaim a different vision of  life in human community - which is why I am so grateful to Thomas and  the other organizers of this historic conference. May God grant that our  time together be a visible and vital witness to God's gift of Shalom. 

In this brief welcome, I want to emphasize one point: the ecumenical  movement, of which the National Council of Churches is an instrument, is  most essentially a movement of peace. Part of the point is sociological:  Christian divisions (which ecumenism seeks to overcome) often exacerbate  political conflicts and hinder effective peacemaking. War is too massive  an evil to be responded to denominationally. 

The real point, however, is more theological.  God's gift of  reconciliation is for the world; but the church is entrusted with this  message of reconciliation - and the church delivers the message not just  by what it says or, even, by what it does, but by what it is, by the way  we live with one another. The church's calling is to be a demonstration  project of God's gift of peace; and the fact that Christians are so  obviously fragmented and co-opted by the powers of the world is what  drives the ecumenical movement. 

Ecumenical Conferences have declared all of this unambiguously for the  past one hundred years, perhaps never more so that at the first Assembly  of the World Council of Churches in 1948. "War," said the delegates, "is  contrary to the will of God." This has been repeated at various  ecumenical conferences and I am going to repeat it here: War is contrary  to the will of God. It is true that many Christians still see war as a  last resort. But there is now broad agreement that war is "inherently  evil" (WCC) - which means that Christians should never identify human  violence with God's purposes. Contrary to political leaders and old  Hollywood movies, it is never redemptive. 

You see why it is so important to remember this at the beginning of our  conference. Radical peacemaking is usually associated with one segment  of the Christian community: the Historic Peace Churches. "Another peace  protest? It must be the Quakers and Mennonites and Brethren." What I am  stressing, however, is that radical, costly, insistent peacemaking is  not simply your witness. Peace is the message of the church  ecumenical! 

This is not to be taken for granted. In the history of the church, those  who emphasized peacemaking have often feared that unity would weaken the  prophetic edge of their proclamation, while those who have emphasized  unity have often feared that peacemaking would prove divisive. That's  why the historic peace churches have, at times, been sectarian, while  churches more inclined to collaboration have generally left matters of  war and peace to the individual conscience. 

But the modern ecumenical movement has rejected this dichotomy - and I  hope we will as well. We are Christians: recipients of the gift of  peace. We are Christians: called to be ambassadors of reconciliation by  the way we live with one another. May it be so, even here, even now. 

>Michael Kinnamon
>General Secretary
>National Council of Churches

The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)  clergyman and a long-time educator and ecumenical leader, is the ninth  General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the  USA. 
  The NCC is the ecumenical voice of America's Orthodox, Protestant,  Anglican, historic African American and traditional peace churches.  These 35 communions have 45 million faithful members in 100,000  congregations in all 50 states.

NCC News contact: Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228, pjenks@ncccusa.org