We greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,
so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
Romans 15.13.
We gather to launch the Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches
Seeking Reconciliation and Peace 2001-2010 at the end of one
violent century to generate hope for the redemption for the
new one we now enter. We come together from the four corners
of the earth aware of the urgent need to overcome violence that
pervades our lives, our communities, our world, and the whole
created order. We launch this decade in response to a deep yearning
among our peoples to build lasting peace grounded in justice.
We launch this decade in a spirit of repentance that as Christians
we have been among those who have inflicted or justified violence.
We also know violence as its victims and give thanks to God
for the faithful witness of Christian martyrs.
We launch this decade in conjunction with the United Nations
who proclaimed the years 2001-2010 "International Decade for
a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the
World".
As one of the most violent in human history, the twentieth
century has borne witness to:
- Wars of aggression and decades of colonialism and occupation
of others’ lands.
- World wars, hot and cold, that gave rise to nuclear and
other weapons of mass destruction that still threaten global
annihilation.
- A new proliferation of local and regional wars within and
between nations that unleash indiscriminate weapons of ever
expanding destructive impact on civilian populations, that
proliferate small arms across entire societies, that press
children into military service, and that uproot millions from
their families and homes.
- Acts of genocide, the continued assault on Indigenous Peoples,
and the persistent assertion of racial and ethnic domination
that leads to new forms of discrimination, and oppression
within and between societies.
- The resurgence of old, unresolved hatreds and the creation
of new spirals of retributive violence between communities
and peoples.
- The quick resort to violent behavior in conflicts between
and within communities as well as within families and among
individuals, resulting in domestic and other forms of violence,
with severe consequences particularly for women, youth, and
children.
- The growth and institutionalization of global systems of
trade, finance, and production that concentrate power and
wealth, plunder the creation, widen the gap between rich and
poor, consign many across the world to debt bondage and lives
of poverty, undermine the willingness and capacity of many
national governments to defend the basic economic, social
and cultural rights of their inhabitants, and perpetuate economic
violence.
- The concentration and growth of global media that promote
addiction to the consumption of violence as a form of entertainment,
thus deepening a growing spiritual malaise within and across
societies.
- The global spread of a consumerist culture that intensifies
the exploitation of people and nature.
- The frequent invocation of religious traditions, including
Christianity, to justify and promote violence and oppression.
Despite all this, by the grace of God, the last one hundred
years also witnessed remarkable achievements in numerous arenas.
Faithful people everywhere now have opportunity to use significant
accomplishments in communications, transportation, science and
other areas to end the violence and to promote life in all its
fullness for all people everywhere.
Dedicated individuals, organizations and movements throughout
the last century, including those committed to nonviolence,
inspire us to carry forward their remarkable work for the elaboration
of new global standards of law and behavior, the building of
international instruments of cooperation on the basis of democracy
and the rule of law, the development of peacemaking initiatives,
the pursuit of economic and social justice for all, and the
safeguarding of creation. They give us real hope for non-violent
social change.
We thank God especially for significant advances during the
last century in the search for Christian unity. These include
the founding of the World Council of Churches, itself inaugurated
in the aftermath of two world wars, the creation of ecumenical
organizations around the world, and the healing of some long-standing
divisions between churches. We pledge to continue to build on
this progress in the pursuit of peace with justice.
Our inspiration springs from our faith in and personal relationship
with Jesus Christ, the Lord, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6),
who is continuously present and "is the same yesterday, today
and forever" (Hebrews 13.8). He reconciled us to God and with
each other, proclaiming peace (Ephesians 2:14-17; 2 Corinthians
5:18) and a new relationship between those who had been separated
by alienation and hostility. Our endurance in the midst of violence
and our renewed power for overcoming violence come from the
unceasing breath of the Holy Spirit in our hearts in the life
of the church. To those who are incorporated in Christ, the
Holy Spirit gives power to live according to Christ’s model.
In the Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation
and Peace, we must begin with ourselves, with the ways we think
and the ways we act in our families, our neighborhoods, our
countries, and our churches. The real strength of the church
remains in the seeming powerlessness of love and faith. We must
seek everyday to rediscover and experience this power. Overcoming
violence calls and challenges us to live out our Christian commitment
in the spirit of honesty, humility, and self-sacrifice.
At this critical juncture in history, we launch the Decade
to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace
as an urgent call to churches and ecumenical organizations:
- To be and build communities of peace in diversity, founded
on truth.
- To repent together for our complicity in violence.
- To work together for peace, justice and reconciliation as
a visible sign of the churches’ unity in life and witness.
- To analyse different forms of violence and their interconnection.
- To engage in theological reflection to overcome the spirit,
logic and practice of violence.
- To work to break the cycles of violence.
- To embrace creative approaches to peace-building within
the Christian tradition, local communities, secular movements,
and other living faiths.
- To lead the churches to life affirming and transforming
action.
- To stand alongside victims of violence and to seek to empower
those people who are systematically oppressed by violence.
- To act in solidarity with those who struggle for justice,
peace and the integrity of creation.
We open our hearts and extend our hands to all those eager
to work together to end violence and build lasting peace with
justice. In the full knowledge that God reigns supreme over
all for good and is ever present amongst us in Jesus Christ
and through the Holy Spirit, we pray together for the new creation
God promises to us.
