History reminds us that violence contradicts the will of God

Panelist of the Peace Conference

A delegation of nine Dutch attended the peace conference of the World Council of Churches in Kingston (Jamaica) from 18 to 24 May 2011. Approximately one thousand representatives of churches and non-governmental organizations are working together to find a way to achieve peace in the whole world in accordance with the message of Jesus.

The council declared, "we believe that peace and working for peace an irreplaceable aspect of our faith." Peace is a gift and and a vocation. The convention examines the big picture, but is nevertheless not naive. Peace begins with the recognition that human trafficking is a form of violence. The convention was not discussing peace as if they were in a vacuum. All the major crises of the last seventy years have passed. Testimonies were impressive to listen to as a survivor of Hiroshima, the Dalits in India or the Armenian Archbishop of Baghdad, Mgr. Avak, and much more. It was also that in some conflicts, the churches were directly or indirectly involved. Sometimes it was the rulers who shamelessly used religion to resort to arms. Churches have sometimes been complacent because they do not otherwise dare, or - which is worse - because they believe themselves to profit from it. The final message states that Christians are therefore complicit in the violence in the world.

But we have also made progress, according to the findings. Together with other religions we are ready to regard "peace" as a core value of faith . Now all believers declare that war should be declared illegal. Immediately a concrete action. Christians and churches must meet at this point to continue to lead the way by inspiring each other, and to correct each other. On his own, no one can guarantee their own integrity, there is too much impurity which can easily seduce. But fortunately there are also broader social movements, such as Amnesty International, who are committed to reducing violence and war. It would be a good thing if more churches would declare solidarity with the aims and actions of these movements.

No peace without justice: peace is always a "just peace" or it is not peace. Of course, it is all good to reducing violence, however, that does not solve the problems of social injustice. Weapons will only be silenced for good when the most rejected in the world achieves justice. The churches should be counted on to fight oppression and discrimination, for whatever reason.

The same is true for environmental issues. "The environmental crisis is fundamentally a moral and spiritual crisis," the final message. Churches would therefore like to urge governments to work to develop an ecologically sustainable economy which will immediately brings us to fight poverty. It is scandalous that so much money goes to weapons while we desperately need to combat poverty so that all people have enough to eat. There must be a shift in economic thinking and acting towards an economy where social responsibility is the focus of the assessment.
"History reminds us that violence contradicts the will of God and is never able to resolve conflicts." Therefore, we must not depend on the doctrine of 'just war', which is not actually a road to peace. Instead we need to develop a doctrine of 'just peace'.

The ecumenical movement puts justice and peace as the heart of the movement. The commitment of the churches for justice and peace is indeed the nature of the churches' relationship with each other, even more than the theological projects they undertake together. Yet this commitment of the churches is even furthered by theological thought. There are already important steps in the call for just peace- the preparatory document for the convention (by the Council of Churches published in Dutch in 2009) - remains an important task for the future. The project "Catholicism and Globalization" has already been started by the Union of Utrecht with the Philippine Independent Church and the Episcopal Church.