Mennonite
Central
Committee

Defining peace and peacemaking

Peace begins in the heart and embraces all of life (Ephesians 2). Peace is a gift of God's grace, a state of quiet confidence and security, and a call to be a reconciling presence in all human relationships and situations.

Peacemakers reach out to all people caught in fear, suffering, hate, oppression and violence. Peacemaking involves reflection, prayer and an active, nonviolent witness to the structures that cause and perpetuate injustices and violence.

Martin Luther King said, "Peace is not merely the absence of tension, but the presence of justice..."

The goal of peacemaking is the well-being of all people.

Love and faithfulness will meet; Justice and peace will embrace. Humility's loyalty will reach up from the earth, and God's justice will look down from heaven.
Psalm 85:11-13

 

Aspects of peacemaking:

1. Helping people to be reconciled to God and to each other
2. Breaking down walls, protesting evil and reducing or eliminating violence, injustice and war and their causes
3. Building peaceful communities
4. Increasing interpersonal and intergroup cooperation, mutuality and community, both locally and worldwide