Mennonite
Central
Committee

Experiences and Realities of Peacemaking 2003

• "A song of life, poetry of hope."
• "Insecurity is being created in the name of security."
• "Loving the enemy is becoming a survival skill" (from Wendell Berry).
• "You tell your mother that she is my sister."
• "You (Christians in the U.S.) are living in Rome (image from Revelations) - we are praying for you."

Those are from a few of the stories shared by MCC alumni and others at Experiences and Realities of Peacemaking, a gathering called by the Alumni Relations office of MCC, hosted by Jubilee Partners at Comer, Georgia, September 27-29, 2003.

 

Prayer an action of resistance

There were times for prayer for peace in the sessions and prayer was repeatedly affirmed as an action of resistance. In this time of pressures and demands for loyalty, churches could share the Lord's Supper every Sunday as a way to reaffirm identity and loyalty to Christ. Public actions, even prayer in public, can be good, for the individual acting and also for others who may be looking for alternative visions. Write letters to local papers. Start conversations about peace and security. Invite neighbors for tea. Help and encourage others to go abroad. Be aware of what God is doing. Act with God. Resist false ideology, resist self-reliance. Walk, walk with God, walk with others, walk.

 

Peacemaking resources

Some excellent current resources on Iraq, on terrorism and on peacemaking include "Iraq Sanctions: Humanitarian Implications and Options for the Future" (by the UN offices of MCC and many other agencies, in association with Save the Children, UK) - available from the MCC Middle East office, , and MCC Peace Office Newsletters - Responses to Terrorism (spring 2002) and Can We Stop the War against Iraq? (summer 2002). The MCC Resource catalogue also makes available many good resources for specific or general peace activities. Tapes of presentations by Dan Wessner, Hector Argueta and the Saturday evening discussion are available.

 

Do not forget what it means to be the church

This gathering of people from different nations under one Lord was a taste of heaven. With those words, Hector Argueta began his challenge and encouragement to be individuals, and also a church, of hope. Do not forget what it means to be the church - serve others, proclaim the kingdom, denounce sin. Hector is an administrator at SEMILLA, an Anabaptist seminary, in Guatemala City. Guatemala is the second most violent country in Latin America (after Colombia). In the capital city, there are between 20 and 30 assassinations every night. Guatemala is currently in a dark night. "Normal" has come to mean living with death and war. Life is being defended with death. One of the positive results of globalization is that they no longer feel as isolated and abandoned as have in the past. Pray, resist, live in solidarity with others, share hope.

The evangelical wing of the church is the only church voice that has received much attention from the US government in recent years. The calls for peace are no longer coming only from small or marginal groups. but it seems the US government is largely ignoring this. 12000 Mennonite signatures for peace and 1000's of other church signatures were presented in Washington on September 12. Dan Wessner, Bluffton College, briefly looked at recent church activities and influence in the US and also summarized US government policies and directions. US foreign policy has moved from containing and surrounding the enemy to one of domination and elimination. Eliminate and erase not only the enemy but also any competition. The US economy, ideology (growthism and more) and military must be supreme. The US does not really need the oil in Iraq but for reasons of national policy and corporate power and profit (Iraq has the 2nd biggest reserves in the world), it would be good to control this. Centuries ago, Machiavelli suggested that the perfect prince would know that might makes right, would have the appearance of a Christian and would know how to lie. It may that the real danger in the world is not from terrorists but from a rogue state which ignores international law and convention.

Already in the 1890's some people were concerned about how Jewish and Arab/Palestinian nationalism would mix in Palestine. Jim Satterwhite, Bluffton College, has spent the last few summers in Hebron as part of the Christian Peacemaker Team presence. A power point presentation outlined initial (1940's) boundaries of Israel, occupied territories and present patterns of Jewish settlements. Palestinian land is very divided and segmented. The political and military dynamics are difficult to endure.

The Sunday morning worship time included more thoughts and prayers for peace, suggestions for actions and a lot of singing. Abraham challenged God to save Sodom. The apostles in Acts 4 prayed for boldness, not for security. Pray boldly. Hector Argueta led the group in sharing the Lord's Supper. He invited us again to think how people in other parts of the world yearn for the time when there will be no more tears, no more deaths, no more broken bodies.