WCC: US Focus of Decade vs Violence
January 15th, 2004 by sfuqua
Representatives from Christian faith communities around the globe launched a year-long effort to confront and overcome violence in the United States during a stirring worship service commemorating the life and ministry of the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr at the Interchurch Center in New York City on 2 January. The focus on the US in 2004 is part of the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV).
WCC launches year to
focus on overcoming violence in the US during service honouring Dr Martin Luther King, Jr
7 January 2004 (WCC)
— Representatives from Christian faith communities around the globe
launched a year-long effort to confront and overcome violence in the
United States during a stirring worship service commemorating the life
and ministry of the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr at the Interchurch
Center in New York City on 12 January. The focus on the US in 2004 is
part of the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Decade to Overcome Violence
(DOV).
“We are gathered as peacemakers from various regions of the world to
launch this year-long focus in the United States by lifting up the legacy
of Martin Luther King Jr, whose work and ministry has inspired
peacemakers around the globe,” said Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, archpriest,
Orthodox Church in America, and moderator, US Conference of the
WCC, in opening
remarks at the service.
In a multimedia presentation, members of the congregation watched graphic
images of violence, destruction, and war on a large screen as
DOV coordinator
Rev. Hansulrich Gerber presented the goals of the Decade
to Overcome Violence, which is to be one of “Churches Seeking
Reconciliation and Peace”.
No justice, no peace
“It is a contradiction of life to put peace ahead of justice,” said the
Rev. Dr Otis Moss, the pastor of the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church
in Cleveland, Ohio, in introductory remarks in his sermon. “There will be
no international peace until there is international justice,” he said,
quoting Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion.
Moss, a friend and associate of the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King Jr, urged
members of the congregation never to forget the lessons of history as
they pursue both peace and justice. “To forget is exile,” he said, “to
remember is redemption.” Moss warned the congregation to never forget
“the moans and groans of countless millions of human beings” who were
imprisoned on slave ships and “who were fed to sharks if they died on
passage, or served up to slave masters if they survived.”
Yet Moss also cited some redemptive historical developments during the
past half-century, including the passage of the GI Bill in 1944, that
opened educational and career opportunities to millions of disadvantaged
veterans. In addition, he said that the establishment of the United
Nations and the World Council of Churches were important international
milestones on the way to universal peace and justice.
Moss also pointed to national and international liberation movements —
beginning with the independence of India in 1947 — as redemptive signs.
“When India gained independence, the British Empire had a nervous
breakdown and the rest of western colonialism had a heart attack,” Moss
said.
All of these significant historic developments, Moss said, were the
context in which King found his prophetic vocation.
Following Dr King's footsteps
“What can we do to follow in Dr King's footsteps?” Moss asked. “We must
be about the business of building a new generation of prophets of
justice,” he said. “We must be disciples of love, apostles of liberation,
teachers of nonviolence, and ambassadors of reconciliation.”
Such endeavours, Moss said, “will not come automatically, nor without
institutional and individual risks.” And, he added, efforts to make peace
would require leaders who “have the courage to lead, to mould consensus,
and to act despite the risk of being persecuted.” Quoting Rabbi Abraham
Joshua Heschel, Moss described King's life and ministry as “a vision, a
voice, and a way”. He urged his listeners to “share his vision, hearken
to his voice, and follow in his way”.
“War is obsolete”
Citing the anti-war sentiments of several former generals in the US
military, Moss asked: “If generals of the army had that kind of insight,
then what is the excuse at the White House, or your house, or my house if
the occupants of those homes do not oppose war?”
“We must join with those former generals and declare that 'War is
obsolete,'” Moss added. And in a reference to the war in Iraq, Moss
chided the Bush administration for its search for weapons of mass
destruction there, when there are such weapons in the US.
“Where are the weapons of mass destruction?” Moss asked. “Look around:
AIDS is a weapon of mass destruction,” he said, “so is hunger, the denial
of health care to the poor, illiterate and uneducated minds, tobacco and
tobacco-related illnesses, uncared-for children”. All these and many
other weapons destroy the fabric of the nation, Moss contended.
Efforts to pursue peace must originate “in our commitment to break the
bonds of injustice, and to bring justice and peace into our homes, and
into our collective house - the White House,” Moss concluded. “When we
break the bonds of injustice and oppression, then we become God's
peacemakers.”
More information on the DOV
After launching the Decade to Overcome Violence in 2001, the
WCC focused its
efforts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2002, and on Sudan and
Africa in 2003.
Information on the Decade to Overcome Violence is available at www.wcc-coe.org/DOV
Photos of the service are available at:
www.wcc-coe.org/WCC/press_corner/us-focus.html
A DOV-US focus
poster on “The power and promise of peace” is available on the
DOV website www2.wcc-coe.org/DOV.nsf
Decade to Overcome Violence Goals
- Addressing holistically the wide varieties of violence, both direct
and structural, in homes, communities, and in international arenas and
learning from the local and regional analyses of violence and ways to
overcome violence. - Challenging the churches to overcome the spirit, logic and practice
of violence; to relinquish any theological justification of violence; and
to affirm anew the spirituality of reconciliation and active nonviolence. - Creating a new understanding of security in terms of cooperation and
community, instead of in terms of domination and competition. - Learning from the spirituality and resources for peace-building of
other faiths to work with communities of other faiths in the pursuit of
peace and to challenge the churches to reflect on the misuse of religious
and ethnic identities in pluralistic societies. - Challenging the growing militarization of our world, especially the
proliferation of small arms and light weapons.
