Heeding God`s Call to Make Peace

A New Beginning

Christian peacemakers from 23 traditions, together with Jewish and Muslim observer/participants, met January 13-17, 2009, in the historic Arch Street Friends Meetinghouse in Philadelphia, at the invitation of the Historic Peace Churches.

We have heard the proclamation: This is the year of the Lord`s favor!  (Luke 4:19; Isaiah 61:2)  And we believe this is indeed a time when peace can happen.  We invite all people everywhere to heed this radical call on our lives.   

Through prayerful worship and earnest study of the scriptures, our Gathering listened to God.  We were blessed with diverse participants, enthusiastic singing, and much laughter.  Workshops and small groups resulted in new friendships and fresh insights.  We were inspired by personal stories of people transformed by the Spirit to walk hand in hand with those who suffer.  We joined in a peacemaking effort of nonviolent direct action on the streets of Philadelphia.

Not everyone wants God's way of peace.  The cost is high.  Jesus demonstrates the loss of security, transformation, suffering, and dying which bring God's Peace by way of the cross.  Let us ponder what must die - in our lives, in our churches, in our culture - in order to fully heed God's call. 

Of what must we repent?  How shall we lament with those who weep all night?  We must name sin and evil, including times when the enemy is us.  We must act far beyond our comfort zones.  We must risk speaking truth to power.  Silence is complicity.  Imagine what God will yet do through people of faithful action!

Awaken with us to this new opportunity to act as the united Body of Christ, along with friends of peace everywhere, in a world desperately in need of justice and peace.  Let us be bold.  Resist disillusionment.  The Holy Spirit must rise up in you and me to set all people free.  Our task is to practice hope and to act as instruments of God's peace.  

Peace will come when people demand it and live it out.  Remember the dramatic witness of those who risked their lives in faithful efforts for justice and peace throughout history.  In this Gathering, we remember Martin Luther King on what would have been his 80^th birthday.  He proclaimed, "if the church will free itself from the shackles of a deadening status quo, and, recovering its great historic mission, will speak and act fearlessly and insistently in terms of justice and peace, it will enkindle the imagination of humankind and fire the souls of the people" (Strength to Love, 1963, "A Knock at Midnight"). 

Specific peacemaking actions are desperately needed in a world tormented by violence and oppression.  We implore friends of peace everywhere to heed God's call to prayerfully, earnestly, deliberately take action to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8). 

On behalf of "Heeding God's Call - A Gathering on Peace," convened by
      

  Thomas Swain                                  Susan Mark Landis                       Stanley Noffsinger
  Presiding Clerk                                 Peace Advocate                            General Secretary
  Philadelphia Yearly Meeting              Mennonite Church USA                Church of the Brethren
  Religious Society of Friends