National Council of Churches: Peace is the message of the church ecumenical!

Peace is the message of the church

Editor's Note: NCC General Secretary Michael Kinnamon brought greetings January 13 to the opening session of Heeding God's Call: A Gathering on Peace in Philadelphia.

In his remarks, Kinnamon said peacemaking is the role not only of historic peace churches, but of the church ecumenical.

January 13, 2009 Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And greetings from the 35 member communions of the National Council of Churches...it is imperative that the followers of Christ proclaim a different vision of life in human community...

...I want to emphasize one point: the ecumenical movement, of which the National Council of Churches is an instrument, is most essentially a movement of peace. Part of the point is sociological: Christian divisions (which ecumenism seeks to overcome) often exacerbate political conflicts and hinder effective peacemaking. War is too massive an evil to be responded to denominationally.

The real point, however, is more theological. God's gift of reconciliation is for the world; but the church is entrusted with this message of reconciliation - and the church delivers the message not just by what it says or, even, by what it does, but by what it is, by the way we live with one another. The church's calling is to be a demonstration project of God's gift of peace; and the fact that Christians are so obviously fragmented and co-opted by the powers of the world is what drives the ecumenical movement.

....Peace is the message of the church ecumenical! This is not to be taken for granted. In the history of the church, those who emphasized peacemaking have often feared that unity would weaken the prophetic edge of their proclamation, while those who have emphasized unity have often feared that peacemaking would prove divisive.

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