Heeding God’s Call
A Gathering on Peace
Over 300 Christian peacemakers gathered from January 13th to 17th, 2009, in the historic Arch Street Friends Meetinghouse in Philadelphia in response to God’s call for peace. The Gathering was two years in the planning by members of the three historic peace churches: the Religious Society of Friends, the Mennonite Church, and the Church of the Brethren. In addition to members of these three churches, invitations were accepted by Jewish and Muslim observer/participants as well as Christian peacemakers from partner faith communities representing 23 traditions. Several people were there simply to pray for peace and the work being done by those gathered. The group was rich with spiritual diversity and focused on peace. At the invitation of Bucks Quarterly Meeting, I was honored to serve as our delegate to this Gathering.
The format centered on, “Strengthening our witness and work for peace in the world by inspiring hope, raising voices, taking action,” with a full day spent on each of these topics. Each day began with prayerful worship and included singing, study of scriptures, speakers, shared meals, and reflection and processing in anchor groups. Daily bulletins were sprinkled with relevant quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, whose 80th birthday was being celebrated and who served as a magnificent inspiration for the work we were there to do.
From a selection of 22, we each chose a two day workshop to attend. My choice was: “How Can We More Equitably Share the World’s Resources.” The relevance of this topic stemmed from the fact that so many wars are fought over limited resources as well as the fact that war is so destructive to the earth’s resources. We raised the question of whether the world’s resources can be equitably shared under present economic/political systems. Given the present economic failure in America, we are in a significant position for checking Capitalism to see if it is what we thought it would be. Will our leaders, will we, have the courage to give up some personal security in order to truly examine other possibilities? In this session we examined particular scriptures with attention to what they tell us about sharing God’s abundance and sharing the world’s resources. We looked at how scripture can be used to form a faithful response to problems of income and class disparity.
On the day we focused on inspiring hope, we acknowledged that hope, with its goals of peace and justice, is the faith basis of our Peace Testimonies. The ecumenical community needs to unite in a fellowship that transcends diversity and chooses hope. Religious opposition is the true hope. Effective change can only come from the church, from the realm of the spirit. When we become numb, our corrupt societies remain in tact. Only when being Christian American is more important than being American Christian will hope lead us to authentic change.
On our day of hope, we heard from Alexie M. Torres Fleming, an inspiring young woman from the South Bronx, home to our nation’s poorest of the poor. Following her successful escape from this poverty, Alexie felt called by God to return. Here she founded the Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, which helps many “unchurched” youth connect to something bigger than themselves. She shared her practice of holding a crown over children’s heads and allowing them to grow into their fullness. Responding with love in this way to the God (Light) she sees in each person can be transformational. Alexie shared some of her lessons with us, two of which stand out for me. One is that whatever you do not need does not belong to you; we can each serve those in need simply by passing on the extra, that which we do not need. Another lesson shared is that we do not need to travel far to find broken people who need us; we should not fear doing the mission work in our own backyard. Alexie challenges us with the question of what it would take for us to love others as much as we love our own children. She suggested that this might just be the love it would take to end war and create peace on earth.
On the day focused on raising voices, we looked at how the church can recover its historic mission of Speaking Truth to Power in order to reconnect the world to peace and justice. Martin Luther King reminds us that to ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it. Silence is complicity. We asked ourselves what situations and conditions in the world cause us to lament, to cry out in anguish? We remembered those fearless, insistent voices that inspire and guide us as we work toward a world guided by truth, justice, and peace.
On the day focused on taking action, we spent time in small focus groups, responding to a number of concerns discerned to be a priority to those gathered. The focus of my group was: liberating the earth from consumerism, over-consumption, and greed. We came to this resolve:
We witness and lament our participation in an economic system that has led to catastrophic results: over-consumption, unequal distribution of resources, and the destruction of God’s Creation.
We are called to return to our communities to speak out about the structural economic injustice around us, reduce our ecological footprint, and seek to live in right relationship with all God’s Creation.
On the final day of our Gathering, we joined forces with other Philadelphia area faith communities in a morning of worship and study. I attended a workshop led by Scott Calkins, a Mennonite minister who, previous to his theological studies, served as a Marine in the first Gulf War. He led us through a compelling exercise in defining militarism, authority, violence, and reconciliation. He shared with us three important ways veterans integrate with society and three ways the military rehabilitates its image in society. His message was powerful and riveting. He has devoted his life to peace ministry with this assertion:
Our role as people of Faith is not to redeem institutions rooted in the realm of Death; but we are obligated in our relationship with God to dismantle systems of oppression, reconcile folk who are captured by these systems, and speak truth to power in those contested spaces.
My hope is that we can find a forum for Scott to bring his powerful ministry to more Friends.
Our final day culminated in an opportunity to put our faith into action in a public witness in the form of a march and rally in front of Colosimo’s Gun Center, a local gun store notorious for selling guns used in violent crimes. Members of our Gathering had protested at this gun store earlier in the week and had been arrested for trespassing in order to draw media attention to this issue. The call is for retailers of firearms to adopt a sensible Code of Conduct that would dramatically reduce the illegal trafficking of handguns. The protests are continuing, and all are welcome to join in witness and prayer.
A small group of participants were charged with discerning the sense of the Gathering and capturing it in an Epistle for public dissemination. There were three readings of this epistle, allowing for feedback and refinement. The final version is available on the website for all to read: peacegathering2009.org.
I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in the Peace Gathering. I have been doing peace work for the past fifteen years and have attended a number of peace conferences. The spiritual nature of this Gathering made it stand out for me as different and compelling. We were gathered there in response to God’s call and to do God’s work. I found myself reflecting on a prayer of St. Francis throughout the week: “Lord make me an instrument of Your peace.” I believe it is only through our connection to God that we will have the power and strength to realize a world where peace and justice can come to pass.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen K. Harr