On April 24, 2005, I was privileged to attend the Myers Lecture at the Church of the Savior United Methodist Church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio (I happened to be in the community for my grandson’s birthday). The guest speaker was the Rev. Peter Storey, a renowned peace advocate and former Methodist bishop of South Africa. The following is taken from his notes, which he so graciously gave me.
This is the third of a three-part article. To read Parts 1 & 2, click on KEEPING PEACE IN SOUTH AFRICA Part 1 & KEEPING PEACE IN SOUTH AFRICA Part 2
This third part of KEEPING PEACE IN SOUTH AFRICA was excerpted from the February 29, 2008 United Methodist Reporter, titled Peace conference urges church to find its voice, by Kathy L. Gilbert, United Methodist News Service.
The Rev. Peter Storey asked participants 2008 Lake Junaluska Peace Conference to consider the God they serve. If He is the God of Jesus, any response to violence must be examined through the cross, Storey stated, setting the tone for the three-day conference held in Lake Junaluska, North Carolina.
While participants grappled with the question “How can the United Methodist Church find its voice in a world of violence?”, Storey asked “Why our silence? Why no clear, bold challenge? Why is the way that leads to peace still apparently hidden from our sight when we hang crosses all over the place?”
Panel member Bishop Ken Carder, Duke Divinity School professor, noted: “We are concerned about the silence of the church on major issues confronting the world. The church has a long history of silence…and of whispering when it should have shouted and sometimes shouting when it should have whispered.”
Another panel member, Duke Divinity School professor The Rev. Richard Hays, said that Jesus’ followers are called to put away their swords. Throughout the New Testament there is a consistent witness against violence.
“In a world torn by violence, the distinctive vocation of Jesus’ followers is to renounce violence and to seek where there is strife to make peace. No other issue is more urgent for our time, but on hardly any other issue has the church so massively failed to embody the promise of the gospel…Peacemaking is not merely an option or political preference; it is a matter that stands at the heart of the gospel.”
Dr. Jan Love, a Candler School of Theology (Emory University) dean, asked what it would mean if Christians left their guns, “figuratively and literally,” at the gate.
“Our willingness to wage war with and perpetrate violence against each other is a shameful counter-witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a horrific betrayal of the gospel of grace, peace and mercy we claim as the body of Christ.”
Storey suggested that United Methodist congregations take a two-year sabbatical from “programs” to engage in Bible study, enter into deep Christian conferencing, pray deeply and humbly, and dialogue about the flag and altar, wealth and poverty, violence and non violence, and inclusion and exclusion.
NOTE: A Beanery Writers Group member, Joe, has created an interactive blog on peace issues. Visit his site at www.peacepuzzle.blogspot.com
For additional reading:
VOICES OF WILDERNESS: PEACE MEETING
KEEPING PEACE IN SOUTH AFRICA Part 1
KEEPING PEACE IN SOUTH AFRICA Part 2
CHILD ABUSE AND SCRIPTURE
CHILDREN LEFT HOME ALONE (or in cars alone)
KILLED STRANGELY: A NEW ENGLAND MURDER STORY
