RESOLUTION – R 2

TITLE:Ecumenical Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace

ORIGINAL SOURCE:World Affairs committee

CONFERENCE ACTION:Carried

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:committee budgets
staff and volunteer time

SOURCE OF FUNDS:committee budgets as needed

STAFFING IMPLICATIONS:staff time to develop background material and support committees to animate this ecumenical decade

VOLUNTEER IMPLICATIONS:committee and pastoral charge participation
 

MOTION by Elaine Perkins/Allan Baker that the World Affairs committee at this 77th annual meeting of Toronto Conference request Toronto Conference

•to participate in the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace 2001- 2010 by calling on all Conference standing committees to undertake  a project related to or discussion of the Decade theme by March 2002 for report to the 2002 Conference annual meeting;
•to provide a forum at the 2002 annual meeting for folks to further engage the theme of the Decade;
•to encourage all Toronto Conference pastoral charges to undertake a project or discussion of the Decade theme in their context by March 2002.


RATIONALE AND FAITH BASE

The World Council of Churches has designated 2001-2010 as the Ecumenical Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace.  The Toronto Conference at its May 2000 annual meeting passed a resolution to participate in and animate the Decade in Toronto Conference.

One of the outcomes of the Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity With Women in Church and Society, in which The United Church of Canada participated, was the naming of significant work which remains to be done in the areas of anti-racism and overcoming violence against women.  We will continue that work in the context of the Ecumenical Decade to Overcome Violence.

Some of our other ongoing reconciliation work is:
•our relationship with First Nations peoples;
•Bearing Faithful Witness (36th General Council) examining our relationship with Jewish people;
•Mending the World (36th General Council) highlighting our ecumenism, and our relationships with all peoples and earth;
•Beyond Military Force: Seeking Peace After the Cold War (35th General Council) highlighting our relationship with militarism; and
•One Earth Community: Ethical Principles for Environment and Development (34th General Council) calling us to live with respect in creation.

Still we are called to rededicate ourselves to reflect and take further action as participants in this Decade.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus leads his followers and disciples to envision a world where assertive, non-violent resistance transforms domination as we know it into the Reign of God - a life of reconciliation and peace. If we are to follow his examples (John 13:15) our response to violence will be active, creative and transformative with a goal of reconciliation.  This transformation is both personal and structural.  This Way is sorely needed and is already breaking out among us.

The pervasiveness of violence and the increased complexity and complicity of war in the face of our attempts to discern, witness, transform and be transformed requires a global solidarity.  This new context also requires a new theology of reconciliation and peace.