Ecclesiological Implications of Overcoming Violence

Along with overwhelming enthusiasm, the Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) has also been greeted with some critical questions. These need to be taken seriously: Why this "political" agenda? Is it not an ambitious task to overcome violence in a situation vitiated by an interplay of identities and the struggles for power and justice on the one hand, and political expediency that uses religious loyalties as instruments of power on the other? What can churches, which exist as minority communities in pluralistic and often hostile environments, do? What credentials do the churches have to preach non-violence when their own histories and theologies are soaked in violence? Why are the churches raising the alarm about the religious violence of others when they themselves have used violence in the past? Who are the churches trying to help by preaching pacifism in a world where violence has become an instrument for seizing and wielding power? What does non-violence mean to someone who is thoroughly, systematically and constantly abused and dehumanized?

Hard questions indeed! But they have much to offer to enrich the meaning and purpose of the Decade. The churches which met in Harare, Zimbabwe, for the eighth assembly of the WCC in 1998 -- overwhelmed by stories of violence from different parts of the world, and conscious of the role they have played and continue to play in supporting structures and cultures that perpetuate different forms of violence -- committed themselves to a journey of peace through the Decade to Overcome Violence. Its accompanying title, "Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace", attempts to make it clear that the churches do not claim to have the credentials to overcome violence in the world, and expresses their readiness to go through a process of overcoming violence, both within and outside of themselves, to build a culture of peace. It implies an honest search in faith, a spiritual exploration for a world without fear, hatred, enmity and violence in any form. The central committee meetings since Harare, in Geneva (1999) and Potsdam (2001), reiterated the ecclesiological significance of the DOV. They have said that the Decade is a time for the churches to overcome the spirit, logic and practice of violence, to repent together for their complicity in violence, and to become communities of peace founded on truth.

These affirmations imply that the churches will subject themselves to correction and go through a process of inner transformation in order to rediscover the full implications of being churches in a violent world. With the DOV, they are announcing their decision to give up all ambiguous positions on questions around the use of violence for any purpose, and are firmly committing themselves to a vocation of peace-building and non-violence. Indeed, for many reasons the DOV marks a watershed in the history of the churches.

If they are taken seriously, these affirmations are bound to effect major changes in our notions of church and consequently in the character of the ecumenical movement itself. This essay attempts to throw light on three major areas where these processes of change will help the churches not only to overcome violence but also to discover credible and authentic forms of ecclesial existence in the world.

Overcoming violence within

The church, in its physical reality, is a community of people in concrete situations of time and space. At the same time, it is a community formed around and led by the memory of Jesus. The way this memory -- of Jesus' divinity and humanity, his message and work -- is understood and affirmed within the collective experience of the community in each historical situation, influences ecclesial notions and expressions. This collective experience includes the prevailing socio-cultural, political and economic conditions, as well as the values, structures and cultures that govern social relationships. Since the empirical church is a social unit, the effects of social structures and social processes on its beliefs, goals, forms and functions must not be oversimplified. Moreover, since power plays a decisive role in all social relationships, those who wield power have a greater role in shaping all social institutions. The organizational structures of the church are also vulnerable to these dynamics of power. The churches' shape, functions and priorities are largely dependent on the power interests of those who manage them.

It is perhaps a hasty generalization to hold that all churches in all places are guilty of perpetrating and supporting violence in their midst. But implied in this assertion of determination to overcome violence is the realization that violence is only a symptom, that it is a result of the use, abuse and misuse of power or a response in retaliation for such exercise of power. The WCC's consultation on racism at Notting Hill, England, in 1969 stated that the key issue was "not simply that of violence versus non-violence, but the use of power for the powerful and the need of power for the powerless". As an attitude guided by the logic of domination by force, violence is used to exclude, subjugate, dehumanize (as well as to seek redress for grievances arising from such exclusion and subjugation). As Niebuhr puts it succinctly: it is one will establishing complete dominion over other wills and reducing them to acquiescence.(1)