Message on the Occasion of the Launch of the Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace

We greet you in the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 15:13).

We gather to launch the Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace 2001-10 at the end of one violent century to generate hope for the redemption for the new one we now enter. We come together from the four corners of the earth aware of the urgent need to overcome violence that pervades our lives, our communities, our world, and the whole created order. We launch this decade in response to a deep yearning among our peoples to build lasting peace grounded in justice.

We launch this decade in a spirit of repentance that as Christians we have been among those who have inflicted or justified violence. We also know violence as its victims and give thanks to God for the faithful witness of Christian martyrs.

We launch this decade in conjunction with the United Nations which proclaimed the years 2001-10 the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World.

As one of the most violent in human history, the 20th century has borne witness to:

-- wars of aggression and decades of colonialism and occupation of others' lands;

-- world wars, hot and cold, that gave rise to nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction that still threaten global annihilation;

-- a new proliferation of local and regional wars within and between nations that unleash indiscriminate weapons of ever expanding destructive impact on civilian populations, that proliferate small arms across entire societies, that press children into military service, and that uproot millions from their families and homes;

-- acts of genocide, the continued assault on Indigenous Peoples, and the persistent assertion of racial and ethnic domination that leads to new forms of discrimination and oppression within and between societies;

-- the resurgence of old, unresolved hatreds and the creation of new spirals of retributive violence between communities and peoples;

-- the quick resort to violent behaviour in conflicts between and within communities as well as within families and among individuals, resulting in domestic and other forms of violence, with severe consequences particularly for women, youth and children;

-- the growth and institutionalization of global systems of trade, finance and production that concentrate power and wealth, plunder the creation, widen the gap between rich and poor, consign many across the world to debt bondage and lives of poverty, undermine the willingness and capacity of many national governments to defend the basic economic, social and cultural rights of their inhabitants, and perpetuate economic violence;

-- the concentration and growth of global media that promote addiction to the consumption of violence as a form of entertainment, thus deepening a growing spiritual malaise within and across societies;

-- the global spread of a consumerist culture that intensifies the exploitation of people and nature;

-- the frequent invocation of religious traditions, including Christianity, to justify and promote violence and oppression.

Despite all this, by the grace of God, the last one hundred years also witnessed remarkable achievements in numerous arenas. Faithful people everywhere now have opportunity to use significant accomplishments in communications, transportation, science and other areas to end the violence and to promote life in all its fullness for all people everywhere.

Dedicated individuals, organizations and movements throughout the last century, including those committed to non-violence, inspire us to carry forward their remarkable work for the elaboration of new global standards of law and behaviour, the building of international instruments of cooperation on the basis of democracy and the rule of law, the development of peace-making initiatives, the pursuit of economic and social justice for all, and the safeguarding of creation. They give us real hope for non-violent social change.

We thank God especially for significant advances during the last century in the search for Christian unity. These include the founding of the World Council of Churches, itself inaugurated in the aftermath of two world wars, the creation of ecumenical organizations around the world, and the healing,of some long-standing divisions between churches. We pledge to continue to build on this progress in the pursuit of peace with justice.

Our inspiration springs from our faith in and personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the Lord, the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6), who is continuously present and "is the same yesterday, today and forever" (Heb. 13:8). He reconciled us to God and with each other, proclaiming peace (Eph. 2:14-17; 2 Cor. 5:18) and a new relationship between those who had been separated by alienation and hostility. Our endurance in the midst of violence and our renewed power for overcoming violence come from the unceasing breath of the Holy Spirit in our hearts in the life of the church. To those who are incorporated in Christ, the Holy Spirit gives power to live according to Christ's model.