Peace and War

Written by Bruno Baerg

The impact of war is felt long after specific hostilities exist and long after the global community has forgotten all about it.

This is particularly true in Mozambique some 18 years after the cessation of the apartheid Rhodesia / South African funded war of destabilization (1977-1992) in the country. Approx 1 million people were killed due to that conflict along with another approx 5 million people displaced. This had huge consequences which are still felt to this very day.

By Debbi DiGennaro



Beginning Saturday, Feb. 25, and continuing for three days, about 2,000 youth, armed with machetes, attacked villages in inter-ethnic violence east of the city of Kisumu, Kenya, an area where the Kenya Mennonite Church has a strong presence.

Local Mennonite Bishop Clyde Agola immediately informed Eastern Mennonite Missions (EMM) and Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) workers in Kenya of the attacks. EMM and MCC responded promptly with $3,000 of emergency aid before other humanitarian aid groups were mobilized on site.

“Before God and our communities, we are responsible to Jews for the historical and ongoing realities of anti-Semitism, to Palestinians since the Nakba, to Muslim neighbours in the light of Islamophobia, to persons who are vulnerable, and to victims of colonial conquest, among others," said participants of a World Council of Churches (WCC) sponsored conference.

"Justice-oriented interpretation of the Bible will be the nature of responsibility,” reads the statement by participants.

A consultation on world peace and human security was convened by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva on Thursday 9 February. The event precedes a two-day committee meeting charged with following up the report and recommendations of the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation, which brought 1,000 participants to Kingston, Jamaica in May 2011.

The committee will suggest how the topic of just peace may be addressed during and after the 10th Assembly of the WCC, to be held in 2013 at Busan, Korea.

Anglican leaders from across Africa on 8 February made an emotional plea to Muslim faith leaders to stand with them in opposition to the "tragic violence that is destroying our communities." 



The appeal was issued at the end of a three-day meeting in Burundi of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) where Christian-Muslim conflict was high on the agenda, according to the Anglican Communion News Service. 



A World Council of Churches (WCC) consultation in Kigali discussed peace and security issues in Africa, with more than ninety church and ecumenical leaders. Together, they also reflected on Rwandan experiences of ethnic violence, genocide and church initiatives of reconciliation in the past.

Methodist Archbishop Michael Kehinde Stephen of Ibadan, Nigeria has appealed to Christian and Muslim leaders worldwide to act together in the face of extremist violence that threatens to divide Nigerians along religious lines.

Given the significant role played by the young people in pursuit of peace in communities, the World Council of Churches (WCC) features reflections from eight young people from around the world in its new book Echos for Peace, addressing the issues of global peace, justice and nonviolence, launched recently at the meeting of Echos Commission on Youth in the Ecumenical Movement in Lebanon last week.

A call for solidarity with the poor was delivered to a gathering of religious and political and civil society leaders from all over the world by one of the presidents of the World Council of Churches (WCC). The meeting on the topic “Bound to Live Together: Religions and Cultures in Dialogue” is taking place from 11-13 September in Munich, Germany.

This past February the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee announced that the theme for the Tenth WCC Assembly in 2013 in Busan, Korea would be “God of life, lead us to justice and peace.”

In May, nearly one thousand church leaders and peace activists gathered in Kingston, Jamaica for the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) where they released a statement calling for deeper church reflection and involvement in peace and justice.