Peace Work Gains Ecumenical Dimension
Episcopal News Service. March 15, 1984 [84052]
NEW YORK (DPS, Mar. 15) -- Late last year, the growing national concern for peace took the shape, in Iowa and Pennsylvania, of ecumenically produced peace statements.
The Iowa statement grew out of a two-day gathering co-sponsored by the Iowa Inter-Church Forum and the Ecumenical Consultation of Iowa City. The meeting was termed "unprecedented in Iowa's ecumenical witness" by a spokesman for the former group. He added "The sixteen Christian leaders who met in Iowa City represented thirteen traditions. This is the largest group ever to meet and develop a common statement on any issue of concern."
Participants in the conference included clergy and representatives from Episcopal, Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, Mennonite, and Reformed churches. The Rt. Rev. Walter C. Righter, Episcopal Bishop of Iowa, was not present at the meeting but later signed the statement developed there.
In addition to the joint statement, the members of the Iowa group made ten covenants with one another. These included commitments to pray, fast and study for the cause of peace, work for a peace curriculum in the schools and universities of Iowa, and to enter into dialog with legislative leaders about the concerns set forth in the pastoral message.
In Pennsylvania, the process was a little different. There the statement evolved from a peace issues study group made up of appointed representatives from the Pennsylvania Council of Churches and the Pennsylvania Conference on Interchurch Cooperation. This group developed a proposed pastoral statement on peace which was then sent to the Roman Catholic bishops and heads of Protestant judicatories in Pennsylvania.
The results were generally positive, and by the time the statement was officially issued, it had been signed by 50 church leaders representing more than 40 denominations. Included among these were the bishops of all five Episcopal dioceses in Pennsylvania. The statement was published in full in the Diocese of Pennsylvania's Diocesan News.
The Pennsylvania document states the belief that "Peace is the only framework within which a future compatible with human life can unfold," and continues that the vision of peace is one that requires conversion. Among the old views that it cites as needing change are "isolated individualism and competition as the basis of human and national identities" and "stability as a substitute for peace without regard for justice".
Both the Iowa and the Pennsylvania statements share a call to prayer and study and both recognize the need for peace-making efforts on a small scale among individuals as well as between nations.