Standing in the legacy of nonviolence

Remembering our ancestors of peace This is a time of year, when the veil is thin and we slow down to remember all the saints, those whose have shaped us, moved us, challenged us and loved us. In this harvest time we also gather in the fruits of the season, the popping bean pods, the plump squash, the sturdy greens. As we gather in these fruits, we harvest, too, the gifts of those beloveds who have gone before us. This year at PPF we share our sorrow as we remember ancestors of peacemaking and nonviolence whom we have lost this year. Below we share the life and witness of three beloved friends who have each embodied a commitment to nonviolence and shaped our collective commitment to peacemaking. We share their witness in gratitude with you. Tom Driver was the editor of the Nov/Dec 2005 issue of Church & Society, “Rethinking War, Rethinking Peace, Rethinking Peacemaking: Trusting the Nonviolence of Jesus Christ Today,” which he developed in collaboration with the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship. These words are from the introduction:  "Peace was absent in the days of Jesus' mission. Like us, he lived within a violent empire. Much like ours today, the Roman Empire of Jesus' time was predatory and destructive, even though (also like ours) it brought great material benefit to some and saw itself in idealistic terms. Jesus' teaching of peace struck at the very foundations of that empire, and it responded by attempting to destroy him. If violence could win, Jesus Christ would be dead today. But it cannot. This truth, which is a corollary of the truth that God is love, is at the heart of the Christian gospel... Discussions of war and pacifism among Christian theologians have a way of foundering on the shoals of theory and absolutisms. As the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, our hope is to steer by a more specific and pragmatic compass. We in PPF are more interested in the discipleship of making peace than in establishing or defending a position of theoretical principle. In our discipleship, we seek to avoid those compromises through which churches often find reasons to endorse wars. To us, the realism of Jesus, whatever others think of it, is more compelling than the realism of 'this world.' Because the destructive power of war is now greater than ever in previous history, threatening to demolish civilization, if not all of planetary life, the urgency of building peace has never been greater than at present."  In 2014, Lois Baker wrote to every commissioner assigned to the General Assembly Peacemaking and International Issues Committee, urging them to support nonviolence as the church’s fundamental response to war.  "I served in the U.S. Army Medical Division in Europe during World War II. The tragic loss of life, limb, and sanity that I witnessed there turned me into a committed peacemaker... Recently I have been following the process of discernment about peace and nonviolence that the church has been involved in. I was amazed and pleased when the committee decided to change the purpose of the process from 'seeking clarity on whether God is calling the church to embrace nonviolence as its fundamental response to war and terror' to seeking 'clarity as to God’s call to the church to embrace nonviolence as its fundamental response to the challenges of violence, terror, and war'.... Imagine my dismay when I saw the final report submitted to you, after it had been edited and rewritten by ACSWP! All mention of the nonviolent teaching of Jesus and the centuries of pacifist practice of the early church have been removed from the affirmations to be sent to the presbyteries! Furthermore, specific language implying an endorsement of 'just war' has been added. I have lived to see and study many wars, and I have yet to see one that meets the 'just war' criteria of protecting noncombatants, minimizing the amount of force used, and only resorting to military action as a last resort. This is an obsolete theory that should be abandoned by modern Christians."  Peggy Howland served as an overture advocate for Hudson River Presbytery at the GA in 2014. Here are her words to the Peacemaking Committee. "I’ll be 81 years old this summer. I was 11 when the atomic bombs obliterated most of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and our weapons grow ever more deadly. We ask this General Assembly to 'Recognize God’s call to the church to embrace nonviolence as its fundamental response to the challenges of violence, terror, and war.' Please notice: We are NOT saying: All Presbyterians must become conscientious objectors and never fight in a war again, although quite a few Presbyterians do make that choice. We are NOT saying: We Presbyterians will never respond to violence with violence, although many of us acknowledge Jesus taught this, and Christians in the early centuries of the church refused to fight in war. What our overture DOES say is that violence, terror and war are DEEPLY CHALLENGING US TODAY. It says we recognize that GOD CALLS US to respond to these CHALLENGES.... a CALL for the CHURCH to embrace nonviolence as OUR fundamental response to these challenges." Standing in the legacy of nonviolence: PPF standing in solidarity with People vs. Fossil Fuels Earlier this month, several members of Fossil Free PC(USA) and the PPF Activist Council participated in a week-long series of demonstrations led by Indigenous people and folks living on the front lines of climate destruction. With hundreds of other climate activists, they marched, demonstrated, occupied, sang, were arrested, and demanded action from the Biden administration. For more information, check out this link to a video with interviews from some of the lead organizers.  Faith leaders being arrested at the White House during the week we celebrate Indigenous People's Day. People gathered in opposition to any new investment in fossil fuels Thousands gathered for People vs. Fossil Fuels to demand Biden take immediate climate action PPFer, Liv Thomas, was among the delegation How can I tell you, "Go in peace?" This ever-adapting benediction came to PPF from our ancestor Clinton Marsh, moderator of the 185th General Assembly in 1973 and the first African American moderator of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, leading it in the 1990s. This benediction is one we turn to often, passed from older generations to younger, with the understanding that it will continue to speak to us and empower us to act if we only listen deeply and engage with God’s world and her people.  And now I am supposed to say, “go in peace,” but how can I say “go in peace” when many of us are settler-colonizers on the land we call “home” and yet we know very little of this history or the people who have stewarded this land for generations And how can I tell you to “go in peace” when the profit of fossil fuel corporations has become more important than tending life? And how can I tell you to “go in peace” when a pandemic rages on and we still cannot come to agreement about how to keep each other safe. With a world like that out there, how can I dare to say to you go in peace? But I do say to you ‘go in peace’ because Jesus said, ‘My peace I give you.’  And remember, he who said “My peace I give you” also said, “If you will be my disciple, and thereby inherit my peace, you must take up your cross and follow me.”  So I do dare say to you, “Go in peace, if you dare”  Presbyterian Peace Fellowship 845-786-6743 | presbypeacefellowship.org Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

Presbyterian Peace Fellowship | 17 Cricketown Road, Stony Point, NY 10980