Friends,
Three years ago, at an outdoor celebration in August, I preached a sermon about the need to talk about issues of faith and war and peace before our nation sends our children off to fight in the next big war.
It was an amazing experience for me. The last time I had preached a serious peacenik sermon—after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003—at least two people walked out of the sanctuary in protest. This time, I preached a peace sermon and about ten people approached me after the sermon and asked to be part of the conversation.
So we started talking, and as a result we decided to write up a “peace church declaration” and to present that declaration to the congregation as a whole, hoping that Montclair Presbyterian Church would embrace the idea of declaring itself a peace church.
The declaration itself took two years to write, re-write, and edit. After a long conversation—one that involved pizza and beer—the session approved the idea that the declaration should be passed on to the congregation for consideration.
Our official discussions about becoming a peace church will begin with sermons on August 19th and September 23rd, and we will have a formal time for conversation around becoming a peace church on September 30. If everything goes smoothly (and if it seems like the church is ready to take a vote) we will have a congregational meeting to approve the peace church declaration after celebration on November 11, which is the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.
The main reason for declaring ourselves a peace church is so that children who are growing up in the Church can have the opportunity to declare themselves conscientious objectors if ever the draft is reinstated, but declaring ourselves a peace church also is a way of placing ourselves squarely within the ancient Christian tradition of rejecting the violence of war in favor of the healing restoration of peace.
By declaring ourselves a peace church we are not casting judgment on those who have served or who are serving in the military; part of our motivation for becoming a peace church involves a desire to ensure that every member of the US military has the opportunity to finish his or her service without going in harm’s way and without needing to kill anyone.
Nor are we second guessing the decisions of past leaders who led our country into war. We are, however, recognizing that no war we know about has led to a lasting and holistic peace and no war we know about ever has been waged according to any set of principles that might make a war just.
Even though the official conversation hasn’t begun I’m offering everyone the opportunity to read and to think about the peace church declaration now. A PDF version of the declaration can be downloaded from the church’s website (click here). I hope you will take time to read the declaration, and if you have questions about it, or if you want to talk about issues of faith, war, and peace, I hope you will feel free to give me a call or send me an email.
God’s Peace,
Ben