Historic Peace Churches plan Asia peace consultation.

Fourteen members of the Historic Peace Churches (Church of the Brethren, Quakers, and Mennonites) met in Indonesia Dec. 5-9 to consider holding an Asian peace consultation in 2007. Participants in the meeting came from Indonesia, India, Japan, Australia, and the United States.

Following the launching of the Decade to Overcome Violence, a program of the World Council of Churches (WCC), an invitation came from the WCC Central Committee in 1999 for the peace churches to share their insights and experience with the wider Christian church as a component of the decade. An Asian conference would be the third such international Historic Peace Church conference responding to this invitation. In 2001, a consultation was held in Switzerland on "Peace in a Globalized World." A second meeting took place in Kenya in 2004 on "Making Peace Theology Relevant to the Conflicts in Africa." The Indonesian planning meeting considered a consultation for Asian churches, with a focus on peacemaking within interreligious communities.

A new ad-hoc committee was appointed to carry forward the idea of an Asian conference. The committee is considering hosting the consultation in December 2007. Information regarding this conference and the previous Historic Peace Church conferences may be found at www.peacetheology.org/.

Representing the Church of the Brethren were: Scott Holland, of Bethany Theological Seminary; Donald E. Miller, Asian consultation convener; Mervin Keeney, executive director of Global Mission Partnerships for the Church of the Brethren General Board; Stanley Noffsinger, general secretary of the Church of the Brethren General Board; and Darryl R. Sankey of the Church of the Brethren-India.

Source: 12/14/2005 Newsline
top