'Peace Among the Peoples'

Rev. Herman Keizer wasn't keen on getting up early every morning, but it was for a good cause that is close to his heart: promoting peace.

Keizer, the retired director of Chaplaincy and Care Ministries for the Christian Reformed Church in North America, joined more than 200 others at the recent "Peace Among the Peoples" conference in Elkhart, Indiana.

"The conference was very busy with breakfast at 7 a.m. and an evening service every night, in one of the community churches, with refreshment afterward," he said. The schedule was packed and he got to bed late every night.

"If the Mennonites invite you to a conference on peace, before accepting, make certain they do not have a Calvinistic work ethic!"

Highlights of the late July meeting for him included "hearing many great speeches on just war, just peace and pacifism . . . worshipping in a Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and AME church; renewing some acquaintances . . . and to hear the pastor of the AME church remind the group that more people die from violence in her kind of neighborhood than in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"I was asked to attend as a result of a speech I gave at the invitation of Bruce Adema (Canadian ministries director of CRCNA) in Winnipeg. That was a dialogue between the Mennonites and the CRCNA Canada," said Keizer.

The Elkhart gathering drew academics and grassroots promoters of peace to focus on how their churches' theologies reflect and promote peace and justice. The conference was planned under the auspices of the Institute of Mennonite Studies, the research arm of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary.

Hosted by the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, the conference had more than 20 co-sponsors and just over 200 registrants, mostly from the U.S., but also Canada, Europe and Australia, representing Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant and Free Church faith traditions.

Peace Among the Peoples has been part of a decade-long initiative of the World Council of Churches to help people overcome the spirit, logic and practice of violence. From May 17–25, 2011, the WCC will convene a worldwide gathering, the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation, in Kingston, Jamaica, as a "harvest festival" to celebrate the achievements of the "Decade to Overcome Violence" which began in 2001.

Rita Nakashima Brock and Philip LeMasters, an Orthodox priest, addressed the opening plenary session on "Alternative Approaches to Christians and War." Brock is founding co-director of the Faith Voices for the Common Good and LeMasters teaches at McMurry University, Abilene, Texas.

Brock, co-author of Saving Paradise, used visuals to show the church’s early experience of Jesus as a living presence in a vibrant world through art, ritual and devotional practices.

LeMasters said Orthodoxy views war as always a tragic, broken endeavor, "but a sometimes necessary evil for the defense of justice and freedom. The only normative ideal, however, is that of peace." We are called, he said, "to participate in the peace of heaven even as we live on the earth."

Dick Hamm, director of Christian Churches Together, served as moderator of the large group discernment sessions. He spoke of a consensus that this was "an outstanding conference" where we “were called into the presence of the Spirit."

For more information on the conference see peace conference. For more information on the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation, "Glory to God and Peace on Earth," see overcoming violence.