Today, 21 September, is the International Day of Peace (“Peace Day“). This day was established in 1981 by a resolution of the United Nations resolution, supported unanimously by all representatives who voted. So Peace Day is a globally-shared date for all humanity to commit to Peace above all differences and work to ensure that Peace predominates over the conflicts raging in the world.
One of the myths of the 20th century is that there were two great wars (the two “World Wars”). That puts the focus on conflicts that involved many nations around the world, coalescing together in alliances to fight “the other side”. However, the terrible reality is that in every year of the 20th century, in country after country, Peace was absent. Civil wars, border disputes, regional conflicts, and terrorist insurgencies against unjust dictatorships, all attest to the continuing reality of the Lack of Peace around the world.
And at the moment, we really need some signs of Peace in our world, as the media has focussed in recent times on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and, for the past 11 months, the atrocities being committed in Gaza, and now Lebanon. Where is Peace? When will it ever come? It is more important than ever that we recommit to seeking Peace in our world, and press our leaders to work towards peace in national life and International relations.
The theme for the 2024 International Day of Peace is Cultivating a Culture of Peace. 2024 marks the 25th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace. In that declaration, the United Nations recognises that peace “not only is the absence of conflict but also requires a positive, dynamic participatory process where dialogue is encouraged, and conflicts are solved in a spirit of mutual understanding and cooperation.”
The Justice and International Cluster of the Uniting Church in the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania has produced a fine resource for this day. In this resource, it notes that early in the life of the Uniting Church, the National Assembly has made a clear and unequivocal commitment, on behalf of the whole church, to support peace-building and reject the idea that the world can be made a better place by killing people.
In 1982, the Assembly meeting passed a resolution declaring “that God came in the crucified and risen Christ to make peace; that he calls all Christians to be peacemakers, to save life, to heal and to love their neighbours. The call of Christ to make peace is the norm, and the onus of proof rests on any who resort to military force as a means of solving international disputes.” (res. 85.26)
It called for action “to interact and collaborate with local communities, secular movements, and people of other living faiths towards cultivating a culture of peace” and to work to “empower people who are systemically oppressed by violence, and to act in solidarity with all struggling for justice, peace, and the integrity of creation”. It also identified the need “to repent together for our complicity in violence, and to engage in theological reflection to overcome the spirit, logic, and practice of violence”.
The Justice and International Cluster resource quoted Rev. Martin Luther King, in Strength to Love (Fontana, 1969), who wrote, “Returning hate for hate multiples hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that… So when Jesus says, ‘Love your enemies’, he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies—or else? The chain reaction of evil—hate begetting hate, wars producing wars—must be broken, or we shall be plunged into darkness of annihilation.” How true those words still are, today.
The resource can be found at https://justact.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/240704-eLM-PFA-International-Day-of-Peace-Digital.pdf
For more of my thoughts on Peace, see
and also https://unitingforpeacewa.org/2018/11/28/perth-peacemaking-conference-statement/
An Informed Faith 