The Resolution: A Call for Peacemaking

Overview

With the support of 12 annual conferences, the 2008 United Methodist General Conference issued a call for peacemaking based on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and his call for us to love our enemies, pray for those who hurt us, and forgive those who sin against us. Resolution 6091, “A Call for Peacemaking” states that ‘for The United Methodist Church peacemaking is an essential task for achieving success in other initiatives,” including eliminating poverty and caring for children. In addition, the resolution asserts that peacemaking is a characteristic of vital congregations.

The resolution calls on United Methodists “to become peacemakers wherever they are–at home, school, work, in the local community and the wider world–and to show the love, compassion, and concern for justice that Jesus taught and lived.” Local congregations are urged “to teach and practice peacemaking, to study underlying causes of conflict among social groups and nations, to seek positive remedies and become instruments of peace.”

Annual conferences are encouraged to help congregations by offering training, support, and encouragement for congregational peacemaking efforts. Conferences are also to “be voices for peace, justice, and reconciliation.” Bishops are asked “to encompass peacemaking in teaching what it means to live the United Methodist way, engage in conflict resolution where appropriate, and offer a prophetic voice for peace and justice.”

6091. A Call for Peacemaking

God’s earth is aching for peace. Domestic strife, interpersonal violence and abuse, civil conflict, ethinic and racial clashes, religious schism and interfaith rivalry, terrorist attacks, wars between nations, and threatened use of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons–all of these prevent us from achieiving God’s shalom.  In response we who are disciples of Jesus Christ are called to be peacemakers for the transformation of the world.

The biblical foundation for peacemaking is the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus taught, “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:39), “Don’t react violently against the one who is evil” (Matthew 5:39, Scholar’s Version*), “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44), and pray to forgive those who trespass against us (Matthew 6:12, 14-15).  Paul echoed Jesus’ teaching when he instructed Christians in Rome, “Do not be overcome by evil, ut overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:14-21).  he told the church in Corinth that through Christ we have a “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:17-18).

For the United Methodist Church peacemaking is an essential task for achieving success in other initiatives. Working with the poor to eliminate poverty, caring for children, and conducting global health initiatives can be most successful in stable and just societies free from armed conflict. To have sufficient resources for these tasks requires global peace and disarmament in order to redirect vast amounts of public funds now spent on armed forces and weaponry. Moreover, a strong concern for peace and justice is a necessaryfeature of vital congregations.

Therefore, the 2008 General Conference of The United Methodist Church calls upon:

• United Methodist children, youth, and adults as devoted disciples of Jesus Christ to become peacemakers wherever they are – at home, school, work, in the local community and the wider world – and to show the love, compassion, and concern for justice that Jesus taught and lived;
• local congregations as an expression of Wesleyan social holiness to teach and practice peacemaking, to study underlying causes of conflict among social groups and nations, to seek positive remedies and become instruments of peace;
• annual conference to undergird congregations through training, encouragement, and active support for peacemaking activities and to be voices for peace, justice, and reconciliation within the conference area and beyond;
• bishops to encompass peacemaking in teaching what it means to live the United Methodist way, engage in conflict resolution where appropriate, and offer a prophetic voice for peace and justice, and
• board and agencies to incorporate peacemaking into their regular programs and budgets.

ADOPTED 2008

See Social Principles ¶ 165C.

*The Five Gospels; The Search for the Authetic Words of Jesus. A new Translation and Commentary by Robert W. Funk, Roy @. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar [also known as the Scholars Version]; Robert W. Funk, et al (New York: Macmillan, 1993]

From The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church — 2008. Copyright © 2008 by The United Methodist Publishing House.