Peacemaking Study Module-4

PEACEMAKING STUDY MODULE-4
Reference material:
Initial Statement Towards an Ecumenical Declaration on Just Peace
World Council of Churches
Decade to Overcome Violence
Glory to God and Peace on Earth

International Ecumenical Peace Convocation
Kingston, Jamaica
17-25 May 2011
Study module format prepared by

Frank J. Hernando
for
The Peace Community Movement Center (PCMC)
The Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK)
2009
Seoul, South Korea
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to thank all the participants of the Peace School for the inspiration to produce
this fourth study material. Also we would like acknowledge the contributions of the Ms. Bae
Yu-Mi and Mr. Kim Kwang-Eun for the translation of English vocabulary to Korean language as
well as the invaluable support of all the PROK staff and executives especially Rev. Bae Tae-
Jin, general secretary, Rev. Lee Hoon-Sam, executive secretary for Domestic Mission
Department and Rev. Shin Seung-Min of the Overseas Ecumenical Relations Department.
May God in Jesus Christ empower us to work for peace in the world.
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Peace School Topics
First Term: Topics 1-4

1. The God of peace and the peace of God
2. Peace and the Household of God
3. The God of peace revealed as the Holy Trinity
4. Human beings—Earthlings in God’s image
Second Term: Topics 5-8

5. Violence in Human Relationships
6. Forms and Structure of Division
7. The Churches as Communities and Agents of Peace-building
8. The Church as Sacrament of Peace
Third Term: Topics 9-12

9. The Churches as Prophetic Sign of Peace-building
10. The Churches as Instruments of Peace-building
11. The Tasks of Peace-building
12. The Spiritual Practices of Peace
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FIRST TERM
Topics 1-4
Description: This topic covers the important biblical terminologies of peace,

justice, mercy and other related concepts. Comparison of these biblical
terminologies with other Middle-Eastern languages is made to draw out
connections with the biblical concepts.
Objectives: At the end of the session participants are able to:
1. Familiarize of the basic biblical terminologies of peace and other
related concepts
2. Discuss the biblical concepts of peace in their present context.
Materials Needed:
Materials needed are handbooks, computer notebook, projector, power
point presentation of the topic, name tags, crayons and sheets of blank
paper. Loose leaf materials, if any should be made available for the
participants.
Unfreezing Exercise:
For this first topic, it is practicable to introduce an unfreezing exercise
that would allow participants to self-disclose. The suggested self-
disclosure process below can be used, but workshop facilitators can
improvise.
1. Each participant will draw on a piece of paper provided any
thing that symbolizes peace e.g. a dove, a leaf, etc.
2. When everyone is ready, each will introduce his/her name and
tell something about the symbol of peace he/she has drawn.
3. Each participant will give his or her expectation/s in this peace
study program.
Scripture Text: Luke 2: 10-14

“Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy
which will come to al people; for to you is born this day in the
city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, and this will be
a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths
and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a
multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men.”
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Paragraph 1, Introduction: When we join in the angelic exaltation in the Luke’s
Gospel, saying “Glory to God and peace on earth”, what does this mean in our
violent contemporary world? Who is this God of Peace? And what is the peace this
God is offering? Both the concept of God and the concept of God’s peace are not
understood in the same way by all. Conflicts and violence are often done by people
who believe in God and claim to be acting in the name of God and in the name of
peace. Crusades and colonial and neo-colonial projects have been at different times
carried out in the name of God. Realizing how much our own failings have tainted
our understanding of God and God’s peace, we need to turn to the Scriptures to
listen again to the Word of God.
Paragraph 2: Key Biblical Concepts of Peace

In the Hebrew Scriptures shalom means “completeness, soundness, welfare,
peace.” Shalom is a broad concept, embracing justice (mishpat), mercy, rightness
(tsedeq) or righteousness (tsedeqah), compassion (hesed), and truthfulness (emet)
all together. There is no peace without justice. But justice (mishpat) is not only
about fair judgment and rectitude; it is also about giving what is right and just to
the afflicted. Therefore, peace (shalom) is the effect of righteousness, and the
practice of truth and justice. It is a condition where God leads nations to settle their
conflicts and beat their swords into ploughshares (Micah 4:3; Isa 2:4). Ultimately, it
is a condition where “the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down
with the kid, the calf and the lion and the
fatling together, and a little child shall lead
them“ (Isa 11:6).
Shalo m
Paragraph 3: Shalom and Salaam
The Hebrew word shares linguistic roots with
the Aramaic and Akkadian words salamu, and
the Arabic salaam, which means “to have
enough, to equalize“. These words share the
literal meaning of being faultless, healthy, and
complete. Broadly, shalom means wholeness
s im ply
and well being; it means safety, prosperity, and freedom from strife and political
weal. It is about a holistic view of human security, a condition where one is able to
live a healthy life, sleep soundly, enjoy one’s children, and die serenely after a life
lived to the fullest. The concept of shalom is inclusive of individual and communal
peace.
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It encompasses the well being of human beings and the earth, the fullness of
humanity’s social relations and humanity’s connectedness with the earth. The
Hebrew Scriptures are clear in their understanding that peace is lost when illnesses,
injustices, poverty, conflict, violence, and wars inflict wounds on the bodies and
souls of human beings, on society and on the earth. But peace is more than the
absence of conflict, as it is sometimes understood today. The absence of conflict
and war does not exhaust the meaning of shalom.
Shalom, peace or 평화
is an experience rather
than just merely a
concept or an idea. The understanding of peace as expressed above
includes justice, mercy, compassion and many more. This simply means
that peace is an experience of well-being where all forms of violence,
greed, and selfishness lost their power on people and communities. The violent and
conflicted situations have been transformed.
The equivalent of the Hebrew word ‘shalom’ in Korean language is ‘pyeonghwa’ 평화

or 태평 which characterizes well being and the absence of conflict. In concrete
experiences in the Korean Peninsula, there are some sectors in society that may not have
peace or well being in the sense that their means of livelihood or employment are
threatened.
We may consider the situation of the millions of irregular workers that do not have
security of tenure, or assurance that they will have work until they retire. As irregular
workers, they don’t receive similar economic benefits with those who are classified as
regular workers. On the other hand, those who have regular employment may have
peace or security of tenure, but may have been treated unjustly by their employers, e.g.
unequal salaries between women and men and other forms of discrimination in the
places of work.
Paragraph 4: Shalom and Islam

The Hebrew concept of shalom is related to the Arabic notion of islam, which means
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submission of oneself to God. Seen in this light, peace can only be achieved by
opening one’s self to God’s will and purpose. The Hebrew Scriptures give us the
understanding that all peace is of God, and the wholeness of human life includes
obedience to God who is just, merciful and righteous. Peace, therefore, is the fruit of
righteousness and practice of justice. It is the effect of an upright life and
faithfulness to God.
Paragraph 5: Shalom and Eirene

This comprehensive meaning of shalom is carried over into the New Testament and
expressed with the classical Greek word eirene. Peace is God’s gift, God’s blessing.
Prosperity and well-being are understood as outward, though by no means
exclusive, signs of God’s favour. They are regarded to be results of God’s
commandment to be just, merciful and righteous. (Thus, this is very different from
the “Prosperity Gospel“ preached in some churches wherein prosperity is
understood in terms of material wealth and financial success.) The Bible is very
clear about the dangers of material riches (see f. i. Mt 6:19-21.24 and 1 Tim 6:7-10)
and underlines that God’s law is tested by the ability of leaders and of peoples to
demonstrate just actions to build peace.
Words from Biblical English language Korean language

and Mid-Eastern equivalent equivalent
Languages
shalom (Hebrew) Peace, completeness, 평화; 태평; 평안, 안영
soundness, welfare, peace
misphat justice 정의; 공정
Tsedeq/tsedeqah Rightness/righteousness 진실; 진정
hesed compassion 연민, 동정
emet truthfulness 정직한, 성실한
Salamu (Aramaic) “to have enough, to 대체로 표준에 합치하는;
salaam (Arabic) equalize“; being faultless, …을 똑같게 하다; 흠없는,
healthy, and complete 강한; 전부가 갖추어진
islam (Arabic) submission of oneself to 신에게 순종, 복종
God
eirene (Greek) Peace; peace is God’s gift 평화는 신의 선물이다; 신의
or God’s blessing 축복이다
basileia (Greek) kingdom 왕국; 왕령, 왕권
English Words Meaning or definition Korean translation

angelic exaltation the angels’ joyful 천사의 높이기; 천사의 기
announcement 쁨 소식
tainted the effect of something 더러워진, 썩은; 부패한
bad or unpleasant that
spoils the quality of
somebody or something
encompass to include a large number {종종 수동형으로} …을
or range of things 에워싸다
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comprehensive includes all, or almost all, 포괄적인, 모든 것을 포함
the items, the details, 하는
facts, information, etc.,
that may be concerned.
bestow to give something to …을 주다, 증여하다, 수여
somebody, especially to 하다
show how much they are
respected
enmity Feelings of hatred towards 적의; 증오, 앙심; 적대 감
somebody 정
Shalom, peace or 평
화 is related to the Arabic understanding of islam, which means
submission of oneself to God. This simply shows that peace is a human
project but the human project holders need to submit themselves to God,
the supreme being to whom human beings give respect and obedience.
Peace can be achieved as human project.
However, peace may be lost in total disregard of a set of ethical values that will sustain
the peace that has been achieved. On the one hand religious beliefs are important
aspects of having peace, while on the other hand these can prevent peace from be
experienced, especially when there are clashes of values between religious groups.
Peace, therefore, is the fruit of righteousness and practice of justice. It is the effect of an
upright life and faithfulness to God. Religious beliefs of two different religious groups
can come to a common understanding of the kind of peace society needs. Religious
groups in sincere dialogue can draw out common ethical values that will help society
achieve peace in their lifetime. Most conflicts in the world have had worsen because of
the lack of trust and open mindedness among religious groups.
Paragraph 6: Jesus is the Source of Peace

In the New Testament, Jesus himself is the source of peace. His life reveals the Spirit
of Peace, a peace that the world cannot give. This peace he bestows upon his
disciples: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the
world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid“ (Jn 14:27-28).
The peace that Jesus is and gives is a central feature of the kingdom (basileia)
which manifests itself in all forms of peace both in daily life and in the messianic
fulfillment (Jn 14:27; 2 Thess 3:16). The peace of Jesus makes it possible to
overcome enmity and division (Eph 2:14-16), for it is a peace that has come through
the blood of his cross (Col 1:20). Through his death, Jesus has overcome the very
sources of enmity, making it possible for all creation to be brought together in unity
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through him and to be reconciled to God (Eph 1:10; Col 1:16.19-20).
 What are your actual experiences of peace? Do your

experiences match the concepts or peace we have learned in this
topic?
 In what situations in the church or in your local community that
peace is consciously worked out? What particular activities had
been done inspired by the biblical understanding of peace?
 Is the Christian symbolism of the cross for peace in Jesus Christ
an encouragement to you to live as a peacemaker?
You may write your learning on this topic following the outline below.
The most impressive things I’ve learned from this topic are:
1.
2.
3.
The ideas that I need to learn more or need to reconsider are:
1.
2.
3.
Closing Prayer
A song of peace can be sung by the group and a participant can lead the closing
prayer.
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Description: This topic focuses on the household or family of God as the place
where peace can grow. In the larger context such as in communities
and society peace can be nurtured and shared as well by those who
have practiced peace in their lives. In the succeeding paragraphs peace
is described as God’s gift to humanity and it is the ethical tool in
overcoming violence.
Objectives:
At the conclusion of this session participants are able to:
1. Define the meaning of the household of God.
2. Restate the significance of peace building initiatives in the life of
families, communities and society.
3. Determine what peace building activities can be carried out by action
groups and churches.
Materials Needed:
point presentation of the topic, name tags. Loose leaf materials, if any,
should be made available for the participants.
Unfreezing Exercise: Chain Communication from AT2RIVERS@aol.com
Have an ambiguous photo or picture. Take a volunteer aside to show the picture. The
group doesn't get to see it. They note (he/she can write it down) 10 things (or # time
permits) about the picture. When the volunteer rejoins the group, tell the group and
volunteer that the volunteer is going to whisper information about the picture to the
person on their right. The person listening can only take in the information without
10
questions and without writing. The information is repeated in this way until all people
have heard. The last person receiving the information tells the group what they heard.
Then the facilitator can read the initial 10 things the volunteer wrote and show the
picture. Laugh --- and discuss.
Scripture Texts: Ephesians 2: 19-22; Romans 14: 19

So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you
are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the
household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in
whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a
holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for
a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
Paragraph 1, The Household of God: There can be no other setting of

humanity’s efforts for building peace than this world. The world is God’s household
or oikos. Oikos is a term that includes the habitation for all people; the affairs,
relationships and common cause of the people in that oikos, as well as their
dwelling place, their properties and environment (Eph 2:19-22). The members of the
oikos have the basic responsibility of working for the good of all people (Gal 6:10).
In the ancient Greek world, oikoumene was understood to refer to the whole world
as an administrative unit and, for some time, was equated with the Roman Empire
(Lk 2:1).
We have to live in
Paragraph 2, Yet, for the followers of Jesus, it was
harmony so that peace
understood to be the community of faith “built will dwell in the world.
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone“ (Eph
2:20). It is the “church of the living God“ (1 Tim
3:15, 1 Peter 4:17). The church, however, does not
exhaust the meaning of oikoumene. In a broader
sense, the New Testament writers understood
oikoumene as the earth and all of its inhabitants (Lk 2:10; 4:5; Acts 17:30-31). Seen
in this way, the church is inevitably intertwined with the world, since each human
being within the oikos is connected with the oikos of the church and the oikos of the
world.
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Paragraph 3, Peace-building: Peace and peace-building are important
dimensions of life together in the household of God. If each is to live in harmony
with the other, and all are to experience well being as fruits of living in truth, justice
and peace in the household, then all must participate in the process of peace-
building, spiritual strengthening and edification (oikodome). Each is called to be a
builder of the house (oikodomos), building up and strengthening the oikoumene by
helping each member to live responsibly and effectively.
Paragraph 4, An oikodomos is a peace-builder, one who strives to make the

community of faith a sign of healing and justice in the world, who renders service to
bring healing, restore wellness and wholeness to the whole household of God (Rom
14:19, Lk 12:42f). The process of healing requires dismantling of cultures of abuse
and violence. Jesus demonstrated through his life the work of such an oikodomos.
He fed the hungry, healed the sick, and comforted the lonely. He restored sight to
the blind, and gave voice to those who could not speak.
Paragraph 5, Peace as a gift: Peace is God’s gift to humanity. It both sustains

history and leads history to its fulfillment. To have peace means enjoying God’s gift
of the fullness of life, security, and liberty (Ezek 34:25-31). God invites the people of
God to come and be present in the places where peace is needed, to extend there
the household of God. They are invited to be God’s agents and to mediate situations
of conflict, to give courage to the weary, and to comfort the suffering (Mt 5:4; 2 Cor
1:3f). One is sustained in this task if one remains steadfast in faith, and submits to
the guidance and help of the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit (Jn 14:26). Indeed, it is the
promise of the Holy Spirit and the pouring out of grace upon us that keeps us in
hope that manifests to us God’s presence in settings where God seems to be
absent. There the eschatological horizon of peace is revealed, drawing us in hope
forward to a time when “God will be all in all“ (1 Cor 15:28).
Words from Biblical and English language Korean language

Mid-Eastern Languages equivalent equivalent
Oikos (Greek) Household or habitation 모든 사람을 위한 집, 거주지
for all people
Oikoumene The whole inhabited earth 모두가 지구에 거주했다
oikodome The process of peace 평화 건설의 과정
building, spiritual
strengthening and
edification
oikodomos Peacemaker or peace- 평화 건설자
builder
intertwine to be or become very 어떤 사람이나 물건과 매우 밀
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closely connected with 접하게 연관되어 있는
something or somebody
eschatological horizon of a time when peace will 마침내 모든 사람들에게 평화
peace finally come to all people 가 오는 때
restore to bring back a situation …을 회복하다, 부흥 [복구, 재
or feeling that existed 건] 하다
before
mediate to try to end a 중재하다, 조정하다
disagreement between
two of more people or
groups by talking to them
and trying to find things
that everyone can agree
on.
When we think of the church as the household of faith and comprise the
whole inhabited world, we are encouraged to work for peace not just for
a particular group of people but for everyone. However, as we see around
us there are groups of people, communities and societies that can be
identified as priority for us to help assert the reign of peace. When we have identified
them, we can engage in dialogue with them and wok together for sustainable peace.
The work of peacemakers goes beyond religious beliefs, race or social status, because
whenever and wherever there is the absence of peace, peacemakers should be able to
intervene and do the best they can to assist and support the suffering people. As
mentioned above, God invites us--the people of God to come and be present in the
places where peace is needed, to make known the peace present in the household of
God. As peacemakers we are invited to be God’s agents and to mediate in situations of
conflict, to give courage to the weary, and to comfort those who suffer (Mt 5:4; 2 Cor
1:3f).
In this sense, Christians should not be indifferent to those in need of peace, security and
justice. But this challenge should not be mistaken for the evangelistic agenda of many
churches that aims at converting people in countries which are predominantly non-
Christian, e.g. Middle East, South and Central Asia, etc. Peacemakers do not insist on
proselytizing or converting non-Christians to Christianity. When they get involved in
peacemaking, their pure intention of helping the suffering people will be shown in their
acts of solidarity rather in converting people to Christianity.
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Missionaries protest Mideast restriction Take Note
KOREA HERALD of this!
03 September 2009
Christian communities raised opposition to the governments move to

restrict missionary activities in the Middle East.
International Christian Concern, a U.S.-based organization that helps persecuted Christians

worldwide, said Tuesday that it objects to the government move, arguing it could infringe
on the basic human rights of citizens to freely travel and enjoy freedom of religion.
"Though the government is entitled to take the measures in order to protect citizens ... the
proposed measures clearly violate those basic rights," the ICC said in a press release
posted on its website. Out of safety concerns, the government is said to be considering
revising the passport law to restrict Christians' travel to countries from where they had
been deported for religious reasons.
An increasing number of Korean Christians have recently been arrested and expelled by
Islamic countries where missionary work is outlawed, exposing themselves and other
Koreans to threats of terrorism. A local civic religious group, named "Pray for President,"
also criticized the government move as a "strong challenge to the individual's religious
liberty." "Although the missionary activity is taking place in a dangerous country, it is an
activity conducted according to an individual's private and religious conscience and calling.
The responsibility will also be on that individual," said the group in a statement.
"There is no ground whatsoever for the state to restrict a person's own physical and
mental activity." For the past two months, more than 80 Korean church workers have been
expelled from Iran, Jordan, Yemen and other Middle Eastern countries, according to
government officials. Kidnappings and terrorist attacks against Koreans have increased in
recent years, possibly due to the nation's active support of the U.S.-led campaign against
terrorism.
(sshluck@heraldm.com) By Song Sang-ho
 How would you and your group or church get involve in peace building
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activities? Have you, your group and church initiated or supported peace
programs? What are these?
 The news clipping above is quite disturbing. If you were on

the side of the government would you pursue this restriction
of mission activities in Islamic countries? Why?
 The arrest, attacks, expulsion, even death of some South

Korean church workers in Middle East is related to the
nation’s active support of the U.S. led campaign terrorism.
Would you think the situation can be reversed, if South Korean church
workers abroad should help in peace building rather than did evangelism
work through social welfare programs?
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
The session will be closed with a song and prayer.
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Description: This topic deals with the basic understanding of God as the Holy
Trinity, that is, “Three in One” or “One in Three” as it relates to peace,
justice and unity. Herein emphasis is given to the beauty of the
interrelationship between the God of peace and creation. The reality of
one God in three: Father, Son and Holy Spirit is made real in the life of
the people of God in their desire to live in pace and in their work
towards unity with other people.
Objectives:
At the end of this session participants are able to:
1. Describe their belief in the “One God in Three” as it relates to peace
in the household of God.
2. Identify the activities that serve as examples of God’s unity
embracing peace.
3. Appraise participants’ involvement in group, local church, or peace
movement.
Materials Needed:
Scripture Texts: Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 145:17; John 14:26

“The Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are justice. A
God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he.”
The Lord is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings.
“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send
in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your
remembrance all that I have said to you.”
Paragraph 1, God as the Holy Trinity: Who is this God who is revealed in the gift
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of peace? In the Hebrew Scriptures this God of Peace is revealed to us as a God of
truthfulness, justice and mercy (Deut 32:4; Ps 145:17). In the New Testament, this is
the God who sent the Word into the world (Jn 1:14), and the Holy Spirit for the
strengthening and the guiding of Jesus’ disciples (Jn 14:26). The early Church came
to see this in a new and beautiful way: God as the Holy Trinity. The Mystery of God
as the Trinity is simultaneously the Mystery of the all embracing reality of God. The
eternal and dynamic co-inherence (in Greek: perichoresis) of the Father, the Son
and the Holy Spirit, reveals on the one hand the all-pervading unity of the divine.
This all-pervading unity of the divine is also on the other hand a unity with and
within diversity, the eternal One in Three and the Three in One.
This mask looks like me.

Paragraph 2, God in creation: This also reveals the nature of
creation: Creation is a seamless whole within its diversities,
within the all-embracing energeia (the outward movements of
the Trinity) that are designed to reveal in a sacramental manner
the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the fellowship
of the Holy Spirit. The harmony and beauty of created existence,
manifested through its diverse dynamisms, cannot therefore be
detached from the all-embracing Trinitarian Reality of the God of
Peace. God and creation are thus not set at infinite distance
from each other. Rather they are in profound relationship with each other, as the
differences within the beauty of creation mirror the perichoresis or co-inherence of
the Three Persons that are the Trinity. It is that encircling, mutual, embracing set of
relationships between them that reveals to us the reality of God - creating and
sustaining, healing and redeeming, bringing to fulfillment and reconciliation in
peace.

Languages
perichoresis (Greek) co-inherence 그들은 동일한 근원 및 특성을
공유한다
energeia The outward movements 1명의 신의 3명의 사람의 외부
of the Trinity 운동
pleroma The fullness of (creation) 신의 창조의 충만
doxa Glory to (God) 신에게 명예
praxis Building of (peace) 평화를 하기의 일

reveal, revealed to make something known [감추어진 것]을 드러내다,
to somebody [비밀]을 누설[폭로]하다
truthfulness telling the truth 진실 말
simultaneously existing or occurring at 동시에 일어나기
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the same time
all embracing reality of complete presence of God 신의 존재를 완료하십시오
God
eternal and dynamic co- never ending and active 신의 끝없은 공동 특성
inherence shared character
all-pervading unity spreading and growing 퍼지고는 및 성장 단일성
unity
diversity a range of many people or 서로와 아주 다른 것 또는
things that are very 많은 사람들의 범위
different from each other
seamless whole no spaces in between with 다른 사람들 것을 가진 중간
other people or things 에 공간 없음
sacramental referring to a religious 종교 의식 또는 의례 언급
ceremony or ritual
vulnerability the condition of weakness 약점의 상태 육체적으로 또
either physically or 는 감정적으로.
emotionally.
in cruciform fashion - following the shape of a 십자가의 모양 뒤에 나오
emblematic of the cross cross
Paragraph 3, Building peace: The oikos of the world and of the Church, the
oikoumene of God’s design and purpose therefore, are not arbitrary constructs. The
oikos finds its meaning and purpose in the Trinitarian perichoresis, an embrace of
love, peace, and beauty. Building peace is our participation toward that
perichoresis, that eternal dance. Therefore, peace-building is not just about
repairing what has been broken, but about expanding and completing relationships
that make the oikos the mirror of the Trinity.
Paragraph 4, What does this tell us, then, about God, about peace, and
about ourselves?
• That God is Triune reveals a commitment to communion, to the fullness
(pleroma) of creation, and the difference and diversity of creation.
• God is at once a God of peace and justice, of mercy and truthfulness, all of
which are in profound embrace (Ps 85:10-14).
• Peace is an embrace of all creation. Our relations
with God, with one another, and with the earth
are not bonds of contract or arbitrary choice.
They are the bonds of love.
• The refusal of creatures to enter that embrace
brings forth God’s wrath - an anger that
flows from God’s steadfast commitment, and
God’s desire to sway the hard-hearted back to
justice and love.
• The Word has entered our world, knows our brokenness, embraces our
18
vulnerability, and is reconciling all things in himself (Col 1:19-20).
• Christ is our peace (Eph 2:14), who in his own flesh has made us one with
one another and with himself.
• As created in the image of God, we have the potential to bring peace and
overcome violence. As created in the likeness of God, we are called to
mediate and build up God’s reconciliation and peace.
• “Glory to God“ and “Peace on earth“ are held together in cruciform fashion
- emblematic of the cross of Christ that stands as a sign of our
reconciliation with God (the vertical beam) and with all creation (the
horizontal beam). Ascending praise is answered by descending
peace. Glory to God (doxa) is only revealed in the building (praxis) of
peace.
Peace is one of the basic characters of God revealed in the Holy

Trinity. The equal relationship and unity among the three persons of
the Trinity gives us an example of how human persons should live in
peace and in harmony with one another and with creation. This
understanding can be shown in how human persons relate in peace, unity and
harmony. This means that individual persons must strive to emphasize common
goals and objectives in their relationships to achieve peace and unity rather than
the differences and disagreements that usually lead to violence and aggression.
Example: The reunification of the Korean Peninsula is the most debated issue in
South Korea. The South Korean government under President Lee Myung-bak has
been reluctant in following the “Sunshine Policy” of former presidents Kim Dae-Jung,
Kim Yong-Sam and Roh Moo-Hyun. The “Sunshine Policy” is considered by liberal
and progressive groups in society as advancing the reunification process through
North-South bilateral economic cooperation and cultural exchanges. However,
President Lee Myung-Bak would rather imitate the US style of dealing with North
Korea based on the idea that whatever economic and cultural exchanges that would
take place, a particular action should had been done by the North, e.g. food aid—
improvement of human rights; fuel support---denuclearization, etc.
Peace is an embrace of all creation. Our relations with God, with one another, and
with the earth are not bonds of contract or arbitrary choice. They are the bonds of
19
love. The refusal of creatures to enter that embrace brings forth God’s wrath - an
anger that flows from God’s steadfast commitment, and God’s desire to sway the
hard-hearted back to justice and love.
This theological idea springs from the understanding that not only human beings
befit God’s peace, but creation as well: plants, animals, airspace, waters, etc. Peace
as God’s embrace of all creation suggests that no matter how much human beings
work out something peaceful and just in society and the world through economic
prosperity, political-military security, cultural diversity and social unity minus the
integrity of creation, peace will not be fully achieved. We are informed that climate
change such as global warming, desertification of farm lands and forests, rising sea
water level, rising carbon emission are signs that creation does not have peace.
Natural disasters have brought a lot of destruction on life and property.
1. How does the understanding of God as “One in three” or “Three

in one” influenced the way you prepare goals and objectives in
life?
2. What can your group, church, and government do toward peace

that embraces human beings and creation?
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
20
Description: This topic focuses on the biblical understanding of human beings
created in the image of God and their potential for good and their
proneness to do evil as seen in the acts of violence. Herein, stressed
the perplexing estrangement of human beings from the Creator - the
mystery of evil – that manifests itself in shame and guilt, accusation
and lies, refusal of communication and murder, cheating and revenge,
fear and anxiety, desire and rape, plundering and looting. More so, the
topic deals with the affirmation that human beings are instruments of
God’s peace.
Objectives: At the conclusion of the learning session participants are able to:
1. Discuss human beings’ potentialities to live up to God’s intention for
creation.
2. Illustrate the willfulness of human beings in creating a climate of fear
by committing violent actions
Materials Needed:
21
Scripture Texts: Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, an over all the
earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of
God he created him; male and female he created them.
Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living being.
Paragraph 1, Created in God’s image.

Together with our ancestors-in-the-faith we
believe that every human being is created in
God's image (Gen 1:26-27). After bringing forth
all other creatures on the earth, God created
humankind from the soil (ha adamah) and
breathed life into it (Gen 2:7). All human beings
embody this tension: They are created in God's
image and at the same time earthlings - indeed
the last of all the earthlings to be made. Made from dust and earth, they share in
the vulnerability and mortality of all living things. At the same time they participate
in God's life, gifted with freedom and endowed with the calling to participate in
God's creating and sustaining work, cultivating life with other creatures the
flourishing of all. Thus they are made to build a just and peaceful world, in the
likeness of God whose work is peace and in close solidarity with the earth and all of
creation.
Paragraph 2, The Mystery of Evil and the Perversities of the Human Heart -
Faces of Violence. However, the human propensity to turn away from God - what
we call sin - reaches back to the very beginning. There is this perplexing
estrangement from the Creator - the mystery of evil – that manifests itself in shame
and guilt, accusation and lies, refusal of communication and murder, cheating and
revenge, fear and anxiety, desire and rape, plundering and looting. All these are
indications of humanity having lost their original image and distorted their
22
primordial calling. With this evil propensity the many forms of violence have entered
our world.

Languages
ha adamah (Hebrew) a living soul or being
embody to express or represent (정신)에 형체[육체] 주다
an idea or a quality
tension a situation in which 긴장; 신장
people do not trust each
other, or feel unfriendly
towards each other, and
which may cause them to
attack each other
earthlings human beings 사람; 인간
vulnerability weak and easily hurt (몸의 어떤 부분이) 상처받기
physically or emotionally 쉬운
mortality the state of being human 죽음을 면할 수 없음
and not living forever
endow; endowed Have been given
something
sustain; sustained; to provide enough of [무게]를 떠받치다
sustaining what somebody or
something needs in order
to live or exist
propensity a tendency to a particular (보통 나쁜 뜻으로) 경향, 성
kind of behavior 향, 성벽, 성질
perplexing estrangement confusing separation
manifest clearly, especially a 명백한, 분명한
feeling, an attitude or a
quality
accusation a statement saying that 고발, 고소, 비난, 규탄

you think a person is
guilty of doing something
wrong, especially of
committing a crime
plunder to steal things from a (군대 등이) …을 약탈하다

place, especially using
force
distort; distorted to change the shape, (종종 수동형으로)…(의형

appearance or sound of 상)을 일그러 지게 하다
something so that it is
strange or not clear; to
twist or change facts,
ideas, etc. so that they
are no longer correct or
true.
23
indication a remark or sign that 지시 (하는 [되는] 것); 암시;
shows that something is 지적
happening or what
somebody is thinking or
feeling
primordial existing at or from the 최조의, 본원의, 근본적인
beginning of the world
raison d’ etre the most important 국가적 이유 (주정 행위를 정
reason for somebody’s 당화는
existence
Paragraph 3, Forms of expression of violence. Basically, violence is a violation

of limits, a trespassing into the space each living thing rightfully requires for the
unfolding and fulfillment of its raison d'être. It is thus the violation of integrity and
harmony of the myriad relationships by which the fabric of creation is sustained.
Violence has untold expressions. At the personal level the most gruesome forms are
intentional humiliation and hurt, sexual abuse, rape and murder, abandonment and
starvation. At the level of societies and nations violence is experienced in acts of
war and terrorism - including the “war on terror“ -, in the grim realities of millions of
displaced people and refugees, in children being forced into soldiering and
prostitution, in farmers committing suicide because of unmanageable debts.
24
Human beings were created in God’s image. The creation story in the
Book of Genesis tells us that the human beings were made from dust
and earth and shares in the vulnerability and mortality of all living
things. At the same time they participate in God's life, given the gift
of freedom and with the calling to share and participate in God's
creating and sustaining work, cultivating life with other creatures the flourishing of
all.
Given human beings’ capacity to manage themselves and God’s creation they are
responsible to build a just and peaceful world. This is an important responsibility
because they have to work for peace in close solidarity with the earth and all of
creation.
However, the human beings inclination to turn away from God - what we call sin -
reaches back to the very beginning. There is this perplexing estrangement from the
Creator - the mystery of evil – that manifests itself in shame and guilt, accusation
and lies, refusal of communication and murder, cheating and revenge, fear and
anxiety, desire and rape, plundering and looting.
To underscore the impact of sin at the personal level, it is important to reiterate the
above point that human beings can do the most gruesome forms of violence such as
intentional humiliation and hurt, sexual abuse, rape and murder, abandonment and
starvation. At the level of societies and nations violence is experienced in acts of
war and terrorism - including the “war on terror“ -, in the grim realities of millions of
displaced people and refugees, in children being forced into soldiering and
prostitution, in farmers committing suicide because of unmanageable debts.
1. What are the human activities at the personal and societal levels that
show responsible use of human capabilities e.g. management skills,
freedom, justice, etc.
2. What are the forms of violence people experience in the lives and
what are the means to overcome them?
25
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
26
SECOND TERM
Topics 5-8
Description: This topic describes the various forms and expressions of violence in
human relationships. The ideas on the sources of violence are clearly
presented here. First is violence that springs from the social systems,
second is habitual violence and third is the ubiquitous and subtle forms
of violence that is based in power over, power with and power for other
people.
Objectives: At the end of session participants are able to:

1. Differentiate the various forms and expression of violence in human
relationships;
2. Correlate the understanding of forms and expressions of violence
with their actual life’s experiences.
Materials Needed:
27
Scripture Texts: Isaiah 60:18; 53:9
No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or
destruction within your borders, but you will call your walls
Salvation and your gates Praise.
He (the servant of God) was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Paragraph 1, Violence in social systems. Violence also expresses itself in the

violating of the diversities of the natural world, in the reckless exploitation of
common goods such as drinking water and fossil fuels, the felling of forests, the
overfishing of the seas and oceans, the careless disposal of waste, and the death of
birth itself -the extinction of species. In such and many other ways the perversities
of the human heart play themselves out in and under economic globalization,
ethnocentrism and cultural exclusivism. An insatiable consumerist lifestyle
contributes to the uprooting of indigenous cultures. The impact of former
adjustments policies and the pressures to enter into inequitable trade agreements
further the accumulating of debts and the destabilizing of national and regional
autonomies. The links between the militarization of the world's economies and the
spreading of extremely violent and pornographic entertainment products are
alarming and contribute to what must be called “structural“ or “systemic“ violence.
Paragraph 2, Habitual violence. Furthermore, there is need to address what can

be called “habitual“ violence. This refers to abuses of power which have become
habitual or customary, such as taking the gifts of nature for granted or treating
human beings as “resource material“ and “objects“ of desire. Habitual violence is
also reflected in the attitude that accepts wars as “natural“ or in the belief of many
victims, especially women, that abuses toward them are unavoidable.

reckless showing a lack of care 앞뒤를 헤아리지 않는, 무모
about danger and 한; 부주의한
possible results of your
actions.
exploitation (disapproving) the fact of 개발, 개척; (판매의) 촉진,
using a situation in order 선전
to get an advantage for
yourself.
disposal The act of getting rid of 배치, 배열
something
extinction A situation in which a
28
plant, an animal, a way of
life, etc., stop existing
perversity/perversities A behavior that most 성미가 비뚤짐, 심술궂음
people think is not
normal or acceptable,
especially when it is
connected with sex; the
act of changing
something that is good or
right into something that
is bad or wrong.
ethnocentrism Based on the ideas and (사회) 자기 민족 (집단) 중
beliefs of one particular 심(지상) 주의, 자민죽 우월
culture and using these 사상.
to judge other cultures.
exclusive Not very willing to allow 배타적인; 서로 용납되지 않
new or other people to 는; 모순되는
become members,
especially if they are from
a lower social class.
insatiable Always wanting more of (익살)만족할 모르는, 매우
something; not able to be 탐욕스러운
satisfied.
accumulate To gradually get more …을 쌓아 올리다, 모으다;
and more of something …을 축적하다
over a period of time; to
gradually increase in
umber or quantity over a
period of time
destabilize To make a system, …의 안정을 깨다, …을 불안
country, government, 정하게 하다
etc., become less
established or successful
autonomy The freedom for a 자율(성), 자주(성; (정치)자
country, a region or 치, 자지 권가; 자립, 독립;
organization to govern 자치국가; 자치(단)체
itself independently; the
ability to make decisions
without being controlled
by anyone else
pornographic (disapproving) intended 호색 문학의, 보르노의, 춘화
to make people feel 의; 외설스러운, 음란한
sexually excited by
showing naked people or
sexual acts, usually in a
way that many other
people find offensive
entertainment the act of entertaining 대접, 환대, 접대
somebody; films/movies,
music, etc., used to
entertain people
structural/systemic Connected with the way 구조(상)의, 조직(상)의
in which something is
built or organized
habitual/customary (of an action) done, often 습관적인, 버릇이 된; 상습적
in a way that is annoying 인, 인박인
or difficult to stop; [only
before a noun] (of a
29
person) doing something
that has become a habit
and is therefore difficult
to stop
ubiquitous/subtle Seeming to be (동시에) 도처에 존재하는,
everywhere or in several 편재하는, 편재적인
places at the same time;
very common
maturity The quality of thinking 성숙, 원숙; 성숙기
and behaving in a
sensible, adult manner
Withhold/withheld To refuse to give …을 말리다, 억제하다
something to somebody
capacity The ability to understand (때로…) (심신의) 능력, 정
or to do something 신 능력; 성
oppressive Treating people in a cruel 포학한, 압제적인;
and unfair way and not
giving them the same
freedom, rights, etc., as
other people
demeaning Putting somebody in a (재귀용법으로)거동하다, 저
position that does not 신하다
give them the respect
that they should have
dominate To control or have a lot of …을 지배하다; …을 좌우하
influence over somebody 다
or something, especially
in an unpleasant way.
sustain 새 provide enough of (무게)를 떠받치다, 지팅하다
what somebody or
something needs in order
to live or exist; to make
something continue for
some time without
becoming less
dependency (on, upon something or 의존, (상태), 의지
somebody) the state of
relying on somebody or
something, especially
when this is not normal or
necessary
repression The act of using force to 억제, 억압, 진압
control a group of people
and restrict their freedom
redemptive That saves you from the 사는; 보상하는, 상환의
power of evil
Paragraph 3, Abusing our Powers. The ubiquitous and subtle forms of violence
can also be expressed by referring to the abuses of power. Generally speaking,
power is the strength or energy with which each living organism affirms and claims
its existence. All parents know how rigorously a baby, utterly dependent though it
is, is capable of crying out for the attention it needs for its growth! This basic power
turns into violence when it goes over and against the realm of power of other
30
creatures or in those instances where a necessary sharing of power is withheld.
More precisely, we can speak of the power that human beings have “over“ other
persons and things.
This capacity can take the form of maturity in the handling of relationships, but it
can also turn into an abuse whenever this power over others becomes oppressive,
demeaning and murderous. We can also speak of the power “with“ other persons
and objects. This is the energy with which we can create and sustain
communication with others, offer help and provide care. This “power with“ turns
into violence whenever we begin to dominate others or wherever we consciously
withdraw from others and withhold our sustenance. Love denied is a subtle
expression of violence!
Paragraph 4, Power for others. . Related to this is our “power for” others. This is
expressed in our capacity to empower others. It becomes violent when and where
we create situations and structures of dependency and repression or when and
where we overuse the powers of others by withholding our own. This way of
speaking of power “over”, “with” and “for” others applies equally well to the
personal, social, economic and political levels. At all these, forms of power can have
a useful and even redemptive meaning, but can also exert its damaging and indeed
perverting might.
The World Conservation Union (IUCN) in its briefing paper for the
World Conservation Congress assessed the challenges for the world
based on the impact of overuse of natural resources. The article below
was cut-out from the briefing paper.
The World Conservation Congress

Barcelona, 5-14 October 2008
Ref: http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/congress_theme_paper_23_march_final.pdf
Challenges
The grave environmental problems facing our planet and its communities are now
recognized by people from all walks of life. Businesses, spiritual communities, trade
unions, scientists, political leaders, schools and universities, indigenous peoples,
31
women’s organizations, local government authorities, community groups, consumer
associations, health workers, farming groups and cultural organizations are all
concerned about conservation issues.
Less understood is the fact that ecosystem health underpins economic, social and
cultural wellbeing. The increasing degradation of our natural resource base is directly
impacting the quality of life of millions of communities and billions of women and men.
The challenges are enormous. Fifty-two percent of marine fish stocks are now fully
depleted and 58% of coral reefs are endangered. More than one billion people still live
without clean drinking water and more than 2.2 million people die each year from
water-borne diseases. More than 16,000, or 40%, of species assessed in the 2006 IUCN
Red List are endangered.
Despite dramatic economic growth worldwide, poverty continues to increase in many

parts of the world. Two billion people do not have access to regular energy sources and
women in developing countries spend between two and nine hours each day collecting
fuel and fodder. Climate change is happening faster than previously thought and will
likely have an enormous effect on already vulnerable regions and communities.
STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE
Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_violence
Structural violence, a term which was first used in the 1960s and which has commonly
been ascribed to Johan Galtung, denotes a form of violence which corresponds with the
systematic ways in which a given social structure or social institution kills people
slowly by preventing them from meeting their basic needs. Institutionalized elitism,
ethnocentrism, classism, racism, sexism, adultism, nationalism, heterosexism and
ageism are just some examples of structural violence. Life spans are reduced when
people are socially dominated, politically oppressed, or economically exploited.
Structural violence and direct violence are highly interdependent. Structural violence
inevitably produces conflict and often direct violence, including family violence, racial
violence, hate crimes, terrorism, genocide, and war.
In his book Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic, James Gilligan, former

director of Massachusetts prison mental health services and presently a faculty member
at Harvard Medical School) defines structural violence as "the increased rates of death
and disability suffered by those who occupy the bottom rungs of society, as contrasted
with the relatively lower death rates experienced by those who are above them."
32
Gilligan largely describes these "excess deaths" as "non-natural" and attributes them to
the stress, shame, discrimination and denigration that results from lower status. He
draws on Sennett and Cobb, who examine the "contest for dignity" in a context of
dramatic inequality.
In 1984, Petra Kelly wrote (in her first book, Fighting for Hope):
A third of the 2,000 million people in the developing countries are starving or suffering
from malnutrition. Twenty-five per cent of their children die before their fifth birthday
[…] Less than 10 per cent of the 15 million children who died this year had been
vaccinated against the six most common and dangerous children's diseases. Vaccinating
every child costs £3 per child. But not doing so costs us five million lives a year. These
are classic examples of structural violence.
The violence in structural violence is attributed to the specific organizations of society

that injure or harm individuals or masses of individuals. In explaining his point of view
on how structural violence affects the health of subaltern or marginalized people,
medical anthropologist Paul Farmer writes:
Their sickness is a result of structural violence: neither culture nor pure individual will
is at fault; rather, historically given (and often economically driven) processes and
forces conspire to constrain individual agency. Structural violence is visited upon all
those whose social status denies them access to the fruits of scientific and social
progress.
1. What are the expressions of violence some people experience in your

community or society?
2. What are the laws of the state that prevent the use of violence in
inter-personal relationships (e.g. between family members, other
people, etc.)
3. Are you involve in a movement, church or organization that work towards

overcoming violence? What are the programs or activities you’re implementing to
33
overcome violence?
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
34
Description: This topic describes the different forms and structures of division
among people and societies. The existence of these divisions has been
denied by some people because of their desire to hold on to power or
for many other reasons to protect some defined interests. This will
encourage us to delve into the Christian principles on how to break
down the walls of division in the interpersonal, family and societal
levels.
Objectives:
At the end of the session participants are able to:
1. acknowledge the existence of various divisions between individuals,
groups, communities and societies.
2. reconstruct and articulate the Christian social ethical principles that
will strengthen resolve to breakdown the dividing walls among people.
Materials Needed:
Scripture Texts: Ephesians 2: 14-16
14
For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into
one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility
between us. 15He has abolished the law with its commandments
and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new
humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16and might
reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus
putting to death that hostility through it. (NRSV)
Paragraph 1: Another way of addressing the realities of violence is to look

at the forms and structures of enmity that pervade, and cut through, our lives.
These “dividing walls of hostility“ (Eph 2:14), whether visible or invisible, keep
35
people from sharing the cosmic good. Structures of enmity describe the fact that
the fabric of society is woven with conflicting interests and deep-seated divisions.
They have at their basis imbalances of power and irresponsible uses of power which
turn an Irish Protestant against an Irish Catholic, Hindus against Muslims, Muslims
against Christians, Palestinians against Israelis, Hutu against Tutsis and so on. No
soul is immune from this enmity. No zone is enemy-free. We are all on someone's
enemy list.
Paragraph 2: Earth, too, can be treated as though it were an enemy. In

recent decades we have grown keenly aware that cumulative abuses of human
power have placed nature's welfare in jeopardy. Nature's own requirements for its
own renewal and regeneration on its own terms and time-lines have been
subordinated to excessive human demands. Earth has been treated as though its
treasures were the spoils of an unending war.

enmity feelings of hatred 적의; 증오, 앙심
towards somebody
fabric of society basic structure of society, (건물 사회 따위의) 구조; 조
an organization, etc., that 직, 기구
enables it to function
successfully
immune not affected or protected 면역 (성)의
by something and
therefore able to avoid it.
cumulative having a result that 누적되는, 점증적인, 쌓이는
increases in strength or
importance each time
more something is added
regeneration to grow again; to make 재생; 재건, 쇄신; 부활
something grow again
subordinated less important than 하위의, 하급의
something; a person who
has a position with less
authority and power than
somebody else.
spoils to change something …을 망쳐놓다, 손상하다, 상
good into something bad, 하게
unpleasant, useless, etc.
ethic moral principles that [단수취급]윤리학, 도덕론;
control or influence a 윤리학서; [복수취급]도의,
person’s behavior; a 도덕
system of moral
principles or rules of
behavior.
guilty feeling ashamed because [도덕 형법상의] 죄를 범한,
36
you have done something 유죄의
that you know is wrong or
have not done something
that you should have
done
innocent not guilty of crime, etc., 순결한, 청순한
not having done
something wrong.
manifold many; of many different 다양한, 갖가지의; 다방면에
types 걸친
predicament a difficult or unpleasant 곤경, 궁지, 궁상
situation, especially one
where it is difficult to
know what to do
diligently showing care and effort in 근면하게, 부지런히; 애써서,
your work or duties 공들여
Paragraph 3: Sometimes these structures of enmity are seen but often

they are not. In many cases the realization of such walls of division is avoided and
their impact denied. People in one part of society live in a different world from those
in another. Mutual exposures are being avoided, and therefore the differences
between the guilty and the innocent, the perpetrators and the victims do not seem
to matter much. The air, the water can be poisoned, bombs can be dropped,
children can be turned into soldiers and prostitutes without wider sectors of
humanity caring to look.
Paragraph 4: Under these circumstances, the old question appears more

urgent than ever: Can there be an effective ethic for the overcoming of
these manifold enmities? Can there be peace across all these deep
divides? Or to sharpen these questions, as Jesus did, are we not commanded to
love the enemy as the only way to shalom and a new creation? When great oceans
and high mountain ranges no longer put anyone or anything out of reach and
destruction can be wrapped up in small packages and delivered at an instant, it
certainly seems so.
Paragraph 5: Troubled by what we see in

and around us, we turn to the Bible, the
foundation of our faith, and to the witness of
our ancestors in the faith. They have shown us
the glory of God embodied in the Child of
Bethlehem. In Jesus we discover the messianic
witness. “...he is our peace who has made us
37
one” (Eph 2:14). It is in the light of this liberating alternative that we see the
profound predicament in which humanity finds itself. On the one hand we do not
wish to overlook the admirable efforts of so many women and men who work for
peace in families and homes, who bring respect, uprightness and dignity to schools
and universities, factory shops and government offices and who work diligently for
creative solutions to illnesses, social injustices and ecological disasters. On the
other, however, we are faced with a world at the brink of ecological catastrophe,
with warfare over the access to shrinking resources such as drinking water and
fossil fuel, with half of the earth’s people in shocking poverty. Above all, the threat
of an all-out nuclear disaster is still with us.
Paragraph 6: Where does the Church stand in all of this? It cannot pretend
not to be seriously affected; for indeed all the abuses to which we have referred are
also to be found within Christian communities. Some among us are inclined to see
this predicament as an indication of the end-times referred to in the apocalyptic
writings of the New Testament. Therefore, they tend to resort so the message that
nothing can and should be done about these “tribulations”; for they are part of
God's design for the ending of world history. Rather, they extort their followers to
put all their hope in the coming Christ and the new creation that is to come once
the old one has been done away with.
Paragraph 7: In contrast to this view this Statement wants to emphasize

the inseparable connectedness of creation and salvation. The peace of God
can not be severed from peace on earth and with the earth. It is to the service of
this profound unity that the discipleship of the Church Universal is called, to take
the side of the poor and the powerless, to witness to the truth, even when it puts
our lives at stake, and to be communities and agents of healing and salvation.
38
The many violent conflict situations that are happening in our world
today are caused by structures of inequality and injustice. Although it
seems these conflicts are difficult to solve as the concept of
“terrorism”, there are solutions in view but those who control power
refused to reconsider their position. Many violent conflicts are caused
by one class, caste, religious group or a state controlling vast resources at the
disadvantage of other classes or groups.
The reunification of the South and North Korea falls within a similar framework
wherein the division of what was once a one nation came about after a violent
conflict known as the “Korean War”. The obstacles to reunification are many such as
the political, economic and military powers within and without the Korean Peninsula.
The Churches and other concerned Christians in the South Korean society have been
involved in peace and reunification work carrying with them the Christian ethical
principles that empowers them to usher in better understanding of what it takes to
live with the North Koreans and how can the two states can become one nation
again.
1. Can you identify the various enmities or things that divide a person,
family, community, society from another?
2. The Christian ethics/principles for deciding what is good to be done

such as love, reconciliation, justice and peace are adequate for you to
get involved in breaking down the walls of division/enmity?
39
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
Description: This topic deals with the nature of the Church with the understanding
that the Church is the communion of those who, by means of their
encounter with the Word, stand in a living relationship with God, who
speaks to them and calls forth their trustful response; it is the
communion of the faithful.
Objectives: At the end of the session, participants are able to:

1. describe the character of the Church as a communion of those who
follow Jesus Christ
2. categorize the nature of the Church as peacemaker.
Materials Needed:
Scripture Texts: 2 Corinthians 5: 18-19

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to
40
himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is in Christ God was reconciling
the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the
message of reconciliation.
Paragraph 1: In the Name of Christ: The Churches as Communities and

Agents of Peace building
“O Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will, but also those of ill
will. But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted on us; remember the
fruits we have brought, thanks to this suffering - our comradeship, our loyalty, our
humility, our courage, our generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of
all this, and when they come to judgment, let all the fruits which we have borne be
their forgiveness.”
(This prayer by an unknown prisoner in the concentration camp near Ravensbruck/Germany
was left beside the body of a dead child.)
Paragraph 2: The Nature and Mission of the Church

“The Church is the communion of those who, by means of their encounter with the
Word, stand in a living relationship with God, who speaks to them and calls for their
trustful response; it is the communion of the faithful“(§10).
Paragraph 3: The Church is a gift from God, who has sent the Son and the
Spirit among us. As such, it is a divine reality, a creation of both the Word and the
Spirit (§11, §13). Made up of finite persons who are sinful and redeemed, it is a
human reality as well. The New Testament does not give us a systematic theology of
the Church, but offers up a host of metaphors and images that try to evoke the
reality of the Church, at once both earthly and transcendent. Among the most
striking images are the Church as the People of God, the “People of the Way” on the
move through history toward history’s consummation of all things in Christ; as the
Body of Christ, the living presence of the Word among us; as the Temple of the Holy
Spirit, where the holiness of God dwells on earth; and as communion, mirroring the
communion of the Persons in the Holy Trinity (§19-24).

comrade/comradeship an intimate friend or 동료 사이, 동료끼리임; 동지
associate; the company 애
of intimate associates or
friends
communion The stare of sharing or 친교; 교류; 영적 교감
exchanging thoughts and
feelings; the feeling of
being part of something;
41
a group of people with
the same religious
beliefs.
metaphor A word or phrase used to (수사)은유, 암유
describe somebody or
something else, in a way
that is different from its
normal use, in order to
show that the two things
have the same qualities
and to make the
description more
powerful.
transcendent Going beyond the usual 보통을 넘는, 대단한, 비상한
limits; extremely great
consummation the fact of making 마무리, 완성, 성취
something complete
mission Dei the mission of God 하나님의 선교
ecclesiocentric church centered; gives 중심에 있는 교회
priority to the agenda of
the church.
mysterion Sacrament 성례전
Paragraph 4: As a creation of the Word and the Spirit, the Church

participates in their mission to bring all creation into communion with the
Triune God. “The Church exists…to serve the reconciliation of humankind” (§33).
“The Church is called to heal and reconcile broken relationships and to be God’s
instrument in the reconciliation of human division in the world” (§40).
Paragraph 5: The Church is “sign and instrument of God’s intention and

plan for the whole world” (§43). It is meant to be a prophetic sign, pointing
beyond itself to the missio Dei, to what God is doing in the world. As an instrument
of God, the Church exercises a ministry of reconciliation that has been entrusted to
it by God in Christ (cf. 2 Cor 5:18). At the same time the Church is also mysterion or
sacrament—a sacrament of the world in holding up the eschatological hope that
manifests God’s reconciling design for the world, and a sacrament of the divine
presence and mission in the world as the Body of Christ and Temple of the Holy
Spirit.
Paragraph 6: We saw in Chapter 1 that the Church is also the house or

oikos of God, where the harmonious relations between the Persons of the Trinity
are to be mirrored in the relations that should prevail among all members of the
Church. Christians are keenly aware how far they often are from realizing this
communion with one another and with the Trinity. Yet that acute awareness of how
42
they have fallen short should lead them to repentance and to seeking anew God’s
energizing grace to draw closer to that destiny to which they are called.
Paragraph 7: The Vocation and Ministry of Peace-building in the Churches

Peace is a gift of God. The churches’ responding to that gift reveals their vocation to
be peace-builders in the missio Dei. As sign, instrument and sacrament of God’s
intention and plan for the world, one can see different dimensions of the peace-
building vocation of the churches.
[1 Faith and Order Commission, “The Nature and Mission of the Church. A Stage on the Way to a Common
Statement” (Faith and Order Papers no. 198; published in 2005). Paragraph references hereafter in this
section are to this document.]
Paragraph 8: At the same time, the churches have often mistaken their
participation in the reconciling missio Dei for a narrow ecclesiocentric agenda
of aggressive proselytizing and an arrogant destruction of cultures. Arrogance here
needs to be replaced with repentance, and with a refocusing upon what God is
doing in the world rather than on what the immediate benefit to the churches might
appear to be.
The unity of the Church as the People of God, the “People of the Way” is
very crucial in the work of peace-building. The historical experiences of
divisions in the Church are enough for the Churches to reassess its
priorities and renew its commitment to end violence especially in its
immediate community, nation and the world. It should overcome its
timidity and slackness in order to be truly in communion with those who are suffering
various forms of violence in their lives.
More so, that the Church is a creation of the Word and the Spirit, the Church participates
in their mission to bring all creation into communion with the Triune God. The Church
exists to serve the reconciliation of humankind. The Church is called to heal and
reconcile broken relationships and to be God’s instrument in the reconciliation of human
division in the world. Reconciliation does not come easy. Before any reconciliation can
ever take place justice must be done. For some Christians, reconciliation can happen
even without justice; as such reconciliation can become an easy way out of injustice.
43
Christians are keenly aware how far they often are from realizing this communion with
one another and with the Trinity. Yet that acute awareness of how they have fallen short
should lead them to repentance and to seeking anew God’s energizing grace to draw
closer to that destiny to which they are called.
Peace is a gift of God. The churches’ responding to that gift reveals their vocation to be
peace-builders in the mission of God. As sign, instrument and sacrament of God’s
intention and plan for the world, one can see different dimensions of the peace-building
vocation of the churches. Peacemaking should not be mistaken as acquiescence or as
church centered programs of proselytism. Arrogance in doing God’s peace mission
mistaken as proselytism needs repentance, and with a refocusing upon what God is
doing in the world rather than on what the immediate benefit to the churches might
appear to be.
1. How do these characteristics of the church challenge the existing

social systems including social perspectives that in the end will
eliminate violence and injustice?
2. How would your group or local church put into programmatic

expressions the mission of God for justice, reconciliation and peace?
44
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
Description: This topic focuses on the Church as a sacrament of peace. At its most
fundamental level, the Church is a sacrament. That sacramental
character is centered in its being a sacrament of the Trinity: the
Creator’s sending the Word and the Spirit into the World, and God’s
reconciling the world through Christ and the action of the Holy Spirit.
45
1. restate the connection of the understanding of the Church as
sacrament of peace and the actual peace building work.
2. contrast the existing perceptions about the Church and the new or
emerging ideas learned.
Materials Needed: Materials needed are handbooks, computer notebook,

projector, power point presentation of the topic, name tags. Loose leaf
materials, if any, should be made available for the participants.
Scripture Texts: John 14: 27; Philippians 4: 7
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the

world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled,
neither let them be afraid.
And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will

keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Paragraph 1: At its most fundamental level, the Church is a sacrament.

That sacramental character is centered in its being a sacrament of the Trinity: the
Creator’s sending the Word and the Spirit into the World, and God’s reconciling the
world through Christ and the action of the Holy Spirit. This fundamental fact is
represented and re-presented in the liturgy, especially the celebration of the
Eucharist. The liturgy is an act of memory of what God has already done for us in
Christ’s Incarnation, life, death and resurrection. It is also the window on the
eschatological hope of the bringing together of all things in Christ that has been
promised to us. This ritual act - where sin is confessed and forgiven, where God’s
Word is once again heard, where praise of God recalls God’s great works, where the
needs and the suffering of the present are commended to God, and where the Great
Thanksgiving is enacted and shared in the banquet of Christ’s presence in our midst
– this ritual action draws us back into the Trinitarian life itself, that Life which is the
beginning and end of true peace.
Paragraph 2: In the Divine Liturgy as celebrated by the Orthodox
46
churches, peace is named (“the peace from on high”, “peace for the whole world“)
and extended to one another again and again. The sharing or passing of the peace
is a common ritual feature in many of the Churches. And the injunction to go forth
from the Eucharist in the peace of God is a mandate to carry God’s peace into the
world. So the Eucharistic benediction of the Syrian Orthodox Church says: “Go in
peace, our brethren and our beloved ones, as we commend you to the grace and
mercy of the Holy and glorious Trinity, with the provisions and blessings which you
have received from the altar of the Lord.” This carrying forth of God’s peace into the
world is what Orthodox theologians have called “the liturgy after the liturgy” and
Roman Catholic theologians “the liturgy of the world”. Such expressions remind us
that the liturgy and the world are not separate entities. They are both enfolded in
God’s design for creation.

liturgy the collective act of 예배식
worship of the people of
God
enfold, enfolded to surround or cover ...을 싸다, 감싸다
somebody of something
completely
illumination understanding or 계몽, 계발, 교하
explanation of something
transformation a complete change in (형태.외관.성질의) 변형, 변화,
somebody or something 변질
incarnation the act of God coming in 사람의 모습으로 나타남
human form as Jesus
Christ
eschatology/eschatologic a part of Christian (신학) 종마론, 내세론
al Theology that pertains to
the end time
Paragraph 3: The liturgy, then, is the source and font of peace from which
the Church lives, and which it in turn seeks to extend into the world. Indeed, the
only peace that it can offer is that peace that has been given to it in trust by God.
The mystery of peace - in both senses of the term “mystery” as at once surpassing
our understanding (Phil 4:7) and a mysterion that leads us along a pathway of
transformation and illumination - is what the Church is enjoined to transmit to the
world, despite all the Church’s shortcomings and failures to do this adequately.
Paragraph 4: The sacramental character of that peace - a manifestation of

peace that points not to itself, but to the peace that emanates from the loving
relationships of the Persons of the Trinity - is to be lived out in the lives of
individuals, in families, and in communities. Its manifestation in all those places is
47
always limited and subject to the perversities of the human heart but, as imperfect
as it may be, it is offered to others and to the world as an invitation to enter into the
peace of God. That the Church is a sacrament of God’s peace is the source of its
being able to be a prophetic sign and instrument of God’s peace in the world.
The Christian liturgy is a collective work of God’s people and an act of

memory of what God has already done for us in Christ’s Incarnation, life,
death and resurrection. It is also the window on the best hopes of the
bringing together of all things in Christ that has been promised to us.
This simply shows that the very nature of the Church as God’s people
and the liturgy encourages Christians to relive the life of Jesus Christ not just during the
worship service but in its entire relationships within and without the Church.
Moreover, the sharing or passing of the peace is a common ritual feature in many of the
Churches. And the injunction to go forth from the Eucharist in the peace of God is a
mandate to carry God’s peace into the world. So the Eucharistic benediction of the
Syrian Orthodox Church says: “Go in peace, our brethren and our beloved ones, as we
commend you to the grace and mercy of the Holy and glorious Trinity, with the
provisions and blessings which you have received from the altar of the Lord. This
makes the mandate of peace effective when Christians willfully share peace with others.
The liturgy, then, is the source and font of peace from which the Church lives, and
which it in turn seeks to extend into the world. Indeed, the only peace that it can offer is
that peace that has been given to it in trust by God. The sacramental character of that
peace - a manifestation of peace that points not to itself, but to the peace that emanates
from the loving relationships of the Persons of the Trinity - is to be lived out in the lives
of individuals, in families, and in communities.
Although this theological understanding is often taken as a purely religious task, there
are people in the Church who would antagonize those who radically address the issues
of violence and injustice. Being true to God’s mission of peace in the world may cause
polarization or division among members of the Church, or other situations those who
work for a transformation of the violent social system endanger their lives, if not are
killed for pursuing the sacramental peace that comes from God. Being true to God’s
mission of peace is a costly mission.
48
1. Why do you think there is always a disconnection between the
Church’s proclamation of peace and the actual programs for peace?
2. What are the difficulties of the Church in really living out God’s
peace in the world?
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
49
THIRD TERM
TOPICS 9-12
Description: This topic deals with the theological understanding of the Church
as a prophetic sign in peace-building. The topic discusses the
Church as a prophetic sign of peace in a violent world and it takes
commitment, courage and consistency so as to realize this task.
Commitment, courage and consistency are virtues that the
churches have not always displayed in the face of violence.

1. Redefine the meaning of prophetic witness
2. Formulate new ways of doing prophetic witness
Materials Needed: Materials needed are handbooks, computer notebook,

projector, power point presentation of the topic, name tags. Loose
leaf materials, if any, should be made available for the participants.
Unfreezing Exercise
Scripture Texts: Luke 10: 29-37
But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my

neighbor?” 30Jesus replied, “A man was going down from
Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who
stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.
31
Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he
saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32So likewise a Levite,
when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
33
But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved
with pity. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on
them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35
The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care
of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’
50
36
Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands
of the robbers?” 37He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go
and do likewise.”
replete filled with something; (…으로) 가득한, 충만 (풍부)

with a full supply of 한
something
consistent / consistency the quality of always (물질의) 단단함, 경도
behaving in the same
way or of having the
same opinions,
standard, etc.; the
quality of being
consistent
credible that can be believed or 믿을 만한, 신용(신뢰)할 수 있
trusted; that can be 는, 학실한; 설득력이 있는
accepted, because it
seems possible that it
could be successful
ethnic / ethnicity the fact of belonging to 민족색[성]; 민족적 배경[충성
a particular race 심]
exterminate to kill all members of a [종족 따위] 를 멸종시기다
/extermination group of people or
animals
purport to claim to be (문서.작품 따위가) (…이라
something or to have 고) 알려져 있다;
done something when
this may not be true
betray to give information …을 배반하다, …에게 등을
about somebody or 돌리다, …을 (적에게) 팔아먹
something to an enemy; 다; [신뢰.기대]를 저버리다;
to hurt somebody who [약속 따위]를 어기다; …을 실
trusts you, especially by 망시기다.; [비밀 따위]를 누설
not being loyal or 하다, 밀고하다, 폭로하다
faithful to them; to
ignore your principles or
beliefs in order to
achieve something or
gain an advantage by
yourself.
51
legitimate for which there is a fair 합법의, 적법한
and acceptable reason;
allowed and acceptable
according to law
diakonia voluntary social work 교회의 사회 복지 사업; 지원
done by the church or 병 제도
humble service
unwavering not changing or 동요하지 안는
becoming weaker in any
way
disinterest/disinterested lack of interest; the fact 사심 없음, 이해 관계가 없음
ness of not being involved in
something
Paragraph 1: As a prophetic sign, the churches are called to speak out

against injustice and to advocate peace. In the denunciation of injustice, in
the solidarity with those who are oppressed, and in the accompaniment of
victims, the churches participate in the missio Dei of mending the world and
bringing it toward the “new creation” of the reconciled (cf. 2 Cor 5:17). By
preaching Christ crucified and risen, they show the pathway through rejection
and suffering to transformation in the newness of life. How the churches choose
to live in the world, and where they draw the line in the face of violence is part
of that prophetic witness. Here the historic peace churches play a particularly
important role. Refusing to condone violence, and following a way of non-
violence indicate Christians are to respond to a world replete with violence.
Jesus met his own violent death with nonviolence, and his way remains the
model for Christians to follow in overcoming violence.
Paragraph 2: To be a prophetic sign of peace in a violent world takes

commitment, courage and consistency. These are virtues that the churches
have not always displayed in the face of violence. Here the churches must
confess their sin if they are to be credible vessels of the prophetic message of
peace. Churches have at times allied themselves so closely with violent policies
that they have legitimated them. When the churches have embraced the
banner of nationalism or ethnicity and have blessed the oppression and
extermination of “enemies”, they have wandered away from their true
purposes. When they have adopted violent apocalyptic beliefs that legitimate
violence as a way of cleansing the world or as a purported instrument of the
wrath of God, they have betrayed the vocation God has given them.
Paragraph 3: When they have casually turned away from suffering,

either to seek or protect their own prosperity or not to get “involved”,
52
they are like those who left the wounded man in the ditch (Lk 10:31-
32). And the very disunity on central elements of identity within the churches
themselves - such as witness to the sacraments - has undermined the churches’
credibility to others as true signs of peace. Churches must be ready constantly
to examine their actions - and their inaction - in the vocation of peace-building
to see if they can serve as credible voices for God’s work in the world. They
must repent and seek forgiveness, not only to make themselves worthy vessels
of God’s work but also, as a prophetic sign, of what wrongdoers must come to
do as well if they are to enter God’s Reign. To that end, the service or diakonia
of the churches must show the disinterestedness in self, the willingness to
embrace vulnerability, and the unwavering commitment to the poor and
marginalized that marked the ministry of Christ. It is in such diakonia that the
churches’ witness as prophetic sign of the peace of God gains credibility.
The churches as a prophetic sign are called to speak out against

injustice and to advocate peace. In the denunciation of injustice, in
solidarity with those who are oppressed, and in the
accompaniment of victims, the churches participate in the mission
of God, that of mending the world and bringing it toward the “new
creation” of the reconciled. In many instances churches have the preferential
option for the poor and oppressed that allows churches to make the
denunciation of injustice, solidarity with the oppressed and accompaniment of
the victims of war and violence as necessary acts of faith. Surprisingly, out of
the millions of churches around the world, only a handful is able to do and
concretize their prophetic mission. In South Korea for example, we can count
with our fingers the churches that can objectively criticize oppressive and unjust
policies of the government.
To be a prophetic sign of peace in a violent world takes commitment, courage

and consistency. One of the reasons why churches around the world are
adamant to exercise their prophetic function in society and in the international
community is their proximity to powers-that-be. They find themselves caught up
in the web of political and economic web of the powerful that in one way or
another diluted their commitment to prophetic witness. It has been understood
by Christian ethicists and even by Christians on the pews that the failure of
53
churches to exercise their prophetic witness is tantamount to collaboration or
has become a party to the oppressive systems in society. But for those who
stood their ground or took the courage to denounce the social evils have
remained consistently faithful to what is needed by the victims for them to
experience God’s saving action in history.
Churches must be ready constantly to examine their actions - and their inaction
- in the vocation of peace-building to see if they can serve as credible voices for
God’s work in the world. [Stories or case studies of churches doing its prophetic
witness can be shared here.]
1. How true is the opinion that the churches prophetic mission

has been diluted or has lost its vitality in the midst of
oppressive and violent powers?
2. What does it take and what is the cost for the churches to
examine their actions and their inaction in line with their
prophetic mission in the world?
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
54
Description: This topic focuses on the role of churches as instruments of peace
building particularly in initiating and sustaining peace education
from children to adults. Peace education involves introspection of
all members of the church, into how their choices, their actions,
and their lifestyles do or do not make them servants of peace. This
includes the giving of special support to those who have special
gifts for promoting specific pathways of peace - for these are gifts
of the Spirit of Peace within the churches and for the sake of the
world. Peace education also involves people who have distinct
capacities for accompanying victims of violence; others, for settling
disputes; still others, for caring for the earth.

1) Reiterate the importance of the role of churches in peace
education
2) Elaborate ways churches can truly implement peace education
3) Prepare plan of action how to influence local churches or local
communities to get involve in peace education.
55
Materials Needed: Lesson hand-outs or manuals, audio-visual presentation if
available, writing materials.
Unfreezing Exercise
Scripture Texts: Isaiah 59: 8-11

8
The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in
their paths. Their roads they have made crooked; no one who
walks in them knows peace. 9Therefore justice is far from us, and
righteousness does not reach us; we wait for light, and lo! there is
darkness; and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. 10We grope
like the blind along a wall, groping like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among the vigorous as
though we were dead. 11We all growl like bears; like doves we moan mournfully. We
wait for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.

predatory using weaker people for 거만한, 고압적인, 자기 본위
their own financial or sexual 의
advantage
nodes of tension branches of situations in node-매듭; 흑
which people do not trust tension-긴장; 신장
each other, or feel unfriendly
towards each other, which
may cause to attack each
other
resentment a feeling of anger or 노함; 분개
unhappiness about
something that you think is
unfair
ethnocentrism Is an ideological system [사회] 자기 민족
based on ideas and beliefs of
one particular culture and
using these to judge other
cultures
xenophobia, a strong feeling of dislike or 외국인 공포 [협오]증
fear of people from other
countries
demonize/demoniza to describe somebody or ….을 악마가 되게 하다; …을
tion something in a way that is 악마에 씌게 하다
intended to make other
people think of them/it as
evil or dangerous
rumour a piece if information, or a 소문; 풍문
story, that people talk about,
56
but that may not be true
dampening to make something such as …을 축축하게 하다; 축이다;
a feeling or a reaction less …을 무디게 하다
strong
inflammatory intended to cause very 격앙 [흥분] 시기는
strong feelings of anger
rhetoric speech of writing that is 수사학; 미사여구
intended to influence
people, but that is not
completely honest or sincere
debunk/debunking to show that an idea, a …의 가면을 벗기다, …의 정
belief, etc., is false; to show 체를 폭로하다
that something is not true
ideology/ideological a set of ideas that an 관념
economic or political system
is based on; a set of beliefs
characteristic of a social
group
twist/twisting to bend or turn something [실.그물 따위] 을 꼬다,뜨다,
into a particular shape 짜다
erroneous claims wrong demand of something Erroneous-잘못된, 틀린
Claims-…을 요구하다, 청구
하다
reflexes are actions that are (생리) 반사적인, 반사 작용의
performed without conscious
thought as a response to a
stimulus
introspection The examination or 내성, 내관
observation of one’s own
mental and emotional
processes
Paragraph 1: The Churches as Instruments of Peace-building

The churches are also called to be instruments of God’s purposes in the world.
That calls them to very concrete actions in the service of peace-building. In the
medieval Western church, the just war theory was developed as a way of trying
to curb the predatory activity of a warrior class. Proclaiming the “Peace of God”
(“Treuga Dei”) as days on which fighting could not take place was another way
of containing violence. The understanding of the church building as sanctuary,
where violence could not be perpetrated is yet another.
Paragraph 2: A common way of speaking about peace-building today is

to see specific tasks in preconflict, conflict, and post-conflict
situations. These tasks can be seen in the light of the vocation to peace-
building as well. The meaning of conflict here focuses upon armed and violent
conflict. There are social conflicts - such as those that arise between individuals
57
and within or among communities - that are nodes of tension that may form
around deeply held values. Such conflict is not something that needs to be
avoided or repressed, but is rather an invitation to grow in one’s humanity and
in human relationships. These kinds of conflict must be engaged. What follows
here will focus rather on armed, violent conflicts.
Paragraph 3: In the pre-conflict situation, the tasks of peace-building

are especially aimed at preventing violent conflict and at making
peace education possible. The churches have important roles in both of
these. Violent conflict can be prevented if attention is drawn in a timely and
consistent fashion to oppressive and unjust structures and practices that build
the resentment that leads to violent confrontation. Religious leaders must also
draw attention to and deflate ethnocentrism, xenophobia, and the demonization
of outsiders as ways of fuelling passion against those different from the people
they serve. In that process rumour control and dampening inflammatory
rhetoric in the media and on the streets are of crucial importance. Debunking
ideological twisting of Christian teachings (such as: suicide bombers claiming to
be “martyrs” or erroneous claims to have discerned “God’s will”), and the use of
Christian faith to legitimate aggression against those of other faiths must be
confronted head on.
Paragraph 4: Education for peace is more than mere instruction in the

strategies of work for peace. It is a profoundly spiritual formation of
character that happens over a long period of time. Growth in the biblical
understanding of peace, learning about the temptations that lead people away
from peace into violence, examining our narratives about how we describe to
ourselves those who may be our potential enemies, learning to engage in
practices of peace (especially for children and adolescents), learning to care for
the earth as a way of cultivating peace, and making prayer for peace a
prominent part of our worship: all of these things promote peace. Peace
education is not simply acquiring certain items of knowledge; it is about
formation of character and building reflexes into behaviour that will respond
non-violently in the face of provocation.
Paragraph 5: Peace education needs to be part of religious instruction

in the churches at all levels. It needs to begin with children, but must be
extended to adolescents and adults as well. The formation to be agents of
peace begins by looking to models of those already engaged in peace-building.
58
For children, parents must be the first agents of peace they encounter, who
serve as signs of peace not only in what they say, but in what they do. As
children grow and mature into themselves being agents of peace, the churches
must provide space, encouragement, and active support in this formation. That
involves introspection of all members of the church, into how their choices, their
actions, and their lifestyles do or do not make them servants of peace. It means
also giving special support to those who have special gifts for promoting specific
pathways of peace - for these are gifts of the Spirit of Peace within the churches
and for the sake of the world. Some will have distinct capacities for
accompanying victims of violence; others, for settling disputes; still others, for
caring for the earth.
In every conflict situation there are three stages: the pre-conflict,

conflict and post conflict stages. In the pre-conflict situation, the
tasks of peace-building are preventive. This provides ample
opportunities for peace education. The churches have an
important role in pre-conflict stage because it can consciously
carry out effective and relevant programs on peace education for all members
of the church and even in its immediate community. More so, violent conflict can
be prevented if attention is drawn in a timely and consistent fashion to
oppressive and unjust structures and practices that build the resentment that
leads to violent confrontation. Religious leaders must also draw attention to and
deflate ethnocentrism, xenophobia, and the demonization of outsiders as ways
of fuelling passion against those different from the people they serve.
Education for peace is more than mere instruction in the strategies of work for
peace. It is a profoundly spiritual formation of character that happens over a
long period of time. The following are the suggestions gleaned from ideas
pointed out above:
1. Growth in the biblical understanding of peace,

2. Learning about the temptations that lead people away from peace into
violence,
3. Examining our narratives about how we describe to ourselves those who
may be our potential enemies,
59
4. Learning to engage in practices of peace (especially for children and
adolescents),
5. Learning to care for the earth as a way of cultivating peace, and
6. Making prayer for peace a prominent part of our worship: all of these
things promote peace.
Peace education is not simply acquiring certain items of knowledge; it is about

formation of character and building reflexes into behavior that will respond non-
violently in the face of provocation.
1. What do you think are the ways of integrating peace

education in your church’s (local, presbytery, denomination)
program?
2. As a growing peacemaker, what kind of involvement in peace

education program would you commit your self for your group
or organization, local church or community?
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
60
Description: This topic describes the tasks of individuals and communities in
the midst of violent conflict. The two most pressing tasks are the
responsibility to protect and mediation. Mediation responsibility for
peacemakers with religious background is needed especially in civil
conflicts when all other social institutions have been discredited or
destroyed, churches may be called upon as the sole surviving
institution with enough credibility to be able to speak on behalf of
the people. Herein the various peacemaking tasks are discussed in
the bird’s eye perspective, actual experiences or stories of how
these tasks have been carried our will be discussed as well.

1. Familiarize with the responsibilities or tasks in conflict and post-
conflict situations
2. Affirm the ethical basis of involvement in peacemaking
3. Cite good examples of ways of doing peacemaking tasks in
actual settings
Materials Needed: handouts, unfreezing exercise materials
Unfreezing Exercise
Scripture Texts: 2 Corinthians 4: 7-12

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the
transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted
in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to
despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not
destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that
the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For while
we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so
that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us,
but life in you.
61
Responsibility to protect A moral/ethical 책임 지키다

obligation to provide
shelter and other means
of protection and
security for victims of
violent conflict.
Havens of protection These are places 피난처 지키기

provided for the security
and protection of
victims of violent
conflict.
Mediation A conflict transformation 중재, 주석

approach that employs
a third party to help
transform conflict
situations.
Truth-telling processes Are various methods

and processes used for
victims of violent
conflict to tell their
actual experiences as a
means toward
restorative justice. It is
an important part of
establishing a new
regime of accountability
and transparency where
oppressive ideologies,
arbitrariness and
secrecy have prevailed.
Restorative justice In restorative justice,

focus is upon the
victims’ rehabilitation,
restoring health,
strength and well-being
Rehabilitation The tasks of restoring to

health or normal life by
providing basic
necessities, such as
food, housing,
employment and
therapy for victims of
violent conflict or
natural disasters.
62
Punitive or retributive In punitive or retributive
justice justice focus is upon the
wrongdoers; meting out
punishment for the
wrongdoer; this should
be the prerogative of
the legitimate state.
Protracted conflict A conflict that lasts for a

long time or longer than
expected.
Paragraph 1: When people find themselves in the midst of violent

conflict itself, peace-building has two tasks: protection and mediation.
The responsibility to protect those directly endangered by conflict has begun to
receive greater attention than in the past. It is something that women in conflict
situations have known for a long time, since it usually falls to them to protect
the young, the aged, and the ill. Churches need to explore how networks of
congregations can become havens of protection in the face of violence. This
needs to involve not only armed violence or urban violence, but must include
domestic violence as well. Churches that sponsor emergency relief agencies
must be prepared especially to engage in the work of protecting most openly
those exposed to harm and abuse.
Paragraph 2: Mediation of armed conflict is an important and often

delicate task that can fall to the churches. It can take place at various
levels. At the grassroots levels local leaders, both lay and ordained, are called
upon to interpret the insights and perceptions of their congregations to those
involved in the mediation process. Regional and national leadership of churches
may be called upon to serve in mediating roles, especially in settings where
Christians are in the majority or effective interfaith councils are in place. Here
respect for the spiritual and moral integrity of the churches, focused now in
their leadership, can be a significant player in ending conflict. Such positioning
is often delicate, a balance between gaining and maintaining the trust of the
parties on the one hand, and maintaining the perceived disinterestedness that
makes mediation possible on the other. Especially in civil conflicts when all
other social institutions have been discredited or destroyed, churches may be
called upon as the sole surviving institution with enough credibility to be able to
speak on behalf of the people.
63
THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT AND MEDIATION
The international community faces no more critical issue than how

to protect people caught in new and large-scale humanitarian
crises - humanitarian intervention has been controversial both
when it has happened, as in Kosovo, and when it has failed to happen, as in
Rwanda. While there is general agreement internationally that we should not
stand by in the face of massive violations of human rights, respect for the
sovereign rights of states maintains a central place among the principles
governing relations between states.
In his Millennium Report to the UN General Assembly, Secretary-General Kofi

Annan challenged the international community to address the real dilemmas
posed by intervention and sovereignty. The independent International
Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) was established by
the Canadian government in September 2000 to respond to that challenge.
After a year of intense worldwide consultations and debate, the Commission
now presents this path-breaking report. With its central theme of the
"responsibility to protect," the report underlines the primary responsibility of
sovereign states to protect their own citizens from avoidable catastrophe - from
mass murder, from large scale loss of life and rape, from starvation. But when
they are unwilling or unable to do so, that responsibility must be borne by the
broader community of states - there must be no more Rwandas or Srebrenicas.
The Commission has also produced a companion volume, written by Thomas
Weiss and Don Hubert with input from an outstanding group of international
specialists. (http://books.google.co.kr/books)
Paragraph 3: The post-conflict situation serves up a host of tasks for

the churches as peace-builders: truth telling, pursuit of various kinds of
justice, helping bring about forgiveness, and longer-term reconciliation all figure
into the agenda. Getting at the truth about what happened during the conflict
and what were its causes is often an important step in the building of peace
after overt conflict. The churches have been called upon in a number of
instances in recent years to take leadership roles in truth-telling processes.
64
Truth telling is important in the rehabilitation of those who had been deemed
enemies by a powerful state, but especially in allowing victims (or their
surviving families) to tell their stories and witness to the pain and loss they
have endured. Truth telling can be an important part of establishing a new
regime of accountability and transparency where oppressive ideologies,
arbitrariness and secrecy have prevailed. Truth telling is a many-sided and
delicate process that, in deeply wounded societies, may not always be possible
or even advisable. But without truth (not just in the sense of veracity, but also
in the Biblical sense of trustworthiness and reliability, a new society cannot
build on a firm foundation.
Paragraph 4: For the churches to accompany truth-telling processes,

they must first be able to tell the truth about themselves. Dietrich
Bonhoeffer imposed a discipline of daily confession of sins on students in the
Confessing Church’s seminary at Finkenwalde because, as he said, how can we
hope to recognize the lies all around us if we cannot speak the truth about
ourselves? The churches, thus, need to exercise a spiritual discipline about and
within themselves if they hope to aid others in doing so. Of the different forms
of justice in which the churches may engage in the peace-building process,
restorative justice and advocacy for structural justice stand out especially. In
restorative justice, focus is upon the victims’ rehabilitation. (In punitive or
retributive justice, focus is upon the wrongdoers; this should be the prerogative
of the legitimate state.) Special care for victims is the natural expression of the
work of God that focuses upon those who have been marginalized. As its name
suggests, restorative justice seeks what has been wrested away from the victim
in terms of material goods, but also the restoration of their human dignity.
TRUTH TELLING PROCESSES

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_and_reconciliation_commission
A truth commission or truth and reconciliation commission is a

commission tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a
government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state actors also), in the
hope of resolving conflict left over from the past. They are, under various
names, occasionally set up by states emerging from periods of internal unrest,
65
civil war, or dictatorship. South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation
Commission, established by President Nelson Mandela after apartheid, is
popularly considered a model of Truth Commissions, rarely if ever[citation needed]
achieved in other parts
As government reports, they can provide proof against historical revisionism

of state terrorism and other crimes and human rights abuses. Truth
commissions are sometimes criticised for allowing crimes to go unpunished, and
creating impunity for serious human rights abusers. Their roles and abilities in
this respect depend on their mandates, which vary widely.
One of the difficult issues that has arisen over the role of truth commissions in
transitional societies, has centered around what should be the relationship
between truth commissions and criminal prosecutions.[1]
South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Korean: 진실·화해를 위한 과

거사 정리 위원회), established on December 1, 2005, is a governmental body
responsible for investigating incidents in Korean history which occurred starting
from Japan's rule of Korea in 1910 up until the end of Authoritarian Rule in
Korea with the election of President Kim Young Sam in 1993
The body has investigated numerous atrocities that were committed by various
government agencies during the Japan's occupation of Korea, the Korean War,
and the authoritarian governments that ruled afterwards. The commission
estimates that at least 100,000 people—and possibly 200,000 or higher—were
executed in the summer of 1950.[1][2] The victims include political prisoners,
civilians who were killed by US Forces, and civilians who allegedly collaborated
with communist North Korea or local communist groups. Each incident that is
investigated is based on a citizen's petition, with some incidents having as
many as hundreds of petitions. The commission, staffed by 240 people with an
annual budget of $19 million, is expected to release a final report on their
findings in 2010.[1]
Truth Telling towards reconciliation is a tedious process for governments. In the

case of South Korea, we can expect that the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission will be able to come out with their report not just on the number of
victims of atrocious occupation of the Japanese imperial army and the
66
authoritarian rulers in Korea, but also with recommendations on how the
present government can give justice to the victims of violence and violations of
human rights of both living and the dead.
Paragraph 5: Structural justice, the changing of those structures of

society that have contributed to injustice and the conflict that has arisen, is
often necessary to assure that conflict does not happen again. As a moral voice,
the churches are called upon to advocate for these structural changes and have
them embedded in the legal system of the land. Writing new constitutions,
developing the policies of political parties and governments, and seeing to
enactment of the structural changes are part of the work that will lead to a
lasting peace. Promoting forgiveness, at both the personal and the social levels,
is a task pre-eminently suited to the churches. The teachings on forgiveness
central to Jesus’ own preaching and ministry form the basis for this.
Forgiveness, as it is also for peace, is a gift of God. Without forgiveness, there is
no way of coming free from the past. Christian forgiveness is not cheap
forgiveness, but a change of heart and perception that allows for a different
kind of future. Forgiveness does not erase the past but remembers the past in a
different way. Moreover, forgiveness can help create the social space in which
wrongdoers may be able to come to forgiveness. Promoting forgiveness,
accompanying people on the long road to forgiveness, and providing a public
ritual framework where especially social forgiveness can be enacted are all
things that fall especially to the churches. To the extent the churches can live up
to the praxis of Jesus, they can be effective instruments of God’s forgiveness.
67
STRUCTURAL JUSTICE AND FORGIVENESS
4. Levels of Analysis: Changing Individuals, Relationships

and Social Structures to Resolve Conflict4
Source: Ilana Shapiro, Extending Framework of Inquiry: Theories
of Change in Conflict Interventions, Berghof Handbook Dialogue Series
Some of the most prevalent distinctions in both the academic and

programme literatures about the causes of conflict and theories of change
centre around levels-of-analysis – or whether change efforts focus primarily on
individuals, on inter-group relationships, or on structures and systems. Using a
levels-of-analysis framework, this section draws from these literatures to
examine elements that make up theories of change in conflict interventions.
Like Mitchell’s framework of examining social change before, during

and after a conflict, this levels-of-analysis approach is primarily a heuristic tool
for organising a vast and tangled assortment of theories related to change. Most
practitioners and programmes recognise the complex and reciprocal effects of
changes at different levels-of-analysis. Many theories of change describe a
specific relationship between these different levels, and most programmes work
at all of these levels to some extent. Yet practitioners inevitably seem to choose
one level as the starting point or focus in their efforts to facilitate change.
The following section briefly highlights selected theories that existing

programmes either explicitly or implicitly draw from in their efforts to change
individuals, inter-group relations and social structures (Shapiro 2002).
Changing individuals involves strategies that shift attitudes

and perceptions, feelings, behaviours and motivations of participants
in an intervention. Programmes, like the prejudice reduction example
described earlier, invoke a wide range of psychological and therapeutic theories
in facilitating change during small-group interventions.
Cognitive changes are, among other things, aimed at transforming

hostile or prejudicial attitudes toward the other party, providing more hopeful
analyses of the conflict and uncovering new possibilities for resolution. Micro-
68
level change strategies include fostering self-reflection and awareness, learning
about the Other, critical analyses of social norms and messages related to the
conflict or the Other, eliciting an “aha” experience of insight, introducing new
information or analysis that is connected to existing knowledge structures,
providing ‘safe environments’ and permission to experiment with new ways of
thinking and reframing conflictual issues in integrative ways.
Affective change strategies are rarely articulated in conflict

interventions. Yet practitioners are quick to acknowledge the important role that
emotions such as fear, rage, shame and grief play in preventing resolution and
the importance of empathy, hope and compassion in supporting it. Programmes
often focus on encouraging emotional control (e.g. anger management) among
participants to facilitate rational problem-solving. Alternately, emotional release
in contained conditions is sometimes encouraged as a method for “unfreezing”
habituated patterns of destructive thought and behaviour. Based on emotional
literacy practices, some programmes provide specific opportunities for
participants to read and interpret their emotions as a dimension of self-
awareness (Fisher & Shapiro 2005).
Behavioural change strategies aim to improve communication,

integrative negotiation and problem-solving skills, promote interpersonal
cooperation and reduce the use of hostile language,
physical violence, discrimination, etc. Programmes foster behavioural change in
participants by, among other things, establishing new rules and norms for
interaction, modelling more constructive behaviours and providing opportunities
for imitation and rehearsal of constructive behaviours in a relatively safe
environment. Programmes often encourage participants to adopt new ideas and
behaviours by appealing to ‘pioneer’ or ‘leader’ images that participants may
value.
Programmes that focus on changing relationships often suggest

that new networks, coalitions, alliances and other cooperative relationships
between members of conflicting groups not only positively change the
individuals directly involved, but can be a powerful force for fostering social
changes that help resolve conflicts. These meso-level change strategies aim to
effect both individuals and social structures.
69
Conflict interventions often try to improve inter-group relations
by establishing conditions for cooperative and meaningful interaction between
members of conflicting groups. The processes of learning about the “out-group”,
changing behaviours toward out-group members, developing cross-group
friendships, reassessing the ‘rightness’ of one’s own group, and, at times,
establishing a new, common in-group identity facilitate inter-group cooperation
(Pettigrew 1998). In addition, many programmes provide explicit skills in
consensus and coalition building, as well as opportunities for parties to plan
parallel and joint action initiatives aimed at changing conditions that foster
inter-group conflict and violence.
Structural, institutional and systemic changes are the primary

focus for some conflict intervention programmes (e.g. the anti-racism
programme described earlier). The current trend of “mainstreaming conflict
sensitive approaches” into development and humanitarian assistance projects
has contributed new peacebuilding strategies to the usual small-group
interventions. These efforts are often directly aimed at legislative, electoral and
judicial reform, establishing new mediating mechanisms and forums within
society, economic development initiatives (e.g. micro-finance, job training) and
infra-structure support for basic human necessities (e.g. water, food, health
care).
These approaches suggest that meeting basic human needs will

change the underlying conditions that foster violence. In addition, they
are guided by assumptions that changing social structures and
institutions should shift the behaviours and attitudes of people who
live and work within them. They imply that individuals’ attitudes and
inter-group relations will conform to the new structures and the new
normative behaviours required by those structures. This view draws on
the old community-organising adage, “where the feet go, the head will
follow”.
Paragraph 6: Along the path to forgiveness, the healing of memories is

of special significance. The healing of memories aims at being able to
remember the past in a different way that will make forgiveness especially
70
possible. Here the accompaniment of victims by the churches, of finding a way
through their suffering by looking to the sufferings of Christ, is one of the most
important ways of serving the missio Dei in the reconciliation of all creation.
Reconciliation is both a process and a goal. The process is likely to entail
exercises of truth telling, the pursuit of justice, the healing of memories, and the
extending of forgiveness. Individual forgiveness focuses upon the restoring of
the humanity of the victim in the image and likeness of God. Social
reconciliation may focus upon healing the memories or building a common
future together: it may involve making sure that the deeds of the past cannot
happen again, or building an alternate future. Whenever reconciliation is
achieved, the experience of it as a gift of free grace from God can be the most
moving and effective way of speaking about God’s design for the world, of how
the world is being drawn back into God, its Creator.
Paragraph 7: As instruments of God’s peace, the churches are indeed

vessels of clay. When peace does occur, it becomes clear that “the
transcendent power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor 4:7). But it is usually
also clear that, in most instances of conflict, the churches do not live up to their
great and challenging vocation. Particularly in conflicts that happen within
countries rather than between them, churches will find themselves to have
been complicit in many different ways. At times church leadership will have
failed to speak out against injustice or have even blessed the violence that
occurred. Members of the churches are likely to find themselves on both sides
of the divide. In longstanding oppressive regimes, there will be those in the
churches’ ranks - both as leaders and as members – who have been hidden
accomplices in maintaining the oppression by spying upon others or regularly
reporting their actions. Some have done this out of fear; others may have been
forced or blackmailed into it. Unless the churches have thrown themselves
completely into siding with and abetting the aggression, they may still have
some role in the post-conflict peace-building process. At the very least, they can
model the repentance that will be needed in the wider society. More often,
especially in the case of protracted conflicts where everyone at one point or
another has been both victim and wrongdoer, they mirror the ambivalences that
evil and violence create. They might be able both to accept punishment but also
advocate forbearance in a situation where no one’s hands have been utterly
clean.
71
1. Based on your knowledge and experiences, are churches
equipped with skills necessary in the post-violent conflict
situation such as skills in reconciliation and forgiveness? If yes,
can you describe how equipped are the churches. If not, what
are the obstacles in equipping the church people for this great
task?
2. How can you as a peace-builder help in equipping your local

church in this responsibility?
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
72
Description: Spiritual practices of peace are based on faith in Jesus Christ. This
topic will help participants to affirm their roles as agents of God’s peace and
that to be one requires putting on the mind that was in Christ Jesus: the
emptying of self, the embracing of vulnerability, the walking with the wounded
or victims. It requires being led by the Holy Spirit in the healing and sanctifying
of the world.
Objectives: At the end of the lesson, participants are able to:

a) Rediscover the ways of spiritual practices of peace
b) Reclaim the power of the Spirit in asserting involvement as peacemakers
c) Recommit themselves to the work for peace in the community
Materials Needed: Study manual, prayer guide and closing celebration

materials.
Unfreezing Exercise
Scripture Texts: Philippians 2: 4-8

Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count
others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only
to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ
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Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a
thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being
born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death on a cross.
Paragraph 1: The Spiritual Practices of Peace
Peace is not simply assenting to a set of ideas about God’s design for the world.
To be agents of God’s peace requires putting on the mind that was in Christ
Jesus (cf. Phil 2:5): the emptying of self, the embracing of vulnerability, the
walking with the wounded which marked the Second Person of the Trinity’s
entry into our world. It requires being led by the Holy Spirit in the healing and
sanctifying of the world. The Incarnation and the sending of the Holy Spirit are
an extension of the embrace of the perichoresis of the Trinity to enfold into itself
those who have been broken by sin, oppression, and injustice. In order to have
that mind of Christ, peace-building requires entering regularly and deeply into
communion with the Triune God, along the ways that Christ has set out for us. It
is that presence in God that makes it possible for us to come to discern God’s
working in our world. It allows us to see those glimmerings of grace that may
come to flash forth the love of God that heals and reconciles.
Paragraph 2: Putting on the mind of Christ, being formed in Christ,

involves spiritual practices and disciplines that embody peace in our
own bodies:
 making prayers of intercession as part of our mindfulness of being

formed in Christ;
 seeking and extending forgiveness, so as to create truthfulness in
ourselves and to forge the space for others who need to seek
repentance; washing one another’s feet, so as to learn the ways of
service;
 engaging in times of fasting, to review our patterns of consumption
and relationships to one another and to the earth;
 consistent and sustained acts of caring for others, especially those
most in need of healing, liberation, and reconciliation;
 consistent and sustained acts of caring for the earth;
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 communal acts of worship in order to be nourished by God’s Word
and by the Eucharist.
Paragraph 3: Peace is not just a view of life. It is also a way of life. In a

world beset by violence and threatened by all kinds of destabilizing forces, it
means cultivating a spiritual posture, a spirituality. By spirituality is not meant a
pick-and-choose of preferred elements to craft a unique or distinctive lifestyle.
Spirituality here means deepening a mind-set and engaging in those spiritual
practices, especially communal ones, that lead one deeper into the mystery of
Christ.
Paragraph 4: An important task of this spirituality is sustaining hope.

Building peace is often an arduous task, marked by disappointments, failures,
and setbacks. How do we find the reserves of strength to remain faithful and to
keep forging on in the midst of adversity? Hope is not the same as optimism.
Optimism is our assessment of how we can change the present and forge the
future by dint of our own resources and strengths. Hope, on the other hand, is
something that comes from God, who is the author of peace and the One who
brings about reconciliation. Hope is something that we discover, drawing us
forward into the mystery of peace. It manifests itself at times in unexpected
places and in surprising ways. It can be perceived thanks to our communion
with God – glimmerings of grace in the midst of adversity, acts of kindness in
the face of ruthless self-seeking, moments of gentleness in the hardness of
relentless aggression. A spirituality is something that agents of peace share, a
web of practices and attitudes that bind a community together. In its own finite
way, a spirituality mirrors the relationships of Trinitarian life - sustaining,
transforming, and sanctifying a broken world.
perichoresis of the Perichoresis in theology,

Trinity referred to the mutual inter-
ref: penetration and indwelling of
http://www.babylon.co the Father and the Son. The
m/define/105/Greek- doctrine is based on John's
Dictionary.html Gospel that "the Father is in
the Son, and the Son in the
75
Father."
The relationship of the Triune

God is intensified by the
relationship of perichoresis.
This indwelling expresses and
realizes fellowship between the
Father and the Son. It is
intimacy. Jesus compares the
oneness of this indwelling to
the oneness of the fellowship
of his church from this
indwelling. "That they all may
be one; as thou, Father, art in
me, and I in thee, that they
also may be one in us." (John
17:21)
destabilizing forces 1: To make unstable or

unreliable; 2 : to cause (as a
government) to be incapable of
functioning or surviving
reserves of strength Supply of strength; to have or

keep a particular power or
strength.
optimism Hopefulness and confidence

about the future or the success
of something.
glimmerings of grace The faint sign of a feeling or

quality of God’s grace in the
midst of difficult situations.
ruthless self-seeking Showing no pity or compassion

in looking after one’s own
interests before those of others
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relentless aggression unceasingly intense or harsh
violent attack without
provocation
setbacks Reversals or check in progress
Local communities push for peace zones in the face

of war
DEBBIE UY, Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project
10/20/2008 | 06:58 PM
DAVAO CITY, Philippines – When the military and Moro rebels clashed outside
their home in Dungguan, North Cotabato, then seven-year-old Mudzaime Habib
was in the bath. He escaped the exchange of gun fires in dripping wet clothes.
His mother, two sisters, and three brothers only stopped long enough to grab a
cooking pan and a small sack of rice before fleeing.
It was four years and stay in four evacuation centers later before Habib’s family
finally returned to Dungguan. But a family feud or rido forced them to decamp
again. When his mother proposed moving to Kapatagan, Lanao del Sur, Habib
asked: “What about my studies?" His mother replied: “If you were diligent here,
you should be diligent there too."
Habib, now 18 and a high school graduate, says it was his direct experience in
fleeing conflicts that turned him into a community youth leader in Kapatagan
actively working for peace.
Efforts by communities and individuals to build their own peace are becoming
increasingly important as the Philippine army and the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF) are back fighting again two months after a scheduled peace
agreement collapsed.
The crisis since the government pulled out of the scheduled Memorandum of
Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) in early August has so far cost the
lives of hundreds; displaced more than half a million people from nine
provinces, and damaged property worth PhP 121.5 million (USD 2.6 million),
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according to the National Disaster Coordinating Council. Meantime assistance
from the government, non-governmental organizations, UN agencies and other
international groups has been put at PhP 91 million (USD 2 million).
Zone of peace
But if peace is to be achieved, it is not enough to simply talk about it or believe

in it, says Kapatagan mayor Raida Maglangit. “Everyone must work for it."
Following the last war in Mindanao, Kapatagan was designated “a peace zone"
after the local government, military, MILF, sectoral leaders, and peace
advocates signed a local security agreement.
The town, strategically located at the southern tip of Lanao del Sur, had been
devastated by the all-out war in 2000 under then president Joseph Estrada that
displaced nearly a million villagers in Mindanao.
Peace zones are people-initiated, community-based responses to armed conflict,

contributing to build a constituency for stability and security at the barangay
(village) level.
To strengthen peace in the town, local leaders pushed community dialogues and
consultations and created a committee to settle rido cases which have long
been a disfiguring feature of Mindanao life.
The peace efforts paid off. Government and NGOs helped provide infrastructure
like roads and buildings, livelihood, and basic services – projects that were
sorely lacking in this former no man’s land.
Maglangit says it was difficult at first for people to put the guns aside and keep
the peace. “But when they saw that many investments were coming in nobody
complained anymore," she says.
It was this peace that encouraged Habib’s family to move to Kapatagan. “Since
moving here, we have a real peace of mind," he says.
Origins of peace zones
78
The idea of peace zones has been attributed to the people of Hungduan, Ifugao
in the Cordilleras in northern Philippines, according to the Gaston Z. Ortigas
Peace Institute. The people in Hungduan had succeeded in getting the
communist New People’s Army to withdraw their forces and so preventing the
military from moving in.
In September 1986, the first Zone of Peace, Freedom, and Neutrality (ZOPFAN)
was declared in Naga City in southern Luzon. Since then, community-based and
people-initiated peace efforts have gained ground around the country.
Grassroots peace-building is like building anything, according to Father Roberto

Layson, former parish priest of Pikit, North Cotabato and now coordinator of the
Oblates of Mary Immaculates’ Inter-Religious Dialogue based in Pikit.
“You don’t build from the top down but from bottom up. In Pikit, we continue to
plant the seed of goodness not even knowing if and when it is going to grow,"
Fr. Layson says.
Every time fighting erupts in central Mindanao, the Pikit parish church becomes
the refuge of hundreds of displaced Muslim and Christian evacuees, as what
happened in 2003 when the Philippine military launched operations purportedly
against the Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang but were actually after the MILF.
After the war, the parish took the lead in organizing multi-faith dialogue and
peace-building activities in villages occupied by Muslims, Christians and
indigenous peoples.
In Carmen, North Cotabato, a local group of Muslims and Christians formed a

task force to help the local government settle conflicts without violence. One of
task force’s members, 59-year-old Bobby Tacuken, says clashes between
Muslims and Christians began way back in the Martial Law years. He admits he
feared and even hated Christians back then and began to carry a gun.
Tacuken’s family was displaced during the all-out war in between the military
and the MILF in 2000. The effect to their community was so massive that
Tacuken’s family and other evacuees had to stay in evacuation centers for two
79
years.
“When we returned, we found the same Muslims and Christians also returned.
We realized we were all affected," he says.
As a symbol of peace, the task force planted bamboos at the site of the former
battleground between Muslims and Christians.
Fractured communities
Conflict-affected areas are “divided, fractured communities influenced by

conflicting groups," says Pablo Rey Pio Fuentes, program manager of
PEACEPATHS. A program of the Assisi Development Foundation, PEACEPATHS
(Promoting Economic and Cultural Enhancement for Peoples’ Action Towards
Human Security) seeks to build peace and rehabilitate conflict-affected
communities in Cotabato, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.
“The communities need to understand the causes of conflict," says Fuentes. At a

recent peace-building dialogue in Davao City, he discussed the causes: massive
and abject poverty and economic inequity; poor governance; injustice, abuse of
power and violation of human rights; structural inequities in the political
system; and exploitation and marginalization of indigenous cultural
communities and their ancestral domains.
“The most important task in conflict-affected areas is the process of raising

awareness around what conflict is about so the community can respond
properly. Dialogues and trainings are part of the process but these have to be
specific and targeted to meet particular needs," says Fuentes.
Sustaining peace
In Mindanao, peace zones have been declared in Cotabato, Maguindanao, and

early this year in Jolo, Sulu. The Jolo Zone of Peace declaration prohibits carrying
of firearms and seeks to minimize military presence. The authorities have also
clamped down hard on illegal gambling, drug trade and other crimes that help
precipitate conflict.
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But the secret, says Fuentes, is real and sustained action and not simply warm
words and declarations.
“Communities must defend and preserve their zones of peace. They must be
credible, solve their own problems, and assert the declaration of peace," he
says. “Important factors are, how much can they assert? How much can other
groups supporting the peace zone protect the community and sanction
violators?"
Tacuken of Carmen task force believes communities can do much – but not
everything. “The community," he says, “can work to rebuild peace, but the
government and MILF must solve their problems first. We are all affected. That’s
why the leaders must come to an agreement."
As people talked on the possible resurgence of fighting with the recent end of
Ramadan, Tacuken raises concern on achieving peace. “Peace will take a long
time to achieve," he says. “Even though many of us share the same goal,
everybody has different opinions how to get there." - Philippine Human Rights
Reporting Project
1. What are the ways in which your church engages in peace

education for all its members, especially the children and
young people? Can you share successful projects and
experiences which would be helpful for other churches?
2. In which ways have you become involved in peace building

ministries? Can you give us examples?
3. In which ways are you expressing the calling of the churches to care for
creation? Does it have an impact on the theological training of your ministers
and on the management of your buildings?
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1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
Hiding inside this cup is peace but I should

be out there doing justice.
FURTHER READING
(Note: The paragraph numbers begin at 79 because the previous paragraphs1-78 were
renumbered as used in the lessons.)
Chapter 3
On the Way towards Just Peace – The Scope of the Churches’ Engagement
79. God is never glorified by our violence. Nor is our humanity ever honoured
through it.
80. “For he is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the
dividing wall of hostility...that he might create in himself one new person in place of
the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through
the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. And he came and preached
peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. (Eph 2:14-17)
81. Jesus in the power of the Spirit created new community among enemies. It was
82
the reconciliation of a Samaritan woman and a Jew, a Roman soldier and a
Palestinian peasant, the leprous and the clean, the stranger and the resident, Jew
and Greek, tax collector and exploited farmer, male and female, bond and free. In
the Spirit they broke bread together, they shared the kiss of peace together with
their goods and their lives, and they resisted the empire’s powers of division. First
called the People of the Way, they lived a way that transformed their relationships
with one another and purged the violence within as well as the violence without, the
violence of their hearts and souls as well as the violence of their hands and feet.
They learned to treat the Earth gently. They learned an ethic for enemies.
82. More precisely, they learned an ethic for the end of enmities. Jesus and his
community were realists. They knew we are often enemy to one another and to
ourselves, trapped by dividing walls of hostility we create and malignant
“principalities and powers” we perpetuate. They knew that no soul is immune from
harm and no life free of violation.
83. They also knew that there is more grace in God than sin in us. We can, by God's
grace, live together as wounded healers.
84. And they knew that this life together is by way of a community in which
enemies suffer each other’s pains and joys to become a single humanity sharing a
common world (oikos). Those afar and those near become one body through the
cross.
85. This reconciliation of enemies who dismantle walls of separation and purge the
violence within and without displays the scope of just peace. Just peace requires
making just peacemakers. Just peace also requires building just institutions and
ways of life.
86. The disciplines of soul-craft create and sustain just peacemakers. (This was
discussed above as peace education). Soul-craft, the slow formation and
transformation of character and conscience in a thousand ways, many barely
noticed in the routine of growing people up. Soul-craft is the ancient practice of
shaping an authentic self; it is one prayer at a time, one offer of hospitality at a
time, one planting and watering at a time, with one child at a time. Soul-craft is the
moulding of convictions and morality and greatness of heart befitting peacemakers
as the blessed children of God.
83
87. If we do not make peacemakers, peace itself will not be made. Soul-craft is as
vital to
peacemaking as statecraft.
Christian Peace Traditions

88. Before we turn from soul-craft to building just institutions and ways of life, we
need to track
recent developments in Christian peace thinking and peace practices. Only then can
we appreciate the enhanced scope of the tasks before us.
89. Different traditions, a common pathway. From the differing traditions of

Christian peacemaking, just peacemaking has created a common pathway
appropriate for our time. The older traditions of Christian pacifism and just war
theory no longer control peace thinking.
90. To see why, we need to know what these traditions shared and where they
parted ways. Just as “pacifism” - one family of traditions - is wrongly taken by some
to mean “passive non-resistance,” so “just war” - another family of traditions - is
misleading. “Just war” is not about justifying war; it is about limiting its occurrence
and limiting the ways in which it is carried out. “Justified use” or “just use” is the
better term, since the effort is to determine whether there are ever morally
exceptional uses of deadly means, wherever they may occur - in self-defence, as
the responsibility to protect innocent populations, in police actions, in circumstances
when rebellion or revolution may be justified, or in tragic cases at the beginning and
end of life (whether euthanasia, assisted suicide, or medical abortion). “Justified
use” is about the exceptional and highly occasional use of lethal means as the last
resort. After all, both pacifism and just use traditions, including just war, share the
same Christian norm for the use of force - nonviolence. Both share a same common
task - the reduction of violence. And both dedicate themselves to the same goal -
overcoming violence.
91. Just as important, both agree on fundamental tenets of Christian faith: The way
of Jesus rejects arms as the manner of God’s reign and instead gathers enemies into
covenantal intimacy by forgiving and reconciling them. The shared calling of all
Christians is the ministry of reconciliation. And desired and true reality is a
peaceable kingdom in which the well-being of each creature is bound to the security
of all.
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92. Both families of Christian peace traditions also acknowledge that force is
sometimes necessary to peace and justice in a world of stiff-necked peoples who
bypass few chances to organize their own lives at the expense of their neighbours.
And both contend that there should be guards against unchecked power: Any use of
force should be held to the lowest required levels, should be accountable for the
consequences, and should respect the humanity of those on the receiving end. Not
least, both agree that the welfare of others, the enemy included, is to be placed
within the same moral framework as one’s own and guided by the same standards.
This is the meaning of Jesus' command that we should love our neighbours as
ourselves.
93. Where Christian peacemaking traditions have parted ways, despite their shared
distrust of all violence, is over the question of the exceptional use of one kind of
force - killing violence. Just use advocates say there are morally permissible uses of
exceptional, deadly violence in stringently limited ways. Just use theory has
elaborated a set of criteria for measuring that.1 The Peace Churches and other
pacifists argue the non-exceptional rejection of killing violence and do so, on both
prudential and theological grounds. The prudential argument is that lethal violence
is selfdefeating for society in the long run and usually the short run as well. It
breeds relationships that generate estrangement, harbour hostility, work from
grudges, promote revenge, dehumanize the parties involved, and issue in further
violence, which then tends to spiral and escalate. The theological argument is that
Christians are called to a community whose way of life should not include killing
anyone whom God regards as unqualifiedly precious and for whom God suffers in
patient love; and there is no one for whom this is not the case, including those
sitting in prison on Death Row, awaiting execution for capital crimes. One killing is
always one too many. Violence, even when it is used as a last resort to stop other
violence, never achieves genuine justice or lasting security.
94. Working allies. In recent decades pacifists and just use advocates have found
themselves to be working allies time and again. All weapons of mass destruction
violate both just use and pacifist criteria, so these Christian peacemakers have
stood side-by-side in opposition to nuclear arms and worked together for nuclear
disarmament. They joined in anti-apartheid campaigns in Southern Africa and anti-
regime campaigns in Eastern Europe. They sought truth and reconciliation
processes in several countries, as well as other ways to help heal memories of past
violation and remember its victims in public ways (through memorials, museums,
school curricula, and interfaith worship, for example). For the so-called “war on
85
terror,” they have rejected the crusade tradition whereby any just cause justifies all
means necessary to achieve it. And they have sought to shift the thinking from a
military focus to policing.
1 The criteria are legitimate or competent authority, just cause, right intention,
announcement of intention, reasonable hope of success, proportionality, and just
conduct.
95. On this last item - the “war on terror” and other cases of overt, deadly violence -
the Catholic- Mennonite dialogue, fed by both just use and pacifist streams, draws
the important difference between an army and a police force, including an
international police force operating through institutions backed by international law.
Police are embedded in a community whose members assume that the police force
is working on their behalf. While police know how to use arms they, unlike soldiers,
are not trained primarily for armed combat and use arms only as a last resort. Many
police officers pride themselves on how infrequently they have to draw a gun and
how often their work overlaps with and allies with the work of people in other
helping professions. Their specialty is saving life, not destroying it. They do not kill
their way to victory. If killing is involved, it is not to achieve “victory”; it is to prevent
further harm to the innocent.
96. A nonpartisan study of how terrorist groups come to an end reinforces the
Catholic- Mennonite position. 648 terrorist groups operating over the period 1968 –
2006 were studied. Military force was not the best instrument to bring such groups
to an end. The battlefield solution was less effective than law enforcement and
intelligence agencies cooperating for international policing. Yet even policing was
not the most effective means of all. Most effective was the dissolution of terrorist
groups when their members were absorbed into the political process. 1 Diplomacy
rather than war, and police rather than soldiers - these means far surpassed military
solutions.2
97. It is important to understand why this is the case, since the common rationale
for employing military force is that it serve as a defence force and a peacekeeping
force. What kind of thinking is war-thinking, even war-thinking that is directed to
peacekeeping, and how does it compare with peace-thinking directed to peace-
building?
98. When peace is conceived with a military focus, it is an activity tied essentially to
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one thing - armed violence, its threat and use. Consequently, as long as this
paradigm is used all peacekeeping efforts must adhere to physical, mental, and
organizational conformities of all kinds, for the sake of the mission itself. This
implies that only a few of the gifts of the total citizenry are used, and those in
tightly controlled ways - the skills of the soldier, the politician, the weapons
scientist, and the diplomat. When peacekeeping is a subset of war-thinking most of
the gifts of peacemaking, and the vast majority of peacemakers, are simply
irrelevant. Hence parents, children, teachers, students, farmers, business people,
scientists, artists, clergy, doctors and nurses, the young and the old, the physically
able and the infirm - all these potential peacemakers are largely left out when war-
thinking reigns, rather than peace-thinking for peace building.
99. Enhanced scope. Yet the larger point is that just peace and the working
alliance of pacifist and just use traditions now has achieved a much broader scope,
a scope that reflects attention to violence on many more fronts than that of overt,
armed, inter-group conflict. It includes a focus on violence in the home and on child
abuse, on human rights violations, on anti-racism work, on gender violence, on
gang conflict, on promoting processes of truth and reconciliation in transition
societies, on healing the memories of past violations, and on developing the means
of conflict resolution for home, school, church, community, and workplace. These
efforts supplement the previous and almost exclusive focus on war and civil conflict.
100. When we add to this the formation of peacemakers (soul-craft), the scope of
just peace - building effectively encompasses the whole of earthly life. Christian
peacemaking is far more than a firewall for containing conflict; it consists in
practices that constitute a whole way of life for the People of the Way. It is, in a
word, discipleship.
101. There is more. “The whole of earthly life” carries a broader meaning now than
the one we have usually given it. More than ever, we realize that planetary creation
is a vast, seamless, vulnerable, and threatened web. Our small oikos - all of it, both
biosphere and atmosphere - can be
1 “Strategy Against Al-Qaeda Faulted: Report Says Effort Is Not a ‘War’”, by Joby
Warrick, Washington Post,
Wednesday, July 30, 2008: A04.
2 See the commentary by Nicholas D. Kristof in “Make Diplomacy, Not War”, the
New York Times, August 10,
2008: WK12. The Study was conducted by the Rand Corporation.
87
21altered, scarred, torn, injured and impaired by us, as well as revived and restored
through its own powers and with our cooperation. Therefore, the scope of justice is
not only human flourishing. It is the flourishing of planetary creation as a whole.
Moreover, while the rest of nature might flourish apart from human flourishing,
human flourishing is not possible on a despoiled planet. This also applies to peace.
Earth might know a peace without us, but we cannot have peace if land, sea and
sky are stripped of life.
102. This we know. Earth can industrialize but once in the manner and on the scale
it has. The present throbbing world cannot replicate itself multiple times and be
extended indefinitely. For one thing, the costs cannot be met. Maintaining what we
already have is driving communities into poverty, even destitution. Nor are natural
resources present in the abundance or availability they once were. Even allowing for
human creativity and material substitutes, a single factor such as the end of the
petroleum era, the lack of further fertile lands, unrealizable demand for freshwater
or altered climate will yield huge problems and much suffering. Then there is
population, a world of now seven, then eight, then nine or ten billion people.
Whatever else that means it is a multiplier of all other problems, from poverty,
unemployment and refugee agonies to overconsumption, resource depletion, and
destruction of habitat. Not least, psychic energy is largely spent among many
people. The bright side of the agricultural, industrial, and information revolutions
was their lure and drive.
Now, facing their destructive downside, a global fatigue wears away at millions.
Renewable moral spiritual energy, together with the renewable energy of hope, is
needed.
103. Furthermore, all this happens at the very time that the expectations of billions
of people for a life of sufficiency and enough have not yet been met. The bottom
two billion cannot be told that their hopes are not realizable. Least of all can their
hopes be dashed by affluent societies smugly protecting their privilege.
104. Just peace-building thus confronts a double challenge that most Christian
peace traditions have neglected: the challenge of securing, on a healthy planet, the
goods of the community of all beings God has created; and, at the same time, the
challenge of addressing the obscenity of superfluous wealth and the offense of
needless poverty with a view to the dignity and well-being of all God’s children.
88
Just Institutions in a Just Order
105. The enhanced scope and reconceptualising of peace across the whole of
earthly life returns us to the subject of just institutions and ways of life. Our
historical moment, some arenas of concern, and the task before us are being
discussed here. Further matters of importance are hoped to come from the
contributions and suggestions of readers in the WCC Member Churches and beyond.
106. No one can be whole in a broken world. For that reason, we turn to peace-
building and just institutions in a just order. Institutions, policies, systems, and the
ways in which our lives are organized, shape who we are, how we experience the
world and see it and what we are able to do in it. Every part of our being, from
imagination to habits of the heart to ordinary and extraordinary action, is affected
by the worlds that we inhabit and that inhabit us. If we are to be whole, so, too,
must they be. Thus peace-building at the levels of just institutions in a just order is
the indispensable partner of soul-craft.
107. The economic order has always altered and shaped the planet and its peoples.
It has done
so with great force and effect since the Industrial Revolution and the globalization of
recent decades, affecting not only the biosphere’s community of life but the
atmosphere and climate itself. In the face of this, the AGAPE process of the WCC
(Alternative Globalization Addressing Peoples and Earth) asks for a vision of the
oikoumene that would energize the ecumenical movement to help overcome
unconscionable levels of inequity within the human community and between
humans and the rest of the community of life. AGAPE rightly understands that both
economic and ecological peace and justice must be addressed together, with
sustained participation at all levels. Only then might a genuine “economy of life” be
realized.
108. The AGAPE process joins a worldwide awareness that we face a dangerous
historical
moment and a long, hard transition period. It might be described as follows.
109. The big, orienting ideas driving the imagination and activity of so many
peoples after World War II were human rights, economic growth, and the advance of
freedom and security in the form of democracy. While these sometimes worked
against one another and worsened conditions for vast numbers of peoples, these
89
were also treasures that benefited millions, even billions. Human rights found their
way into constitutions in many societies and advocates in every society, a vibrant
middle class emerged where there had been none, there was no World War III or
nuclear holocaust, and the Berlin Wall and borders fell. For both better and worse,
these big, orienting forces formed and shaped the world of the last sixty years and
brought us to this kairos moment. It is a time of decision because these forces, with
some of their roots deep in the Industrial Revolution, have also given us global
warming and unprecedented human numbers on what has now become an
overheated and overcrowded planet. These ideas and forces were strangely blind to
the needs of the life systems upon which all this tumultuous activity utterly
depended.
110. Now everything has flipped. No peace and security, no sustainable economic
growth, no enjoyment of human rights and no righting of remaining wrongs is now
possible apart from new attention to the primal elements of earth (soil), air, fire
(energy), and water. A just peace cannot be achieved apart from developing clean
energy, mitigating the effects of accelerated and extreme climate change as best
we can while adapting to what we cannot change, bringing to a halt the crime of
extinction and the loss of indispensable biodiversity, and creating political,
economic and social structures that treat Earth as that standing miracle which gives
births to us and sustains us. These elements have not been considered essential to
past peace and justice traditions. They are now.
111. In like manner the powerful forces of modern science and technology need to
find a way out of their captivity to forces that have been, on balance, destructive.
While the benefits have been momentous - in fighting disease, extending lives,
increasing yields -, science and technology have largely been in the service of dirty
energy (fossil-fuels), deadly weaponry, and economic and political forces that
overwhelm Earth's carrying capacity. Their misdirection stems from the fact that
modern science and technology have largely joined forces that view nature as a
“collection of objects rather than a communion of subjects” (Thomas Berry).
112. In sum, our historical moment and context necessitates peace-building as

economic, social and political reconstruction. At the same time it necessitates the
tending and keeping of the garden commanded of humans in Genesis, as well as
redirection of the major investment and uses of science and technology. The widely-
cited norms of justice, peace, and integrity of creation can be used to guide and
measure this redirection and reconstruction. A similar set of norms is found in the
90
Earth Charter Guide to “Religion and Climate Change”:
• Solidarity with other people and creatures,
• Sustainability in development, technology and production,
• Sufficiency as a standard of equitable consumption and organized resource-
sharing,
• Socially just participation in decisions about how to obtain sustenance and to
manage community for the good of all.
113. All this is obviously a task for generations. It requires a peace-building

spirituality that spans generations as well. It is helpful to remember that the
Christian faith was born in a clash of the ages at a turning time. “Glory to God and
Peace on Earth” came as the Christmas evangel at just such a time. The way of
Jesus for a People of the Way had all future generations in mind, until the end of
time. Its spirituality knew it would face the inevitable corruptions and defeats that
plague the life of sinful human beings. Yet it never doubted the triumph of life lived
by the grace of God.
Conclusion
114. In summary we might say: We are born to belonging. Earth is our home. We are
star seed and microcosms of the macrocosm in the stunning creation of God. “Peace
on Earth” is the message of heaven for Earth and us as earthlings.
115. We are also born to longing. Our home is not what it might and will be. While
life in God's hands is irrepressible, peace does not yet reign. The principalities and
powers, though not sovereign still enjoy their victories, and we will be restless and
broken until peace prevails. Thus our peace building will of necessity criticize,
denounce, advocate, and resist as well as proclaim, empower, console, reconcile,
and heal. Peacemakers will speak against and speak for, tear down and build up,
lament and celebrate, grieve and rejoice. Until our longing joins our belonging in the
consummation of all things in God, peace work will continue as the flickering of sure
grace.
116. In short, both the world within – peace-building as soul-craft - and the world
without – peace building in and with just institutions - cry for peacemakers. Earth
cries for Christians who will join others to make peace within creation in the same
moment they make peace with creation.
117. “For the palace will be forsaken, the populace city deserted; the hill and the
91
watchtower will become dens forever, the joy of wild asses, a pasture for flocks;
until a spirit from on high is poured out on us, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful
field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.
Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness
and
trust forever.
My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet
resting
places”. (Isa 32:14-20)
Questions and requests:

How do these approaches to “Just Peace” correspond to traditions and thought
forms in your Church? Which elements do you wish to add?
Please share relevant stories and concrete recommendations with the Office of the
International Ecumenical Peace Convocation! Be certain to include both peace-
building as soul-craft and as crafting just institutions and a just order. Please direct
all correspondence, requests and suggestions to the following address:
Nan Braunschweiger, Coordinator

International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC)
World Council of Churches
150, route de Ferney
CH-1211 Geneva 2
email: nan@wcc-coe.org
Copy to: res@wcc-coe.org
92

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Glory to God and Peace on Earth

Study module format prepared by

First Term: Topics 1-4

Second Term: Topics 5-8

Third Term: Topics 9-12

Description: This topic covers the important biblical terminologies of peace,

Scripture Text: Luke 2: 10-14

Paragraph 2: Key Biblical Concepts of Peace

The equivalent of the Hebrew word ‘shalom’ in Korean language is ‘pyeonghwa’ 평화

Paragraph 4: Shalom and Islam

Paragraph 5: Shalom and Eirene

Words from Biblical English language Korean language

English Words Meaning or definition Korean translation

Paragraph 6: Jesus is the Source of Peace

 What are your actual experiences of peace? Do your

Scripture Texts: Ephesians 2: 19-22; Romans 14: 19

Paragraph 1, The Household of God: There can be no other setting of

Paragraph 4, An oikodomos is a peace-builder, one who strives to make the

Paragraph 5, Peace as a gift: Peace is God’s gift to humanity. It both sustains

Words from Biblical and English language Korean language

Christian communities raised opposition to the governments move to

International Christian Concern, a U.S.-based organization that helps persecuted Christians

 The news clipping above is quite disturbing. If you were on

 The arrest, attacks, expulsion, even death of some South

Scripture Texts: Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 145:17; John 14:26

This mask looks like me.

Words from Biblical English language Korean language

English Words Meaning or definition Korean translation

Peace is one of the basic characters of God revealed in the Holy

1. How does the understanding of God as “One in three” or “Three

2. What can your group, church, and government do toward peace

Scripture Texts: Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7

Paragraph 1, Created in God’s image.

Words from Biblical English language Korean language

accusation a statement saying that 고발, 고소, 비난, 규탄

plunder to steal things from a (군대 등이) …을 약탈하다

distort; distorted to change the shape, (종종 수동형으로)…(의형

Paragraph 3, Forms of expression of violence. Basically, violence is a violation

Objectives: At the end of session participants are able to:

Paragraph 1, Violence in social systems. Violence also expresses itself in the

Paragraph 2, Habitual violence. Furthermore, there is need to address what can

English Words Meaning or definition Korean translation

The World Conservation Congress

Despite dramatic economic growth worldwide, poverty continues to increase in many

In his book Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic, James Gilligan, former

The violence in structural violence is attributed to the specific organizations of society

1. What are the expressions of violence some people experience in your

3. Are you involve in a movement, church or organization that work towards

Paragraph 1: Another way of addressing the realities of violence is to look

Paragraph 2: Earth, too, can be treated as though it were an enemy. In

English Words Meaning or definition Korean translation

Paragraph 3: Sometimes these structures of enmity are seen but often

Paragraph 4: Under these circumstances, the old question appears more

Paragraph 5: Troubled by what we see in

Paragraph 7: In contrast to this view this Statement wants to emphasize

2. The Christian ethics/principles for deciding what is good to be done

Objectives: At the end of the session, participants are able to:

Scripture Texts: 2 Corinthians 5: 18-19

Paragraph 1: In the Name of Christ: The Churches as Communities and

Paragraph 2: The Nature and Mission of the Church

English Words Meaning or definition Korean translation

Paragraph 4: As a creation of the Word and the Spirit, the Church