Church and Peace AGM urges reformation step of faith towards committed nonviolence
SCHOEFFENGRUND, Germany, 14 June 2017 – Church and Peace is calling churches and government leaders to make decisive choices for nonviolence and to turn away from putting trust in military-based security concepts.
At its Annual General Meeting on 9-11 June in Strasbourg, the European peace church network explored the theme “Freed from fear, empowered to nonviolence” through the lens of an ongoing call to (R)reformation 500 years after Martin Luther proposed his theses for debate in Wittenberg, Germany.
The encouragement “Do not be afraid”, found throughout the Bible, was the basis for a sermon by Ana Raffai, Roman Catholic theologian from Croatia and co-founder of the interreligious group Believers for Peace, during the AGM’s closing worship, and formed the common thread between workshops on a variety of topics including security in Europe; just policing and a logic of security versus a logic of peace; Church and Peace, the Bible and sexual identities; fear, populism, nationalism and the return of fascism; and addressing personal fears in a constructive manner.
Church and Peace Chairperson Antje Heider-Rottwilm took a closer look at what “500 years of Reformation” means in the face of the many personal, societal and global challenges in today’s world and came to the conclusion that experiencing God’s love and mercy freed Martin Luther from his self-destructive fears
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