The West Michigan Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church

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•		Reflections on Peace

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Peace with Justice Ministries

Our ministries of peace with justice, or justpeace, emcompass the breadth of our lives as Christians. We are called with God’s help to transform the whole creation, beginning with ourselves and reaching into our relationships with family, church, community, including the world, and into all created life.

These pages are meant to encourage the ministry of peacemaking in the West Michigan Conference. They will keep us informed of the many peace centers in the Conference, their programs and outreach. There will be a section discussing books that deal with justice and peace.

Please contact us!

Our Peace with Justice Coordinator is Ellen Brubaker, and she will be keeping us connected and up-to-date. You are most welcome to send a brief review of books and articles that have inspired you in your ministry as a peacemaker. We will include information and opportunities that are available in the Conference and abroad in the larger community. Information from the general church connection will be shared, as well as networking information from other groups engaged in ministries of justice and peace. Please let us know of such opportunities in your area. You can reach Ellen Brubaker at johnellen5@comcast.net

Peace is far more than the absence of war. We live in a world that is often violent, conflicted and polarized. God calls us to transform violence, conflict and the polarization of God’s people. God is with us as we seek to answer the call to make of God’s world a place of justice, peace and love. It is our hope and our intent that PEACE PAGES may be one way of sharing God’s Holy Spirit in Christ as we journey together until the peace of Christ is a reality for the whole creation.

Romans 5: 1 tells us, “Therefore since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Our United Methodist understanding of faith formation is one that includes the presence of the Holy Spirit of Christ at the very center of our being through the gift of God’s grace. This graceful love fills us until love overflows into the whole creation. We become witnesses to the unconditional love of God in all that we say and all that we do. As the Christ transformed life, so are we sent to do the same in Christ’s name. Thus we become peacemakers. As has often been said, there is no peace without justice.

We believe war is incompatible with the teachings and example of Christ. We therefore reject war as an instrument of foreign policy, to be employed only as a last resort in the prevention of such evils as genocide, brutal suppression of human rights, and unprovoked international aggression. We insist that the first moral duty of all nations is to resolve by peaceful means every dispute that arises among them; that human values must outweigh military claims as governments determine their priorities; that militarization of society must be challenged and stopped; that the manufacture, sale, and deployment of armaments must be reduced and controlled; and that the production, possession, or use of nuclear weapons be condemned. Consequently, we endorse general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.”

-THE SOCIAL PRINCIPLES of the UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, Section VI, "The World Community"–