GA Update: Peacemaking Issues

By Jan Orr-Harter

The long-awaited GA plenary session on Peacemaking and International Issues came and went, with excellent results, but not quite as we expected the process to go. We'll take the results.

On the war in Afghanistan, amendments were added to remember the 9-11 victims and their families and the US troops and their families. Personally, I think there should have been something already in the overture addressing these concerns. Even though the US was involved in Afghanistan long before 9-11, this wound pains us and needs focus from a peacemaking perspective. The overture passed overwhelmingly, stating clearly that the PC(USA) opposes the war in Afghanistan and calls for only non-military actions and a withdrawal of troops. This is the first time the GA has spoken on the war in Afghanistan. The new PC(USA) Washington DC Office Public Witness Director, J. Herbert Nelson, was at GA and now he has a clear mandate from the church on opposing this longest war in US history and bringing the troops home as safely as possible, with the US joining international efforts to help rebuild Afghanistan non-militarily.

Voice votes passed easily commending churches on the Commitment to Peacemaking, supporting a return to democracy in Honduras and Madagascar, Partnering for Peace in the Sudan, appealing for reconciliation in Korea, support for sustainable agriculture and economic peacebuilding changes in world policy in relation to Haiti and protection for religious minorities.

Then came Colombia. The overture calls for the US to reverse its plan to establish seven new military bases in Colombia, plus calling the US to help create peace negotiations to end the conflict there, and other aspects on Colombia that PPF supports. Again, it passed without a fight. There seems to be a consensus on this in the church now. Thank you to all in PPF and the World Mission parts of the church who have led the way to this new consensus. How do we make best use of this consensus? J. Herbert Nelson, maybe you can help us do that–those bases aren't in full operation yet.

And, finally, came the melded version of the Nonviolence Discernment - Strengthening the Peacemaking Program overtures–the whole kitchen sink of good things. While PPF was ready for a debate, it passed through overwhelmingly without a debate. I'm not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. We all know that much debate and reflection will be ahead in this new 4-6 year process to plan the future of Presbyterian peacemaking, taking into account all past GA major peacemaking documents, plus just war and nonviolence.

The plenary session on Friday at the 219th General Assembly (2010). Photo by Danny Bolin.

I doubt that most commissioners voting realized the scope of the nonviolence that we propose–which includes such steps as unarmed and pre-emptive intervention in places of violent conflict by trained citizens, and eventually by nations and the United Nations–a complete change in how we pre-empt or intervene in conflicts. The committee melding all the various overtures understood it and had stated already in the motion that nonviolence is in fact our new goal and that the teaching of Jesus in Luke 6 (Love your enemies) is already our foundation. So nonviolence had a great day, though a bit quieter than expected. Perhaps commissioners were just worn out from fighting. That is the point. There has been enough fighting.

The final version calls for the Peacemaking Program and the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy to create a broad-based group to study all the new issues in this kitchen sink, reporting back at the 2012 Assembly, creating a plan for involving the larger church with proposals on future peacemaking in 2014 and discernment through 2016. It's a significant process that was funded for at least 3 years. Rick Ufford-Chase, PPF's Executive Director, has been the chief advocate of a longer, more gradual period of reflection on this, including opportunities to engage in nonviolent actions and to reflect on them for a deeper, more fundamental shift in the church regarding war.

The Presbyterian Peace Fellowship is specifically asked in the action to help in this process–and part of that help, it seems to me, is to devise new ways to involve churches and presbyteries in this national reflection with as little financial cost as possible. So start thinking! How do we put our technology and our humanity on the side of cost-effective peacemaking? Perhaps it means a re-engagement at the local level with the energy that lifted up peacemaking in the church in the 1980s to begin with. To our friends Mark Koenig, of the Peacemaking Program, and Chris Iosso, of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, PPF says thank you for stewarding these concerns into the foundation for a new era of Presbyterian Peacemaking. PPF is here to help.

At the conclusion of the peacemaking report, the Vice-Moderator recognized PPFer Kathy Conner, as the widow of John Conner, the GA moderator who originally called for peacemaking in the church. Our tiny little Kathy stood and waved–and then the whole Assembly rose to honor her–and to honor the legacy of peacemaking in the PC(USA), from GA to GA–and now, with this new plan set into motion–from generation to generation.

As in 1980, when the superpowers had come to the very brink of the nuclear cliff, the world was eager for a new direction. We are at the brink of another cliff today– the fact that war has become counter-productive, killing primarily civilians and creating expanding violence, new enemies and new terrorists faster than we can counter them. Many in the armed forces, in my view, have become our allies in the awareness that military action cannot solve the problems of violence in the world today. Something new is needed. Though nonviolence is not really new, it is new to the world. It's day has come. Mel Duncan, get ready to bring your church on board with your movement.

As PPFers and others gathered for one final night of cookies and milk at the hotel, I asked PPF Moderator Emeritus Len Bjorkman what he felt was the most significant peacemaking action at GA. He answered that his own priority was the action on the war in Iraq, which included coming completely home as scheduled and support for all involved, including the religious community. He was disappointed that the action did not include a study of what actually happened in this ill-founded war in terms of impact on all involved and on ascertaining the number of deaths on all sides. But he was hopeful that the analysis of the results of this actual war, rather than war in theory, might be a starting point for the groups who will work to study and develop the next steps in Presbyterian peacemaking.

And then Len moved right on to update us on the Jewish Ship for Gaza that PPF is supporting to break the blockade of Gaza, following the lead of long-standing European Jewish groups who oppose the occupation and call for a moratorium on settlements and for a two state resolution of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. So we continue on. Stay tuned.