World Communion of Reformed Churches
World Communion of Reformed Churches

Unity, Peace, and Justice Are Linked

By Chris Meehan, News Editor

In a keynote presentation on Saturday morning at a meeting of the newly formed World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), four panelists urged delegates, observers and visitors to walk the walk and not just talk the talk when it comes to the issues of unity, diversity, social justice and peace.

The presentation was held on the second full day of the Uniting General Council, which on Friday formed the WCRC out of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) in ceremonies on the campus of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, located in the upper Midwest of the United States.

Although coming together and forming a new organization is a powerful sign of unity, panelists said, it is crucial to realize that out of unity flows diversity, social justice and peace, helping form a circle in which these matters become more than mere words and good intentions. They become a sacred way of living, said Sabine Dressler-Kromminga, a minister of an Evangelical Reformed congregation in Braunschweig, Germany.

"When we speak of diversity, we are referring to a diversity that recognizes itself as variety in individuality," she said. "The group and the individual are linked to and exist in relationship to one another."

Other speakers picked up on this theme, making the point that unity is called for by the words and example of Jesus Christ and consists much more than simply organizations merging into one body. It involves an entire process of relationships and the search for equality for all people.

Ruth Padilla DeBorst, a Christian Reformed Church in North America missionary who also serves as General Secretary of the Latin American Theological Fellowship, spoke of a new kind of peace that came to this world at the time of a shaky peace between warring factions in the First Century Roman Empire.

"One holy night, into this fragile peace, pounded precariously together with cross nails and oppressive taxation, another peace was announced in the form of a poor child born in an obscure part of the world," far from the seat of the Roman empire and of the temple, she said.

This baby grew into the man who showed the world the connections between unity, diversity, social justice and peace. It is impossible to have one of these without the other, she said. Christ's life and teachings, as well as his death on the cross and resurrection, became living examples of this process.

"As we come together during this Uniting General Council, and we depart from here as members of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, may we not merely celebrate that our merger increases our number," DeBorst said. "May we see ourselves as fruits and agents of Pax Christi (the peace of Christ), as a community brought together by God's reconciling will in Christ and sent as such into the world by the power of God's Spirit to incarnate God's good purposes for the entire cosmos."

Park Seong-Won, a pastor and professor of theology at the Youngman Theological University and Seminary in Korea, reminded people that "unity is the major thing that God is looking for ... From God's standpoint, unity and social justice are not two things."

Significant to consider is the fact that God's unity and justice encompass all creation and all people, from the rich to the poor, from the mighty to the lowly, panelists emphasized. It is often misunderstood how unity and justice help to create peace.

Unfortunately, many churches today only give these truths lip service, said Jennifer Ayana McCalman, an active member of the Guyana Congregational Union and an attorney. Unity can mean more than just meeting and worshipping under the same umbrella. Then there is justice.

"For too many churches, justice means doing charity," McCalman said. Admitting the need for charity, she added churches must examine themselves and become agents of change through works, prayers and godly personal lifestyles that join to bring about justice in communities.

"Unity, peace and justice are more than words," she said. "It is how we make those words become meaningful by the way we live and act."

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