Peace in the world: a devotion taken at a Women's Fellowship meeting.

By Leah Taylor in Articles

Leah recounts the history of Methodist women and peace-making, and considers the impact of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies which has opened this year at the University of Otago.

PEACE

The very first World March for Peace and Nonviolence began in Wellington on 2 October, 2009, and this week, from 11 to 18 October, a week of prayer for world peace is being observed. Peace therefore is the theme for tonight's reflection.

The World Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women, to which all Methodist Women's Fellowship members belong, was founded to bring about peace and understanding among peoples and nations.

Dr Helen Kim:
In 1923 Helen Kim, a young Korean graduate who was studying for a PhD at Columbia University, addressed the US Methodist Women's Foreign Mission Society at Des Moines, Ohio. She inspired all who heard her with her vision for Christian women from around the world joining together to bring about peace between peoples and nations. This marked the beginning of Helen Kim's life-long struggle for a peaceful world. (Korea was under Japanese colonial rule in 1923!) Dr Helen Kim became South Korea's first female representative at the United Nations.

World Federation of Methodist Women:
In 1939 Helen Kim's vision was partially realised at Pasadena in California. Delegates from 27 national Methodist women's groups, representing 4 million women, met and formed the World Federation of Methodist Women. (New Zealand Methodist women's groups joined the World Federation in 1956.)

The architect and the first president of this new World Federation was Mrs Evelyn Riley Nicholson. Like Helen Kim, Evelyn Nicholson was an ardent advocate for peace. She wrote: The Way to a Warless World, which was the first book on world peace to be issued by the Methodist Church after the First World War. A copy of this book was also placed in the cornerstone of the Church Centre at the United Nations in New York City.

The good news of the New Testament centres on the major theme of the peace and love of God. In the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus this message is clear. It is a direct call to all Christians to be peacemakers.

The need for peacemakers in 2009 is overwhelming. According to the Winter 2009 newsletter from Christian World Service, 2.5 million displaced people have fled to safety because of conflict between the Pakistani army and the Teleban forces. Help is needed in Afghanistan, Palestine, Sri Lanka and South Sudan to break the cycles of violence.

Are Christians able to help meet these awesome challenges?

A small group of New Zealand Anglican Church members believed we could. They thought training in conflict resolution and new ways of approaching old dilemmas were needed. As a result of a series of meetings held throughout New Zealand, peace activists and academics joined with members of this Anglican group and together they formed the Aotearoa New Zealand Peace and Conflict Studies Centre Trust. First they raised 1.25 million dollars, which was matched by the University of Otago's government-funded Leading Thinkers project. As a result, a Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies was opened at the university in January 2009. Internationally respected academic, Professor Kevin Clements, was appointed to the new chair at the University of Otago.

After only eight months, Kevin Clements has made an extraordinary impact. The crucial need for peace education in the tertiary sector has been recognised and the Centre is also bringing fresh thinking to local issues; domestic violence and the well being of children, high rates of youth suicide and harmonious race relations within New Zealand. Broader issues, such as international peacekeeping, social justice and ethnic rights are covered, too.

I was pleased to learn the role of women in peacemaking is being acknowledged at this Centre. You will recall that this year's World Day of Prayer order of service, prepared by the women of Papua New Guinea, included the story of women's role in bringing peace to Bougainville Province after 15 years of civil war.

Jesus said: Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God. (Matthew 5, v9)

Let me end with these lines from James K. Baxter's Song to the Holy Spirit.

You are the kind fire who does not cease to burn,
consuming us with flames of love and peace,
driving us out like sparks to set the world on fire.

--12 October 2009