1 - 2001

Overcoming Violence

Needed: Creativity and a Credible Commitment

How the new ecumenical Decade to Overcome Violence came into being

by Margot Käßmann

On 4 February 2001 in Berlin, the World Council of Churches officially launched its ecumenical Decade to Overcome Violence. One of the initiators of this programme is the Lutheran Bishop of Hanover, Margot Käßmann. In this article she describes what it takes to create a common ecumenical programme.

It was one of the few concrete decisions taken by the Eighth Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in December 1998 in Harare, Zimbabwe: on the last day, an ecumenical Decade to Overcome Violence was included among the programme guidelines for the years to come. Many people were glad and relieved to have this decision, since it meant that a continuity of social-ethical action in the ecumenical movement would be possible.

The decade is new, but the theme is an old one. The question of how the churches relate to violence has been on the agenda of the WCC since its founding; the idea of a community of churches, similar to the League of Nations, arose especially when memories were fresh of the horrors of World War I. At the beginning of the 1940s, when this World Council was finally about to be founded, a world war on an even greater scale postponed the founding to the year 1948. At the first Assembly in Amsterdam, it was said that "War is against the will of God".

In the years that followed there were many wars and civil war-like conflicts to challenge the World Council. But the hope remained that the growing together of the churches could at least reduce the role of religion as a factor in war, and that the ecumenical movement could make a contribution to world peace.

The problem of how to deal with violence resurfaced in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Liberation movements, the struggle against racism and the issue of a "just revolution" were now raising, from the other side, questions about "justifiable violence". A performance by a Zimbabwean theatre group during the Africa Plenary at the WCC Eighth Assembly asked whether liberation which is achieved through violence can actually break the cycle of violence, or whether it only gives rise to more violence.

At the same time a clear aversion was developing towards weapons of mass destruction. At the Fifth WCC Assembly in Nairobi in 1975, the delegates declared their willingness to live without the protection of armaments. This declaration inspired the founding of many peace groups, including "To Live Without Armaments (Ohne Rüstung Leben)" in West Germany.

Finally, the problem of violence found a place in the conciliar process for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation (JPIC) which was decided upon at the Sixth Assembly in Vancouver in 1983. Violence became the connecting link; injustice as structural violence, war as the military form of violence and destruction of the creation as violence against ecological integrity were signs of the interconnectedness of distinctly different issues.

At the WCC Central Committee meeting in 1994, the problem of violence was already on the agenda when, at the main worship celebration, the Methodist bishop Stanley Mogoba asked whether it was not time, now that the apartheid dictatorship in South Africa had been overcome, to follow the Programme to Combat Racism with a Programme to Combat Violence. A "Programme to Overcome Violence (POV)" was decided upon. This was brought to life more clearly at the next Central Committee meeting. Theological and ecclesiological issues were indicated, and it was clarified that the aim was not to describe violent situations as such, but rather to concentrate on the churches as subjects in overcoming violence.

In April 1996 a small group met in Rio de Janeiro to consult about how to implement this programme. An initiative was needed which would demonstrate the many dimensions of the violence issue, and would gain attention and a high profile for the programme. So the campaign "Peace to the City" was launched.

The coordinating group decided to look for seven cities in which church groups were working together with action groups in the civil society on concrete ways of overcoming violence. These were to serve as examples of the many possibilities and methods, and of creativity and civil courage. The cities chosen were Rio de Janeiro, Durban, Boston, Belfast and Colombo, as well as Kingston, Jamaica and Suva, Fiji.

This campaign was distinguished not by the founding of new movements, but rather by bringing out new creativity through linking together existing initiatives. This linking process made use, most of all, of a medium which is itself misused to promote violence: the Internet. By means of a Web site with a chat room, but also through the production of videos, other groups and churches were encouraged to take initiatives towards overcoming violence. The local groups themselves have explained that they receive the most encouragement from contacts with others through this linking process. This is the kind of globalisation which the ecumenical movement can practice, under a different paradigm.

The decision in Harare to launch the Decade was supported not only by the positive experience of the Peace to the City" campaign, which was introduced in the padare (forum), but also by two further elements. Harare marked the conclusion of the ecumenical Decade of the Churches in Solidarity with Women.

By the time that Decade ended, it was clear that the experience of violence is one, if not the only, issue which unites women throughout the world. The Decade evaluation made a compelling case for continuing work on this issue. The second element was the decision of the UN General Assembly, on 10 November 1998, to declare 2001-2010 as a Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Worlds Children. This offered a new possibility for cooperation to be developed.

Now the Decade to Overcome Violence is part of the programme guidelines for the WCC for years to come. What may come of it? One thing, hopefully, is that the WCC will take this initiative, expand it and build it up, with determination and the appropriate resources. It has an opportunity in the fact that churches exist all over the world; there are local congregations in every country. They too can take up the challenge of overcoming violence. The problems of violence against children, violence against women, structural violence, ecological violence, issues of war and peace and the production and export of armaments can be engaged on many different levels. Actions which make it clear that pacifism does not mean passivity, but rather creative activity towards reducing violence, can arouse enthusiasm for a new ecumenical theme and bring about shared commitments which reach across boundaries. Church congregations and educational institutions can become places in which mediation is taught as a method of conflict resolution. We need to make the most of the experiences with "shalom services" resulting from the JPIC conciliar process. Stimuli can also come from the discussions on reconciliation in relation to the European Ecumenical Assembly in Graz, and from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa and the debates on impunity in Latin America.

Overcoming violence is an urgent concern. The WCCs role can be to stimulate an international theological debate about it. Through telling stories about overcoming violence, new creativity on the part of the churches themselves can be developed. Then they need no longer stand wringing their hands over violence, but can become active themselves and put into practice the peace which they proclaim. Perhaps then one day it will become possible not to be looking at an intervention as the last possibility, but to be many steps ahead of that position, so that an intervention is no longer even necessary.

The debate holds a great opportunity for us. We must hope and work to make the most of it. For the ecumenical movement, the churches and not least of all for the WCC, it would be a tremendous chance to raise our profile, creativity and credibility.

Dr. Margot Käßmann is Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover and a member of the WCC Central Committee. This article was taken in abridged form from the brochure "Being a Christian world-wide - overcoming violence (Christ sein weltweit - Gewalt überwinden)" published by the Association of Churches and Missions in Germany (EMW).