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Just Peace
Beyond Rhetoric
Bishop Duleep Kamil De Chickera
Duleep Kamil De Chickera is the retired Bishop of Colombo in the
Anglican Church of Sri Lanka.

Perspective
This reflection is from a South Asian perspective but is conscious of other global
realities as well. It seeks to make sense of the harsh realities that crush and humiliate
humans made in the image of God in relation to the God of all life, whose purpose it
is that not even a sparrow will fall to the ground without Gods consent.
The reflection draws mostly from the life and teaching of Christ, the servant of just
peace, but has also been influenced by the spirituality of mentors and modest men and
women. Many of these people are friends from within the ecumenical movement and
many are friends from within our living sister religions. All have worked tirelessly for a
safe, just, and reconciled world; they are hopeful enough to believe that the forces of
violent greed will not prevail. Readers will observe that lessons learned from the
daunting Sri Lankan conflict serve as a background to my reflection. These various
influences and threads have been so integrated within me that it is not possible to
distinguish and name sources. In any case, I have always found the exercise of recording
tedious footnotes and bibliographies laborious and time consuming!
The World Council of Churches (WCC) Busan assembly of 2013 and the ecumenical
movement in general will receive most attention simply because this is my mandate. But
the reflection has also been structured with the hope that it may impact beyond the
portals and agendas of the WCC and its member churches.
I have tried hard to avoid clichs and to opt for a simple secular terminology, but this
has not been possible throughout. We are indeed creatures of habit who lay our eggs in
the nests that others build!
DOI: 10.1111/erev.12035
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Finally, this reflection comes out of a long and appreciative journey with the WCC, in
which I have received much more than I have given.
Just Peace: From Jamaica to Busan
The concept of just peace (sometimes capitalized as Just Peace or abbreviated as JP) is
not a new one. It has been in use among people of faith and within the wider peace
discourse for several decades.
The 2011 WCC peace convocation in Jamaica gave this concept a new dynamic: justice
qualifies peace and is seen as a precondition for peace. Thus any claim for peace that
disregards justice is hollow. In this way, peace, which tends otherwise to remain elusive,
becomes more measurable. Those who desire peace must be prepared to work for
justice.
This Jamaican dynamic is in line with the Biblical shalom. Shalom exists when the harsh
realities of poverty, war, greed, selfishness, oppression, discrimination, exploitation, and
division cease; it is present when the liberating realities of dignity, equality, goodwill,
contentment, sharing, loving kindness, plenty-fullness, harmony, and health abound; it
is when these realities endure that just peace will prevail.
Soon after Jamaica, a post-convocation reference committee met to sharpen further this
concept of just peace and to offer it as a recommendation to the tenth assembly of the
WCC to be held in Busan, South Korea, in October 2013.
The gist of the recommendation was that just peace should cease to be a separate
agenda and be received as an integrated spirituality, as the soul of the whole life and
witness of the whole body of Christ. Intrinsic to the recommendation was the requirement that just peace should no longer be expected to compete for space with other
programmes on the ecumenical agenda, but that just peace should determine the
credibility of all ecumenical initiatives. The recommendation was also a clear call to the
assembly to own and convey this means of grace to the churches. However, until this
spirituality is absorbed into the ecumenical movement, an adequately empowered
interim mechanism will have to promote and monitor its fusion.
The assembly theme, God of life, lead us to justice and peace, has the necessary scope
to incorporate this recommendation and give it new life. The theme itself had been
decided on by the time of the Jamaican recommendation; if not, it might have read just
peace rather than justice and peace.
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Regardless of this nuance, there is potential in the theme for the assembly to receive the
recommendation and awaken the churches to this highest priority for Gods world
today. If this were to happen, Busan could become a crucial milestone in the life of our
common ecumenical journey.
Jamaica has spoken. Busan must respond. The God of life is waiting.
Realities at Busan
Three realities will dominate Busan. I refer to them as (1) a torn and divided world; (2)
one family, two worlds; and (3) the way of Jesus to just peace.
A torn and divided world

Current Conflicts. Meeting in one part of the whole Korea, whose two parts are
separated from and apprehensive of each other, the assembly will be compelled to take
note of the aggression and division that torment and obstruct just peace in Gods world
today.
During the short period of time that this reflection was being written, several violent
conflicts and brazen injustices were occurring all over the world. Israel, which was
threatening strikes to negate Irans alleged potential to manufacture the atomic bomb,
finally struck Palestine, with some retaliation from Hamas, causing death and destruction. The Syrian rebellion, backed by NATO and resisted by Russia, in which 40,000
have been killed, continues without any signs of a negotiated settlement. Al-Qaidas
newly appointed leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, has called on Muslims of the world to
support rebels fighting for an Islamic state in Somalia. Civil society groups in Argentina
have marched on the capital in protest of corruption, crime, and inflation. The Communist party in China has appointed the leaders of its nation for the next ten years
without the participation of the people.
It has also come to light that the US consulate in Libya, in which the US ambassador was
killed in an attack last year, was a cover for a CIA project. The stateless Rohingyas of
Myanmar suffer continuing violent persecution, with nowhere to run for safety. Both the
Boko Haram movement and the Nigerian military are being accused of human rights
violations in the conflict in northern Nigeria, in which Boko Haram seeks to establish an
Islamic state under sharia law. The prime minister of Kenya has backed the demand for
compensation from the British government by survivors of torture during the Mau Mau
rebellion of the 1950s, when Kenya was under British colonial rule. India plans to
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develop its largest nuclear plant in Kudankulam, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu,
amidst protests from groups in both India and Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government has
taken steps to impeach the chief justice for what is widely believed her refusal to submit
to political interference. And a self-investigative UN exercise has brought to light serious
lapses in the behaviour of its staff during the violent conflict in Sri Lanka.
This is a random narration of the injustice and violence that break and tear apart our
habitat. It does not include any reference to the havoc that global warming, disease,
malnutrition, poverty, displacement, and statelessness all inter-related are causing.
The Causes of Conflict. These sad and unacceptable happenings occur because of at
least two root causes. The stewards of creation, entrusted with responsibility to care for
and share the resources of Mother Earth in such a way that we can each have what is
necessary to live a fully human life with dignity and mutual respect, have failed to do so.
And where greed has interfered with this sacred mandate, or where our God-given
diversity has led to suspicion or discrimination, we have failed to restrain these impulses
and resolve these differences in a civilized way through non-violent conversations,
reasonableness, and compromise. Ours is far from the safe, just, and reconciled world
that the God of life and most humans want it to be.
One family, two worlds

Different Realities and Perspectives. Even though the churches of the WCC are
theologically described as one ecumenical family, we are far from the homogeneous
group that we like to assume we are.
Our churches and people think and act differently. We are not embraced by the same
socio-political realities; we represent a wide cross section of wealth and poverty; we
have had excellent, poor, or little educational opportunities; we experience different
degrees of security; we do not share a common world view.
More hidden are the complex grievances and wounds we nurse. Some of these are from
the past and others contemporary. Some are caused by the other who sits at the same
table and some by our own or the others ancestors and governments. Some of us suffer
the ravages of war and some of us enjoy a high physical quality of life made possible
from the profits of sales of the very arms which have inflicted these ravages.
Democratic dissent, critique, and protest are viewed and practised differently within the
same ecumenical family. They have different consequences in different parts of the
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world. For instance, some can protest publicly and wake up in the same bed to protest
the next day; others simply cannot. Some are in the boiling pot; others peek into the pot;
still others stand alongside those who feed the fire under the pot. All this inevitably has
an impact on the analyses we make and the solutions for which we agitate.
Some discern grievance and injustice to be entrenched in unjust social structures and are
compelled to perceive counter-violence as a last resort to achieve just peace; others are
formed to recognize violence primarily in its visible manifestation, condemn any act of
force by non-governmental groups as terrorism, and endorse offensive violence by
political regimes.
Some will name their own nation or kind as perpetrators of injustice, while others defend
violations committed by their own as being necessary to protect their nations sovereignty. Some assume or endorse the audacity of their regimes to police the world as if a
God-given right, while others long to be left to resolve their own internal affairs without
external interference. Some have lost confidence in the ability of world bodies to act
impartially, while others benefit from the policies and actions of these same bodies.
Some see the unbounded greed of the industrialized nations as violence against Mother
Earth and the poor, while others tacitly endorse the role of these nations to plunder
Gods world and benefit passively. Some are content with a little, while others always
want more. Some prefer to remain silent out of fear, guilt, or theological conviction
when injustice occurs, while others demonstrate the courage and integrity to cross
boundaries and take risks to promote just peace. Some WCC members represent and
articulate positions abroad that they may not be able to sustain at home, while others fail
to represent their home situations adequately and still others may comply with a stance
with which they disagree with out of a false sense of courtesy or ecumenical solidarity.
Unhealthy Repercussions. This complex diversity of perspectives tends to lead to at
least one of two unhealthy repercussions in the ecumenical movement and at ecumenical gatherings, including assemblies. People will either leave their real world out or they
will become confrontational out of impatience for swift and drastic change. Since both
possibilities curtail the energy of just peace and disrupt the purposes of God, we then
end up imagining that the flawed energy we generate is the best possible, when there is
much, much more we are capable of offering.
A Fresh Spirituality. A fresh and renewed spirituality will be required to translate and
release these diverse contexts, experiences, sensitivities, and yearnings as gifts from the
God of life. This spirituality will enable us to look beyond the short term disagreements
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and conflicts provoked by this approach toward a more just and integrated movement
under the God of life. In pursuing this spirituality, we are to recall and reaffirm that the
God of all life is also the God of diversity, ever present with us in our stances and world
views and present also in our mix of integrity and hypocrisy.
Such a spirituality will also have to create a safe-stirring-space (SSS) for people to be
themselves. In his interaction with people, especially the helpless and harassed (Matt.
9:36), Jesus sought to do exactly that. He consistently offered a presence which both
protected and energized people. That is why he asked a mob of self-righteous men
whether they were qualified to throw the first stone at a lone woman and then went on
to remind her that she was to sin no more. That is why he instilled confidence in a thrice
despised woman by asking for water and then went on to draw out her theological skills
in a profound dialogue on worship. That is why he repeatedly viewed the poor, whose
only name and identity was crowd, as sheep without the protection of a shepherd,
and assured them that the poor in spirit, those who mourned, the meek, the pure in
heart, and the persecuted were nearest to God (Matt. 5:311). In the biblical narrative
this is exactly what Barnabas did in his several encounters with Paul and John Mark,
befriending them in adverse circumstances to help them discover and contribute a new
and lasting energy to the early church.
True Celebration of Diversity. It will be the primary responsibility of the central
committee, WCC staff, and general secretary to offer this spirituality. Others may be
called upon to help. If this happens, our common journey will be blessed and our
assemblies will reveal a gathering of free and forward-looking people. Those who
gather will then participate from the heart as well as the head, sharing wounds and even
indignation, but all the time behaving as midwives coaxing the birth of new life, though
at times through the pain of confessions and apologies. When this ethos, kept under
constant review, is in place, we will celebrate our diversity, and our movement and
gatherings will abound in generosity, humility, and credibility to become a part of Gods
agenda for just peace in Gods world.
Where this spirituality is lacking, or where there are perspectives opposed to the
creation of this safe-stirring-space, our gatherings will amount to a parliament engaged
in sectarian politics, scheming for positions and programmes, manipulating decisions,
and spreading suspicion and division, rather than being a family that sits at the same
table. In the case of such a development, the assembly and constituent churches will
have to come to their senses and engage in sensitive intervention to deal with this crisis.
If this does not happen, our endeavours for just peace will be futile and we will lock
ourselves up in that prison that Jesus described (Matt. 5:2126) due to our refusal to
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relate to each other truthfully and we will simultaneously fall out of communion with
the God of life.
The way of Jesus to just peace

The Rhythm of Engagement. Meeting as a gathering of people who claim purpose

in life through Jesus, the assembly will seek to draw direction and hope from the way
Jesus approached just peace. This is best understood in the rhythm of pastoral presence
and prophetic proclamation that Jesus lived out to the end. Having come among
alienated and divided humans in human form, Jesus sought out and penetrated the
layers of social discrimination and structural injustice of his time to deliberately become
the friend of the helpless and harassed pushed to the fringe of society. Within these
friendships, he saw life from the perspective of the powerless and vulnerable and
sought to draw them out of their oppression by affirming their value within the
purposes of God.
This rhythm of pastoral presence and prophetic proclamation excluded no-one, not
even the perpetrators of injustice and violence. So, taking sides in an inclusive way,
which is the hallmark of his teaching on reconciliation, Jesus called on those responsible
for the exclusion and oppression of the helpless and harassed to repent, change their
ways, and do justice to all, beginning with the little people. It was in this way that both
victims and violators were to find their place on a par with each other in a realm Jesus
called the reign of God, in which all are transformed into a new creation.
This, however, was not to be. Those who abuse power and oppress others for gain feel
threatened and do not take well to such invitations. Too much power, wealth, and
recognition have to be given up. So there was resistance to Jesus from the dominant
forces of his time. But this resistance did not change his rhythm. His love for the ways
of God which embrace the oppressed and the truth and his passion for a world of just
peace prevailed; he refused to take the option of silence or to compromise truth with
expediency; he stayed with his rhythm of pastoral presence and prophetic proclamation
for just peace through character assassination, ridicule, violence, and finally death. But
this was not the end of the story. God then raised Jesus from the dead to confirm that
his way of just peace had received the endorsement of the God of life.
This rhythm of engagement through pastoral engagement with the helpless and harassed and a prophetic voice articulated on their behalf is the essence of Jesus spirituality for just peace. It stands in harmony with the historic incarnation through which the
divine in human form penetrated human history to liberate humans from sin and
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selfishness and to announce and raise all into abundant life in Jesus. It is also in line with
the vocation of the courageous prophets of the first testament. It is this rhythm that the
disciples of Christ have been mandated to imbibe, interpret, and carry forward according to the challenges of the times, with faithfulness to the same rhythm and nourished
by the same spirituality.
The Key to Just Peace. Over the centuries, the church has wrestled with this mandate;
it has discerned that it is when the helpless and harassed are set free to rise from their
misery to their full stature as humans made in Gods image that all the other ingredients
for just peace will begin to fall into place. A central teaching of the Bible is that just
attention and just remedy to the plight of those who suffer violent exclusion is the key
to just peace. As long as the helpless and harassed remain helpless and harassed, just
peace will remain elusive. Consequently, the sharing of life with the helpless and
harassed as Christ did is indispensable in our endeavours for just peace.
Who exactly the helpless and harassed are will differ and is for each congregation, church,
community, and generation to discover. Among them will most certainly be those
economically exploited and deprived, socially despised and marginalized, politically
oppressed and excluded, culturally alienated and ridiculed, and religiously suppressed and
victimized; in fact, all whose lives and destinies are trapped one way or another within the
relentless confines of injustice and violence. Seen this way, the helpless and harassed
could at times be entire nations and communities. They could also be within or beyond
the primary community of Jesus or cut across the community of Jesus and wider
communities of other faiths or secular ideologies. At times, the entire local community of
Jesus, such as the Dalit churches in India, will be the helpless and harassed.
Gustavo Gutirrez, the Peruvian Dominican priest and theologian, provides a universal
idiom in his still stirring and famous words that God speaks to us especially through the
poor and the oppressed. To hear those most oppressed by the absence of just peace is
also to hear God with clarity. This is because victims grow so weary and desperate with
the harsh realities that dehumanize them that they have neither time nor energy for
patchwork solutions. They are able precisely to get to the source of their grievance as
well as the solution because of the agonies and dreams with which they live. The
helpless and harassed seldom need the assistance of sociologists to analyze their problems and propose solutions; they need prophets who will win their trust to hear them
and to announce their anguish and hope.
The Character of Advocacy. If God speaks through the helpless and harassed,
the work of advocacy becomes paramount for just peace. Relief and pastoral
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accompaniment consequently take on the dual role of offering supportive care

and a serving as a ramp for social transformation. Other ministries such as development, education, empowerment, and eco-justice make sense when they embody
advocacy.
Jesus symbolic act of foot-washing illustrates the character of advocacy and its connection with hearing. To touch the weary feet of the helpless and harassed with
refreshing water is to make three commitments. Since persons are located where their
feet are planted, there is a commitment to respect and protect identity; since feet
carry the burdens of the body, there is a commitment to reduce these burdens; and
since feet enable mobility, there is a commitment to journey alongside and toward just
peace.
There is an unexpected bonus in the foot-washing that is received only as one stoops to
touch and wash; it remains otherwise unknown. This is the proximity of the ear of the
one who stoops to the lips of the one being washed; it enables the one washing to hear
the one being washed, even if the only utterance heard is a groan. It is in this spirituality
of stooping and commitment to touching that part of the uncovered body of the
helpless and harassed in South Asia that one really hears the groans of Gods little ones.
Hearing in any other way is outside the realm of kingdom hearing and is suspect. Any
other hearing seldom reveals the whole story and hearing can never be done by proxy.
The one who is privileged to wash is at the same time privileged to hear.
A Sri Lankan Experience. For countries like Sri Lanka, embroiled in a violent conflict
and currently under an authoritarian regime, the work of just peace is an arduous
journey. It consists of a search for the right way forward with Christ, in the direction of
a safe, just, and reconciled nation. Regardless of what lies ahead, this journey can only
receive credibility when it begins and continues with the hearing of the helpless and
harassed. Mere rhetoric has no place in this sacred sharing of life.
Immediately after the nearly 30-year Sri Lankan civil war, when people directly caught
up in the conflict returned to the IDP (internally displaced persons) camps, the
eucharist was celebrated to remember the ones lost and to give thanks for those who
survived. In keeping with the biblical narrative, the feet of the men women and children
were washed soon after the sacrament had been shared. The symbolic action of stooping and washing the sore and weary feet of those who had to flee for their lives
repeatedly, from place to place as the fighting caught up with them, broke the barrier of
silent trauma to communicate respect, support, and accompaniment. It conveyed the
willingness to listen to and hear the stories of suffering and sorrow without interruption
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or interpretation. This was a deeply moving moment in the history of the churchs
ministry of just peace and became a milestone in its continuing work of pastoral care
and advocacy.
It was precisely this connection with the lives of the helpless and harassed IDPs that
helped the church later on to articulate the injustice and hardship the IDPs had suffered
as well as their aspirations at the hearing of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation
Commission (LLRC), which followed the end of the war in May 2009. The scope and
content of almost all these testimonies were echoed in the recommendations of the
LLRC with a view to bring national reconciliation in our torn and divided island nation.
The fact that they were is testimony to the integrity of the helpless and harassed. The
fact that to date the government of Sri Lanka has failed to substantially implement these
recommendations will go down in history as a grave travesty of justice.
Truthful Representation. All this has a message for the WCC. Those who represent
churches at assemblies, gatherings, commissions, and other formal bodies are primarily
to represent the helpless and harassed from their regions, just as Anglican bishops are
expected to when they attend the Lambeth conference. It is when such representation
takes place and the realities of the lives of the helpless and harassed are heard among
us that we will come to terms with the violations and dehumanizing trends in our
nations. But this spirituality is not only for assemblies and gatherings and commissions.
It will and must pervade the life of the churches and convert these communities of faith
into movements that will persist in following the God of life into just peace, above all
else.
Where the realities of the helpless and harassed are excluded, it becomes more difficult
to hear and understand their humiliation and to call perpetrators to accountability as
Christ did. If this situation continues without remedy, the most that will be possible will
be courteous gestures in the direction of just peace and confinement of just peace to
the realm of rhetoric. The straightforward way to remedy this limitation is to encounter
the helpless and harassed through deliberate exposure to their lives. Readiness to learn
and a real concern for a better world eliminate a patronizing attitude, which the helpless
and harassed can sense and which becomes an obstruction to the sharing of life.
Frequent practice of this method of direct encounter takes time, but it is the only way
to break down our isolation and bring credibility to our ecumenical work. Those from
the more protected life styles who have encountered the helpless and harassed and their
environments directly have repeatedly testified to the initial trauma experienced, the
transformative and lasting impact this experience has had on their world view, and the
subsequent passion for just peace it has generated.
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The most authentic way of hearing the helpless and harassed is to hear them directly or
to hear those who have voluntarily become one with them. How this can be incorporated authentically and spontaneously into the life of the ecumenical movement and its
gatherings is still to be discovered. When we meet formally, we are still a very classsegregated community, with occasional representation from the world of the helpless
and harassed. The only other possibility of providing an opportunity to hear the
helpless and harassed first hand at our assemblies has been the side events. But the
requirement that applications be endorsed by churches competing for space at these
events shuts the door on this dynamic possibility and is disappointing. Our future
assemblies and gatherings will do well to directly and deliberately set aside places for
these little ones in Gods kingdom. A slogan used by disabled peoples organizations
(DPOs), nothing about us without us, conveys this precisely. The returns that such a
courageous shift will bring will be disturbing and creative. But this is both the price and
the reward if we would only dare to make that shift.
Questions of Integrity. This raises at least two questions in the interest of just peace.
First, if a shared life with the helpless and harassed facilitates substantial work for just
peace, will not those deprived of this reality be less equipped to determine and influence
our work for just peace? And second, are all those connected with the helpless and
harassed or the helpless and harassed themselves intrinsically better equipped to facilitate this work? While connectedness with the world of the helpless and harassed
undoubtedly equips and legitimizes all work for just peace, the long answer to both
questions centres mostly around personal integrity.
If both those connected to the helpless and harassed and those disconnected from
them engage in the time-tested discipline of self-scrutiny and possess or acquire a
sense of indignation at the injustice being done, chances are that they will be able to
make a difference. The added requirement for those who are disconnected will be the
need to shift from their isolation. Excuses and indifference to this need disqualify us
from the work of just peace under the standard of Christ.
A word of caution is required here for those whose lives are directly connected with
the helpless and harassed. It is best that an ethic be built around this connection to
prevent it from bringing personal benefit at the expense of the helpless and harassed
in any form, either direct or indirect. This ethic would cover so-called peace awards,
money from the publication of books and papers, and the delivering of lectures, for
instance. It is when checks and balances are bypassed that we run into a crisis of
integrity, violate the already violated, and bring long term dishonour to the ecumenical
movement.
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The Discipline of Recalling. While much of this spirituality will be determined by

the integrity and faithfulness of persons and churches, the WCC and the assembly
should also offer creative ways of recalling the just peace thrust in the life and work of
Jesus in order to substantiate that which already prevails or provoke what is still
dormant. No doubt much of the preparation for the assembly and many of the
contributions during the assembly will do this through existential encounter and theological insight. In addition, initiatives within the agenda to assist participants to come to
terms with the impact of this teaching on their inner selves under the guidance of the
Holy Spirit can never be a waste of time; they are a refreshing and rewarding investment. The heaviness of business and long hours spent in debate tend to drain people
of patience, consideration for the other, and a sense of humour; they will need to be
softened.
The last Lambeth conference of Anglican bishops was greatly blessed with an opening
retreat for all and with daily Bible study on Johns gospel in small groups of eight. This
set the tone for the conference in relation to the delicate and painful realities it had to
face. The introduction of similar time-tested spiritual disciplines and practices can only
have a salutary impact on the ethos of the whole WCC assembly.
Naming the Enemy
A sacred tradition

At the 2011 peace convocation in Jamaica, a lone voice from India asked at the plenary
that the call for just peace should name the enemy. This is in keeping with the JudeoChristian tradition. The Bible names oppressive structures, systems, and regimes as
enemies to just peace. A thread runs through it, from the harsh economic oppression
the Hebrews had to endure under the pharaohs to the dominance and cunning of the
Caesars and Herods and the heavy taxes and restrictive nature of the Sabbath law during
the time of Jesus. In between we hear from the prophets of the corruption and intrigue
in the courts of Jewish monarchies and the violence and economic injustice done to the
poor. Jesus in particular is strong in his exposure of the hypocritical theocratic leaders
of his time and the hardship they caused the people (Matt. 23).
One strand in the history of the church admirably continued this tradition and named
enemies of just peace in the form of structures, systems, and regimes. The violence of
the inquisition, the crusades, the severe discrimination and injustice against indigenous
cultures and peoples around the world through European imperial expansionism, the
violations against freedom, dignity, and rights caused by dictators, racism, sexism,
apartheid governance, the abuse of children and women, the exploitation of Mother
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Earth, the denial of freedom and respect for people of different sexual orientation,
blasphemy laws (in Pakistan), Bhumiputra policies (in Malaysia), Prevention of Terrorism Acts (in Sri Lanka), and the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (in India), as well
as the Hitlers, the Pol Pots, the Idi Amins, and the Mugabes all this is a long and
arbitrary list of oppressive structures and tyrants named courageously and at great risk
by the church across the years and across the globe.
Why and whom to name

The necessity to name is supported by at least three arguments: Christ named the enemy
and those who follow him must do so too; the work of advocacy and the call for
accountability are best directed when the enemy is identified; and the work of reconciliation between victims and repentant violators is best facilitated this way. This is why
commissions on reconciliation always give priority to the disclosure of truth. Among
other things, the truth names the enemy and paves the way to just peace through
reconciliation.
Buddhism names greed as the motivation behind the enemy of just peace. According to
the Dhamma (teaching of the Buddha), greed is the cause of all suffering and does its
damage by enticing, enslaving, and destroying all in its path: the greedy, the content, and
the wider creation.
While greed is as old as humans, modern economic greed has its roots in the period of
European colonial expansionism, between the 16th and early 20th centuries CE. During
this period, violent nations occupied and exploited peaceful nations purely out of
self-interest. Sadly, many Christian groups and churches accompanied these conquests
to share in the spoils of power and dominance. These trends led to a historical grievance
among the indigenous cultures of previously occupied nations, which have continued to
harbour suspicion about the role and loyalties of the church, particularly where it is a
minority.
Continuing oppression

What is worrisome is that in spite of the aspirations of the UN to ensure a more just
world, these trends have not stopped. In fact, they operate in more subtle forms
and through local collaborators and agents who straddle governments and private
enterprise.
This is perhaps best seen in the correlation (and collaboration?) between the manufacture and availability of sophisticated armaments by the NATO nations and now the
BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) on the one hand, and on
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the other hand the regular occurrence of violent conflict in countries with a leaning
towards non-democratic governance countries with access to these armaments and
located mostly in the less industrialized regions of the world. In the latter group of
countries, these arms are used for the violent suppression of dissent; they also lead to
a vicious cycle of financial and military dependence that plunges the already deprived
nations into deepening poverty and debt and the supplying nations into life-styles of
limitless extravagance. Consequently, todays less recognized dilemma in international
affairs is that the poor and vulnerable are trapped between violent and power-hungry
national regimes and greedy and selfish international forces. These then are among the
enemies of just peace that have to be named.
One way of doing this is to include the transaction in armaments of mass destruction
as an atrocity crime under the current UN list. This is why the call of the German
churches to ban war, thought to be idealistic by some, is of paramount importance. It
keeps the immorality of war on the agenda, isolates and identifies the enemy, and
demands a shift in the method of conflict resolution from force to conversations.
The visible enemy

Two other substantial post-UN global developments have made it easier to name the
enemy. One is the shocking emergence of atrocity crimes within sovereign nation-states
responsible for the protection of those within their borders. These crimes, which
include genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and other crimes against humanity,
reflect certain characteristics. They are located mostly in the lesser industrialized
nations, can trace their roots to seeds of conflict sown when those countries were under
occupation, have been further provoked by unreasonable and incompetent postindependence regimes, spill over globally through the influx of refugees and international crime, and can no longer be hidden due to advanced methods in information
technology and the surveillance of national and international rights and advocacy
groups.
Some of the locations and instances where atrocity crimes have occurred are Liberia,
Vietnam, Cambodia, Uganda, Congo, Kosovo, Kenya, Sudan, Rwanda, Somalia, Zimbabwe, and Iraq, with pending allegations against Mexico, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and
Myanmar. Today the uprisings in the north African states also suggest the occurrence of
atrocity crimes as the motivation for regime change, but it is too early to draw definite
conclusions.
The second development is that regardless of the UN charter safeguarding the sovereignty of nation-states, unilateral military intervention by some states in the internal
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affairs of others have taken place. Two instances where this brought about change for
the better were the Vietnamese intervention in Cambodia, which overthrew the Pol Pot
regime, and the Tanzanian intervention in Uganda, which displaced the Idi Amin
regime. Instances where unilateral intervention led to consequences far worse than the
existing conditions are, however, much more widespread. Some of these include the
US-led interventions in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, the Russian intervention in
Afghanistan, the Chinese intervention in Tibet, and the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
An instance where intervention changed the balance of power of a region is the Indian
intervention in East Pakistan, now known as Bangladesh.
Naming the enemy has very much been the stance of the WCC from its early days. This
reached an admirable climax in the WCCs work to dismantle apartheid in South Africa:
the WCC courageously named apartheid as the enemy to just peace for the majority
blacks. Today, however there seems to be some change in this thrust. With some
exceptions seen in the work of the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF), there is
in the WCC a preference for naming structures and systems and a reluctance to name
obvious and dominant regimes as enemy.
The full tradition of naming

Busan is called to return to the fullness of this tradition of naming. This cannot be
diplomatically left only or mostly to individuals within churches. But with a careful
gathering of information and analysis as well as the consent of the local churches, the
full tradition of naming can and must be lived if the cause of just peace is to be
honoured and taken beyond rhetoric by the WCC. If, on the other hand, expediency is
allowed to trump integrity, our work and witness for just peace will become futile and
counter-productive.
The point is straightforward. The fullness of the tradition is not limited to naming.
Naming brings consequences of hardship that could threaten survival, both institutional and personal, as many in the boiling pot know. The action Singapore took against
the Christian Conference of Asia is still fresh in the minds of many. Hardship owing to
obedience to the God of life who leads us into just peace is the cross. This is the way
the God of life led the Christ and the same way will lead us into just peace. This is what
we profess in all our creeds and theologies; this is what serves as a unifying gospel
imperative that cuts across our otherwise diverse denominations and traditions. There
can consequently be no other way for the WCC.
If Busan fulfils its obligation in naming the enemy, the WCC member churches will be
compelled to carry this movement forward. To belong together is to behave alike. Since
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all our churches are guilty of obstructing just peace in one way or another, the churches
will all be compelled to move. In so doing, five factors matter: we all must move from
where we are; we must all engage in self-scrutiny as the antidote to self-righteousness
and indifference; we all must demonstrate some aspect of naming; all of us must do so
with discernment and wisdom; and we must stay together.
In addition to this, a heavy and sacred task will fall upon the churches in nations with
a reputation for unbounded global economic greed and military dominance. Until and
unless advocacy from within changes these relentless impulses, we will be treating the
symptoms and not the causes of the disease. Much is expected from those who have
received much.
Windows into Just Peace
The just peace paradox

Having wrestled with some select irritants in the ecumenical movement, I wish to
conclude by opening a few windows into the theory of just peace. To move from the
practice to the teaching makes more sense than the reverse.
Humans do not create just peace. It is a gift from God ( John 14:27) though it somehow
needs to be provoked by human endeavour (Matt. 5:9). This is a bit like digging for
water in South Asia. Water is accessed when humans strip to the waist and dig and dig
and dig. Humans do not make the water; it is given freely. But knowing there is water
and not digging is foolish and deprives us of water. So it is with the coming of just
peace. If we are to promote just peace, we are to trust God and also work as hard as if
there were no God!
The nature of this paradox is a mystery. It is best explained as the vulnerability of God
who has bestowed upon humans a degree of freedom that God refuses to violate. In the
incident of the woman in adultery brought before Jesus in Johns gospel, we can see the
embryo of a Christian anthropology that further explains this freedom. No one can
throw the first stone, but transformation that overcomes human frailty is possible. This
twin teaching highlights a spark of integrity within the encompassing human predicament, on which the God of life seems dependent!
The pattern of history confirms this theological hunch. Just peace has always had to be
won by human initiative, beginning with an idea. The miracle of South Africas shift
from apartheid to democratic governance came out of the tireless, sacrificial, and
passionate efforts of countless unnamed persons led by Nelson Mandela. We have seen
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this to a lesser degree in happenings through groups and individuals in Northern

Ireland and are beginning to see early signs of it in the work of groups and of Aung San
Suu Kyi in Myanmar.
Other agents of just peace

History also reminds us that the church is certainly not the only instrument that God
uses to bring about just peace. Political leaders with a conscience; our sister religions;
secular ideologies, courageous and sensitive peoples movements; discerning and committed professionals such as media professionals, judges, and teachers; world bodies
capable of impartiality; and others often play a role even more important than the
church. This consequently requires the ecumenical movement to look beyond its circles
and to discover and stay with these partners for just peace. Ironically, it is from within
this network of trust that the church will rediscover the delicate balance between
faithfulness to the gospel of Christ and respect for our neighbours dignity. It is from
this position that we will be best equipped to discern what mission is all about.
Just peace through working for just peace

What is gained in the cause of just peace must not be lost. The fact that regression often
sets in and new issues emerge to threaten just peace (we see a bit of this in post-Mandela
South Africa) reveals the transitory nature of just peace within the cycle of conflict. Just
peace comes as long as we are working for just peace. It is never achieved forever. It is
not like building a house to live in, but more like preparing the field for rice cultivation;
we plough, sow, and reap to plough, sow, and reap again. If the work stops, the people
go hungry.
This tension in time and history is best highlighted in the connection between jubilee
and eschatology in the teaching of Jesus. In his first sermon in Nazareth, Jesus declared
that we ought not to wait for fifty years to undo injustice. Slaves have to be released,
debt cancelled, and the land left fallow now and every day. So just peace is todays and
tomorrows real and hard agenda. But it is to be approached with the knowledge that
unchanging and complete just peace for all of life will only come at the end of history.
Sustaining what is gained

This is why those who work for just peace are to be alert and resilient. They are to build
participatory democratic institutions and pass them on to the next generation, who are
expected to do the same. The life-long formation of people in the values and ways of
the Gospel is perhaps the best investment for a safe, just and reconciled world. These
values and ways are to be written on the foreheads and hearts of people through
discourse and exposure to the realities of life. Education, association, conversations,
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role models make a huge difference. One sensitive exposure to the realities of the
other is equal to a hundred erudite sermons is a saying that grew from the people who
participated in exposure programmes in circumstances of ethnic suspicion in Sri Lanka.
It certainly changes the preoccupation of preachers!
Such formation is what enables the discernment of those lurking and hidden areas of
hurt and grievance, as well as early signs of discrimination and injustice. It is from here
that the indispensible kingdom quality of wise and shrewd integrity will sprout as a gift
to keep abreast of todays increasingly devious and changing subtleties of injustice and
move just peace beyond the comfort of safe semantics and a courteous peace presence
into that collective and vibrant energy that will enable the people of God to appropriate
and sustain the gift of just peace from the God of life.
This, then, is why only peacemakers are called the children of God (Matt. 5:9). Since
God will not rest till Gods kingdom of shalom comes, those who work with God till the
end reflect this very feature of the parent God.

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