The modalities of church’s action in Peacebuilding – 2

The generalization of the Church paradigm in Peacebuilding 

Dr. Michel E. Abs

The Secretary of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC)

Elements for the Church’s action in Peacebuilding

 The Church, as engaging in a faith-based action in Peacebuilding and being a stable societal and historical human faith setting, at the sociological and organizational levels, is meant to deal with peacebuilding in its two dimensions: The curative and the preventive.

The church cannot ignore emergency conflictual situations and deal with them since their effects may be destructive. Dealing with them will save lots of effort for the future if it succeeds to prevent damage.

But at the same time, it is called to act with farsightedness, as far as local or international peace are concerned. Failing to do that in the past cost the church its presence and lots of its resources in so many places of the world.

In Peacebuilding, the church is called to use its two comparative advantages, which implies that

the modalities are two-dimensional:

The Logos: The church is called to use the “word”: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). The word is the domain in which the church is the strongest: the word that heals, the word that appeases, the word that blesses, and the word that educates, based on Christian “Caritas” – Charity – Christian Love.

The Praxis: The way the Word is lived in the world. It is the action at all social levels, from the livelihood to the medical, to the educational, to the developmental fields. It is the way the Word is concretized through deeds.

Christ who came for our salvation, fed the hungry, helped the destitute, healed the ailing, protected the most vulnerable, taught the people, and rehabilitated the woman taken in adultery.

The Logos dimension was dealt with in the first part of this article. In this second part, we are dealing with the Praxis dimension of the action of the church.

The Praxis:  Joint Actions in Society & Culture

1-      Provide emergency social assistance indiscriminately.

At the image of Jesus Christ, and based on the example of the Good Samaritan, the church is called to provide social assistance indiscriminately, and this is what the church is doing.

Need has no name, no denomination, no ethnic, political, or national identity.

The image of the church, aiding all needy, based on preestablished priority criteria, is an exemplary image of Christian faith and humanistic behavior. Such behavior could be set as an example for all sort of religious or faith-based organizations worldwide.

Such attitude and behavior are a challenge against discrimination and fanaticism which are destroying the world.

2-      Implement development plans with mixed beneficiary groups.

Development programs benefit sustainability compared to emergency efforts. In development projects, people work together for years, even for decades, which allows them to get closer, to know each other’s groups and “cultures” well.

This decreases the feeling of alienation when dealing with people not belonging to the same social group.

In development, be it urban or rural, be it socioeconomic or sociopolitical, the common cause, the challenges and the accomplishment or success, bring people closer, engage them in a togetherness which leads to social unity, the key to social peace.

In development, the common cause creates a new identity which unifies people, without pushing them to deny their original respective ones. 

3-      Trauma Healing and Spiritual Counseling (THSC)

In areas which witnessed conflicts, especially armed ones, the population needs THSC.

It could be done first ate the level of parishioners and could include non-Christians. It could target church ministers first, then local Christian and non-Christian religious or ethnic or other sorts of leaderships.

The experience shows that THSC session could include people of different identities, who suffered from the same traumatic events. The same as in the case of development, a common identity related to dealing with trauma can supersede conflictual identities.

Towards a paradigm of church peacebuilding

The parameters of the paradigm

The peacebuilding role of the church cannot be fulfilled unless its people benefit from a stable inner peace which emanates from their faith.

The short- and long-term intervention of the church should not conflict with each other; on the contrary, they should be complementary.

In the same logic, the Logos and the Praxis should accompany each another, one being the principles and values expression, and the other being the embodiment of these principles and values.

Moreover, Peacebuilding is about making attitude and values change at the societal level, by working on the value system of people, via the word and the action. Peacebuilding is an educational process that should reach all the population, and on the long term.

Worth mentioning that the elements which are outside the control of the church should be dealt with by church leaderships with concerned leaders in society.

The Implementing stakeholders for church peacebuilding

Stakeholders include Church direct institutions, dioceses, and parishes at the regional and grassroot levels. They include too Church related institutions, be they related to development, to women, to youth, to environment, or to any other specialization, Church or mixed peacebuilding specialized institutions, Coalitions of churches, by area or by denomination, councils of churches, and special national or local committees created for peacebuilding purpose.

Local initiatives should not be ignored since they can be part of the network, and networking is essential for such kinds of activities.

Conclusive thoughts

The church should be, by virtue of its history, ethos, structure and culture, a precocious warning voice for harmful trends that may emerge in society, among which is the advent of conflicts.

Moreover, the church is to be a catalyst for mutual maturation (tanadoj تناضج) between different groups that form a society. This leads to a rapprochement between people and groups leading to a sort of social osmosis/symbiosis, which harmonizes relationships between people.

In this sense the Christians remain the salt of the earth and no other social setting could perform this role like the church. The Christian values being the guarantee to this role.

The church is to take the challenge of peacebuilding and the source of the riposte against violence and war is in the Christian Faith.

It is in the Gospel, in the Book!