Registration for new Connecting the Dots webinar now open

Becoming a Peace Church is the focus of the Jan. 25 event

by Scott O’Neill | Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE — The Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Militarism Working Group is kicking off 2023 with its newest in a series of Connecting the Dots webinars at noon Eastern Time on Jan. 25.

The topic is “Peace Church.” Participants will have the opportunity during the 90-minute Zoom session to begin talking about how faith might direct their attitudes toward war and peace and learn what it means for congregations to declare themselves “peace churches.”

The webinar is open to all, but participants must register here.

In 2018, the 223rd General Assembly in St. Louis voted to allow congregations in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to declare themselves peace churches, thereby aligning themselves with the pacifism of traditional peace churches such as the Quakers and the Mennonites. A Peace Church in the PC (USA) is a faith community that shares with its Presbyterian siblings a deep passion for peace and has adopted the PC(USA)’s “Commitment to Peacemaking.” There are currently five Peace Churches, according to the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program’s website:

• First Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto in Palo Alto, California
• Montclair Presbyterian Church in Oakland, California
• Church of Reconciliation Presbyterian Church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• Faith Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas
• Rutgers Presbyterian Church in New York, New York

The Presbyterian Peace Fellowship’s (PPF) Peace Church Working Group has developed resources and materials designed to help congregations decide if being a peace church is a faithful expression of who God is calling them to be. This webinar will introduce participants to the PPF’s materials and help participants begin conversations about how our Christian faith directs people of faith to think about matters of war and peace — even if individual congregations are not prepared to identify as peace churches.

Photo by Sunguk Kim via Unsplash

Connecting the Dots webinars examine militarism from a variety of perspectives through a lens of Christian faith. Prior webinars have covered topics such as national security in Colombia and Korea; gun violence, violent conflict and climate change; and militarism and moral injury. Previously recorded sessions can be viewed on the webinar’s web page.

Real-time Spanish and Korean translation of the Jan. 25 webinar will be available. Participants can download the curriculum for peace church discernment for review prior to the webinar here.

The Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Militarism Working Group includes the Compassion, Peace & Justice and World Mission ministries and the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.