Just Peace

JUST PEACE

CCUCC, Los Alamitos is a Just Peace Church. What does being a Just Peace Church mean for members of its congregation?

Just Peace is defined as the interrelation of friendship, justice, and common security from violence and opposition to the institution of war. This pronouncement is based on insights from all three of the historic approaches of Christians to issues of war and peace—pacifism, just war, and crusade—but attempts to move beyond these traditions to an understanding rooted in the vision of shalom, linking peace, and justice.

The Fifteenth General Synod affirms the United Church of Christ as a Just Peace Church. The General Synod affirms the following as marks of a Just Peace Church, calling upon each local church to become:

We Seek God.

Include All. Serve Others.

A Community Of...

hope, believing a Just Peace is possible, working toward this end,

and communicating to the larger world the excitement and possibility

of a Just Peace.

worship and celebration, centering its identity in justice and peacemaking

and the Good News of peace that is Jesus Christ.

biblical and theological reflection, studying the Scriptures, the Christian story, and the working of the Spirit in the struggle against injustice and oppression.

spiritual nurture and support, loving one another and giving one another strength in the struggle for a Just Peace.

honest and open conflict, a zone of freedom where differences may be expressed,explored, and worked through in mutual understanding and growth.

empowerment, renewing and training people for making peace/doing justice.

financial support, developing programs and institutions for a Just Peace.

solidarity with the poor, seeking to be present in places of oppression, poverty, and violence, and standing with the oppressed in the struggle to resist and change this evil.

loyalty to God and to the whole human community over any nation or rival idolatry.

that recognizes no enemies, willing to risk and be vulnerable, willing to take surprising initiatives to transform situations of enmity.

repentance, confessing its own guilt and involvement in structural injustice and violence, ready to acknowledge its entanglement in evil, seeking to turn toward new life.

resistance, standing against social structures comfortable with violence and injustice.

sacrifice and commitment, ready to go the extra mile, and then another mile, in the search for justice and peace.

political and social engagement, in regular dialogue with the political order, participating in peace and justice advocacy networks, witnessing to a Just Peace in the community and in the nation, joining the social and political struggle to implement a Just Peace.

(From the Fifteenth General Synod Pronouncement on affirming the United Church of Christ as a Just Peace Church)

CCUCC is a member of the

Southern California/Nevada

Conference of the

United Church of Christ.