Church
and Peace
International
Office
Church
and Peace
is a European network of Christian communities, churches and organisations who
believe that the peace witness is an essential characteristic of the church of
Jesus Christ.
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Christian Hohmann, General Secretary
February
8, 1999
Church
& Peace International Office
Ringstrasse
14
35641
Schoeffengrund, Germany
Tel:
+49 6445 -5588; Fax: - 5070
E-mail:
churchpe@aol.com.
Nr.
1 / 1999
CHURCH
AND PEACE TO COMMEMORATE 50 YEARS OF ECUMENICAL DIALOGUE AND PEACE WITNESS
The
European ecumenical network Church and Peace will reflect on its beginnings 50
years ago with an anniversary symposium on 28-30 May 1999 at the Bienenberg
Education and Conference Centre near Basel, Switzerland.
The
symposium will begin on Friday, May 28, at 17:00 with an anniversary
presentation by Dr. Wolfgang Lienemann, professor at the Bern Theological
Institute. Dr. Keith Clements, General Secretary of the Conference of European
Churches, will give the sermon on Zechariah 8:19b:
“love
Truth and Peace
”
during the closing ecumenical worship service on Sunday, May 30. Pastor
Wilfried Warneck, the first General Secretary of Church & Peace, and
Hildegard Goss-Mayr, Honorary President of the International Fellowship of
Reconciliation (IFOR), are the featured speakers for the Saturday morning
session
“Voices
from the Past, Guidelines for the Future
”.
A dialogue forum entitled
“Joint
Responsibility in a Changing Europe
”
will take place on Saturday afternoon with representatives from Pax Christi
International, IFOR, Kairos Europe, the Hungarian Bokor Movement, the del Vasto
Communaut
é
de l
’Arche
and Church and Peace.
The
European Church and Peace movement traces its origins to the first meeting of
the European Historic Peace Churches Continuation Committee in 1949. The
Committee assembled at the invitation of the World Council of Churches to take
part in a post-war discussion of the churches
’
theology of war and peace.
Today
Church and Peace is a network of 43 churches, communities and peace service
organizations and 28 individuals from East and West Europe. Church and Peace
’s
members share the conviction that nonviolence is one of the essential teachings
of Jesus for his church and that the Gospel message of reconciliation and
forgiveness means leading lives of active peacemaking and service for peace.