Uniting for Peace

From unconfirmed minutes: Uniting Church in Australia Tenth Assembly.

Part One: Overcoming Violence

The Assembly resolved:

1 . To affirm that God loves all creation and that all people, as members of God's family, are called to love 
     each other.

2.  In response to the World Council of Churches' declaration of the Decade to Overcome Violence to commit 
     to:

a)  Work together for peace, justice, and reconciliation at all levels - local, regional, and global;
b) Embrace creative approaches to peace building which are consonant with the spirit of the gospel;

c) Interact and collaborate with local communities, secular movements, and people of other living faiths towards cultivating a culture of peace;

d) Empower people who are systemically oppressed by violence, and to act in solidarity with all struggling for justice, peace, and the integrity of creation; and
e) Repent together for our complicity in violence, and to engage in theological reflection to overcome the spirit, logic, and practice of violence.


3. To call on all members, councils, agencies, congregations and groups of the Uniting Church to examine 
    their own lives in order to overcome violence and to transform systems and structures of injustice.

Part Two: Working for Peace and Genuine Security

4. Recalling past resolutions of this Assembly, to affirm that:

a) God came in the crucified and risen Christ to make peace; that God calls all Christians to be peacemakers, to save life, to heal and to love their neighbours.

b)      The Church is committed to be a peacemaking body.

5. To commit to work for peace through justice and genuine security, believing that-.
a) True justice can only be achieved through means that do not consist of violence, nor perpetuate the cycle of violence.
b) True security can only be achieved through non-violent means that seek to build trust and relationships of understanding and acceptance between nations and people.
6. In light of the recent wars and in the face of impending war, the increasing global militarism and willingness 
    to use military force, and those countries seeking to acquire or retain nuclear, chemical and/or biological 
    weapons, to declare that-.
a) Ownership, use, or threatened use of nuclear, chemical and/or biological weapons is evil.
b) Reliance on weapons for peace and security can never achieve a just and lasting peace.  Security achieved through armament is sustained by fear of the enemy and can never see the world reconciled.
c) Genuine global security will only be achieved by working for an end to the trade in illegal weapons and the arms trade, preventing the proliferation of nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, and requiring progressive disarmament of all nations.
7. To support, and urge the Australian Government to support, the following as mechanisms for dismantling 
    the global culture of violence and building a culture of peace through justice and genuine security-.
a) International treaties and programs on human rights, environment, and social and human 
    development, also ensuring that Australia fulfils its obligations in these areas.
b) Co-operation with governments, the United Nations, and community sector and religious organisations to develop peaceful solutions to conflict and to seek just and peaceful means for overcoming and preventing violence in all aspects of our life together, from the personal to the global.

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