Environmental Action
Recommitment to Peacemaking & Earthkeeping
In October 2008, the Session of Village Church approved a proposal called the Recommitment to Peacemaking & Earthkeeping. This Recommitment was also endorsed by the Justice & Peace Committee, the Environmental Action Committee, and the Adult Ministry Committee.
Recommitment was an idea originated by Rev. Mark Koenig, coordinator of the national Presbyterian Peacemaking Program. Because 2008 marked the 25th anniversary of the General Assembly’s original commitment document, Rev. Koenig suggested that churches renew their vows by affirming the new document and displaying it in a prominent location. He suggested his idea at Village Church at one of the breakout sessions during Heartland Presbytery’s Festival of Peacemaking in March 2008.
Because this new document included a new provision ("making peace with the earth”), it became known as the Recommitment to Peacemaking & Earthkeeping. The 8 provisions of the Recommitment document are listed below.
Since the Commitment to Peacemaking was introduced in 1983, “more than 4,500 congregations and other groups have affirmed [it] and used it to shape faithful and creative ministries of peace and justice. It helps church members understand that peacemaking [and earthkeeping] are not peripheral activities but a central declaration of the gospel and essential to the life of the church.”
In December 1983, at the urging of the Peace Task Force under the leadership of Rev. Diane Cook, the Session of Village Church adopted the original Commitment to Peacemaking. The Peace Task Force later became known as the Justice & Peace Advocates. In 2002, it was renamed the Justice, Peace, & Environment Committee (JPEC) to reflect the full scope of its activities. Over the years, JPEC sponsored speakers, organized activities and projects, wrote articles and letters, planned services and classes, and hosted seminars and forums that advance the cause embodied in the Hebrew word Shalom.
In 2002 and 2003, JPEC proposed Sustainable Sanctuary and started its task force, whose goal was to reduce our church's environmental impact and to practice and model faithful and responsible stewardship of God's Creation. The current Environmental Action Committee was formed in the fall of 2007 to consolidate the environmental work of the former Justice, Peace, & Environment Committee and the Sustainable Sanctuary Task Force. Its call is to promote earthkeeping within and beyond the walls of our church and to advocate environmental education, motivation, and inspiration.
The Recommitment document suggests 8 peacemaking actions that congregations can commit to:
Worship
—provide worship that expresses the reality of God’s peace giving;
Prayer and Bible Study
—Encourage prayer, Bible study, and spiritual disciplines that nurture and deepen the spiritual life of the community and equip people to share the gospel message of peace to the world;
Peacemaking in Families and Community Living
—Create opportunities for people of all ages to develop peacemaking skills such as conflict resolution, mediation, or nonviolence training that will help them grow as peacemakers in their families, in the congregation, and in the community;
Community Ministries
—Work with and support ecumenical and interfaith partners and other bodies in their pursuit of social, racial, and economic justice, to confront racism and all other forms of prejudice, and to respond to people in communities, local, national, and worldwide, who are caught in poverty, hurt by unemployment, or burdened by other problems;
Study and Response to Global Issues
—Support human rights and economic justice efforts in at least one area of the world—through presbytery partnerships and sister countries;
Global Security
—Study global security concerns, work for worldwide arms control, and support alternatives to military solutions to international and civil conflicts;
Making Peace with the Earth
—Protect and restore the environment through study, advocacy, and individual and corporate lifestyle commitments;
Receiving the Peacemaking Offering
—Support financially the churchwide peacemaking effort by receiving the Peacemaking Offering and through other means.
The signed Recommitment pledge with these 8 actions are framed and displayed in the hallway where the Justice & Peace and the Environmental Bulletin Boards are located. The complete 6-page Recommitment document can be read online by linking to:
www.pcusa.org/media/uploads/peacemaking/pdf/commitment.pdf
Statements like the Recommitment to Peacemaking & Earthkeeping are signposts for change and betterment. They provide a vehicle, a framework, a springboard for a process that includes education and inspiration leading to action.
—Justice & Peace Committee
—Environmental Action Committee