Live in harmony, live in peace

“Live in harmony … live in peace.”  So wrote the Apostle Paul to the Christians in Rome (Romans 12.16-18).  Paul later traveled to Rome as a prisoner and was martyred for the Gospel by the Emperor Nero.  To those living in the heart of the Roman Empire he had written, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

On Feb. 9-14, 2009 Baptists with a passion for peace and justice and other peacemaking people will gather in Rome for the fourth Global Baptist Peace Conference.  The first such conference was held in Sweden in 1988.  At that conference Rev. Saboi Jum issued a challenge to us that led to the Burma peace initiative in which I worked for three years.  Later Saboi launched the Shalom Foundation, which has invited me numerous times to teach conflict transformation to church and community leaders inside Myanmar.  Then the second conference was held in Nicaragua in 1992.  One night at that conference I stayed up late with three others, dreaming new dreams that eventually gave birth to the kind of ministry I am currently doing full-time with American Baptist International Ministries.  I missed the 2000 conference held in Melbourne, Australia with its powerful focus on advocacy for human rights.

I’ve been working on the planning of the Rome conference for the last year and a half along with my International Ministries missionary colleague Jim Kelsey, our mission partners the Union of Christian Evangelical Baptists of Italy, and a number of other friends in Baptist unions, mission agencies and peace groups.  We have a conference with great speakers and story-tellers, day-long intensive training seminars to equip activists, global experiences of worship, and interaction with some amazing folks.  You can check out the conference information and register through the website:  www.globalbaptistpeace.org.

Many of those coming are folks engaged in courageous and risky peacemaking in countries where oppressive regimes grind people down, where civil wars are wreaking havoc, or where post-war situations of trauma and bitterness challenge the healing power of the Gospel of reconciliation.  Some are leading in nonviolent struggles for freedom.  Others are mediating between armed groups, trying to establish cease-fires and help negotiate political solutions to violent conflicts.  Still others have suffered under religious persecution and have sought nonviolent ways to respond with Christ’s love.  Some are on the front-lines of inter-religious conflict seeking to bring a witness for peace that crosses lines of division.  Many of these Baptist workers could never dream of traveling to such a gathering without help from the larger Christian family.  So we have set up a special scholarship fund to assist these Baptist peacemakers. 

If you would like to contribute to the scholarship fund to strengthen indigenous Baptist peacemakers in poor and/or conflicted countries, you can go to the “Give” page on the International Ministries website:  www.internationalministries.org/give.

You will find my name on the pull-down menu under “Global Consultants”:  “Dan Buttry -- conflict transformation.”  Complete the giving information.  There is a slot at the bottom where you can write free text.  In that part, type “Global Baptist Peace Conference Scholarships.”  Please note that contributions are made in U.S. dollars.

Or you can make a contribution the old-fashioned way.  Simply send a check made out to “International Ministries” and send it to:  International Ministries, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482.  Be sure to put on the memo line and/or an accompanying letter or note, “For Global Baptist Peace Conference Scholarships.”

During one of my trips three years ago I met a peacemaker who had been asked to open back channels for communication between the government and rebels engaged in a brutal civil war.  Though I could provide some training, counsel and encouragement, I knew there was an even better source of help for this courageous brother.  There were two other Baptists in nearby countries who had been involved in the same kind of mediation effort.  They lived daily through the challenges, threats and opportunities that this peacemaker was beginning to discover.  So rather than me tell the stories of others, I brought them all together so they could talk heart-to-heart and face-to-face.  We had a two-day intensive retreat together which not only provided guidance and wisdom to the initial person, but also encouraged and gave new energy and vision to all of us.  Such gatherings can bring a value beyond measure to those who labor under incredible difficulty and in the face of daunting challenges.

I hope that many of you will be able to join us in Rome for this amazing gathering.  I hope that many of you will be able to make a contribution to bring Baptist peacemakers to this conference through the scholarship fund.  And I hope that all of you will remember these efforts in prayers.  God used the previous conferences to open new vistas and initiatives in global Christian peacemaking.  We want to be open to the great new things God will be doing to us and through us as we meet in Rome to explore together “the things that make for peace.”

In Christ’s hope and peace,

Daniel Buttry