Peace, Justice, Unity, Love: Opening Message from East Ohio MFSA Chapter Program

On January 21, 2023 the East Ohio Chapter of MFSA presented a program entitled “SEEKING PEACE with JUSTICE…In Our Time.” This event was an enriching and challenging event for Lay and Clergy who seek to find ways to implement the totality of Jesus’ message concerning justice issues.

Below you can find the opening message by Rev. Dr. Jack Jullivan Jr., Executive Director of Ohio Council of Churches, entitled “PEACE: JUSTICE, UNITY, LOVE…” including an overview and the video to the entire message.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR 1948) affirms humanity’s desire to seek peace in the face of a war that threatened to annihilate us. Written by survivors of WW2 and shepherded to ratification by Eleanor Roosevelt after President Roosevelt’s death, the UDHR articulates “rights” essential for peace, rights that transcend national codes and constitutions, rights in response to the horrors witnessed in Nazi “extermination chambers” and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both events remain “wake up calls” to the human capacity to destroy one another, and ourselves.

A generation later, as the Methodist and United Brethren Churches agreed to conjoin into one denomination— “The United Methodist Church”— Rev. James S. Thomas chaired a revision of 1903 Methodist “Social Creed,” creating “The Social Principles of the United Methodist Church” (SPUMC). Both documents reflect a human yearning for the biblical foundations professed by Isaiah and Micah: “PEACE with JUSTICE.”

On January 21 this year, East Ohio MFSA sponsored speakers to discuss aspects of our commitment to and work for PEACE with JUSTICE in East Ohio. While our intent to gather at historic Cory UMC (a site where such social justice giants as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X inspired crowds a half-century ago), unpredictable winter weather, and the option of reaching those in the southern area of the East Ohio Conference, modified our gathering to zoom. Four social justice leaders shared their experiences and vantages of the necessity of peace efforts even in the dark shadow of overt war and warring factions.

Rev. Dr. Jack Sullivan, Jr., Executive director of the ecumenical and long-respected Ohio Council of Churches, centered us with personal, historic, and prophetic connection between Biblical bases of the call for change in us that is the foundation to all social justice initiatives, and outcomes, in society. Change requires action—imposed on us or chosen, as he read from 1st Corinthians 15: “We will not die; we will be changed.” It was the message of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of Jesus: for it is in our ‘death’ to our old ways that we can experience new life. But what does that mean for us, we who fear “death” as crisis to community, to the church? As the disciples experienced when Jesus was crucified: fear in the face of lost. But it is in that loss—‘death’ to the old ways’—that we might find our own New Life.

Recalling the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, when Rev. Dr. Sullivan was just 8 years old, he remembered the “national crisis”—especially among those who had been inspired by King’s leadership: “Who will lead us? Who will complete the work? People were tired of powerlessness, and joblessness, and cried out in that crisis of loss..” Like the disciples, when Jesus was crucified—fearing the future, they fled! But that tomb was merely “a dressing room”[JS] for their own work, their own preparation, in the days that followed their brokenness, fear, and dismay. Jesus’ death launched his disciples into the world to “work for each other, to work side by side..”

The church is not God’s House because of the stained glass windows, those great organs with their magnificent pipes…the church IS The Church because of OUR LOVE…[JS] “They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love…” And “love” is an Action Verb, e.g.,

• Abolish the death penalty: dismantle capital punishment.

• Preach against gun violence in our society.

• Seek unity.

• Participate in a movement for UNITY, JUSTICE…preludes to PEACE!

• Resurrect the Church

Yes, we FEAR change—e.g., a funeral is an uncomfortable thing—much easier to have fellowship, food, singing, but loss provokes crisis, chaos…and THAT is the path to New Life…even in The Church, even in Society.

Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA) is a grassroots organization. We make change through Regional Communities, generally connected to an annual conference of the United Methodist Church, across the United States and the world.

Connect with your regional community here and become a member of MFSA. Don’t have one? Then join through a general membership. Contact MFSA’s national office at mfsa@mfsaweb.org to connect or talk about starting a regional office.