Blessed are the Peacemakers: 
A program for women’s groups

For many more resources on peacemaking and calls for action, go to the Peace & Justice Support Network of Mennonite Church USA. See also the worship materials from Christian Peacemaker Teams.  The Poets Against the War website archives thousands of poems, including some by Jean Janzen, Julia Kasdorf, Cheryl Denise, and Jeff Gundy. 

Blessed are the Peacemakers
A program by Diane L. Neu, WATERwheel (Winter 2001)
Adapted for Mennonite Women groups with permission from
Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual
(301) 589-2509; water@hers.com

Introduction
Blessed are we when we make peace. Peacemakers are prophets who are central to every generation. After Sept. 11, what kind of peacemakers do we need? Where are they? How will we know them? Now more than ever, we must call one another to be peacemakers.

This liturgy calls the gathered to be peacemakers. Use it where and when your community needs to call forth the peacemaking qualities in its members. Suggested songs are from Hymnal: A Worship Book (Brethren Press, Faith & Life Press, and Herald Press, 1992).

Preparation
Gather three candles, pita bread, glasses of wine or juice. Place them on a table centered in the middle of a circle of chairs. Prepare participant sheets that include the music, the community affirmation, and the prayer for peace.

Call to Gather
We gather tonight in a world at war. We come not to debate politics but to pray for peace, not to create military strategies but to open our hearts to the Spirit of Mercy and Justice and be part of the force that creates peace. We gather to call forth peacemakers.  (Light a candle.)

We gather remembering those who have died. We gather thinking of those who are making decisions, hopeful that our prayers will warm their hearts and open their minds to a moral creativity that will bring peace without bombing and killing. We gather as followers of Jesus who calls us to peace from generation to generation. We gather to call forth peacemakers. (Light a candle.)

We gather because we must. We can’t keep from praying for an end to violence and the beginning of a new day for our children’s children and us. We gather linked in a special way to our sisters in Afghanistan, praying for their safety and hoping with them that this war will end faster than it started. We gather to call forth peacemakers.  (Light a candle.)

Naming the Circle
Let us create a circle of peacemakers here. When you hear the word “peacemakers,” what comes to your mind? Speak your name, share a phrase or a sentence of what peacemaker means to you, and end with the words, “I am a peacemaker.”  (Sharing.)

Prayer
One voice: All merciful God, your power and grace, not ours, sustains the universe.
    Teach us to hallow your name as we remember all the peoples of the world.

Response: In your mercy, grant us peace.

One voice: You chose Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar to birth many nations.
    And you continue to speak through prophets and peacemakers in every land.
    Forgive us, their offspring, for our wars and misdeeds toward one another.
    Save us from further terrorism and destruction so that all children may live in peace.

Response: In your mercy, grant us peace.

One voice: Compassionate and merciful God,
    Change the hearts of extremist organizations, hate groups,
    And those who turn to violence as a solution.
    Help us find together a way to peace that serves each nation and its people.

Response: In your mercy, grant us peace.

One voice: Guardian of all life, guide the leaders of the United States and its allies,
    Guide the leaders of Afghanistan and the Middle East
    To act responsibly to bring peace and welfare to humankind.

Response: In your mercy, grant us peace.

One voice: God of Peace and Justice,
    Guide all religious communities around the world to work for peace with justice
    So that all may have food, housing, prosperity, and peace.

Response: In your mercy, grant us peace.

One voice: Paz, queremos paz, y libertad en este mundo.
    Peace, we want peace and freedom in this world.

Response: Peace, we want peace and freedom in this world.

Readings, Songs, Sharing
Reading 1 (The Beatitudes, Matthew 5:3-10):
    Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kin-dom of God.
    Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
    Blessed are those who are meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
    Blessed are those who are merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
    Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.
    Blessed are those who are persecuted for justice, for they shall inherit the land.
    Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
    Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
        for theirs is the kin-dom of God.

Song: HWB 346 “Dona nobis pacem” (first part).

Reading 2 (Thich Nhat Hanh, Sept. 20, 2001):
“Responding to violence with violence resolves nothing; it only escalates violence, anger, and hatred. It is only with compassion that we can embrace and disintegrate violence….

“The violence and hatred we presently face has been created by misunderstanding, injustice, discrimination, and despair. We are all co-responsible for the violence and despair in the world by our way of living, of consuming, and of handling the problems of the world….

“If we look and listen deeply we can see that when we pray for the victims, we must also pray for the attackers. They are also victims of confusion and violence. If as a nation America wants to be safe and secure, it has to help other nations, other peoples, feel safe and secure. I have a conviction that America possesses enough wisdom and courage to perform an act of forgiveness and compassion and I know that such an act can bring great relief to America and to the world right now. Such an act could be a statement of the willingness to embrace all suffering inside and outside the nation, to look deeply in order to understand better the cause of the suffering and to act according to that insight.”

Song: HWB 346 “Dona nobis pacem” (second part).

Reading 3 (excerpts from “A Call for Moral Creativity” by Mary E. Hunt, WATERwheel, Fall 2001):
“New horrors require new moral creativity. The tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, challenge people of good will, especially religious people, to find new ways of handling conflict and dealing with difference.

“Moral creativity requires the deepest resources of all peoples and the most profound human insights we can muster. It is a process that prioritizes careful listening over reactive speech….

“Moral creativity is needed to produce responses that will stop the terrorists without falling prey to their logic. This is the task to which we need to set our hearts and minds. Let all people of good will, especially religious people, exercise our moral imagination to create sustainable, feasible alternatives to saber rattling and war. If we can send people into space and create the Internet, surely we can pool our intelligence of many sorts and find a solution.

“Now is the time to ask critical questions of our countries and of our selves. It is time to learn about religions and nations that, until now, have simply been words to us. For example, Islam no more teaches its adherents to strive toward martyrdom by killing people than does Christianity or Judaism. For those in the U.S., it is time for a frank assessment of our place as a rich, over-consuming nation in a world where so many have so little to lose. Only then can we begin to consider what strategies might get to the roots of the problem.”

Song: HWB 346 “Dona nobis pacem” (third part).

Sharing: How are you feeling about what you have heard in these readings? What does “responding with moral creativity” mean to you? How are you called to be a peacemaker? (Sharing.)

Song: HWB 346 “Dona nobis pacem” (the full round, twice).

Community Affirmation
(A version of this affirmation of used in Washington, D.C., on Pentecost 1982 for a peace witness sponsored by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious)
Let us say together that we will work for peace with justice:
We, who live in the shadows of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon,
We, who remember the mushroom cloud of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
We, whose very lives are threatened by the aftereffects of terrorist attacks,
Today declare our hope in the future and commit our lives to peacemaking.
From the diversity of our heritages
We renew our belief in the holiness of the earth and the sanctity of all life.
We declare we are at peace with all people of good will.
We affirm that our earth’s security rests not in retaliation, but:
 In the justice of adequate housing and food,
 In the justice of meaningful education and work,
 In the justice of an economic order that gives everyone access to the earth’s abundance,
 In the justice of human relationships, nourished by cooperation,
 In the justice of safe, clean, renewable energy
instead of in the perils of nuclear power and war.

We affirm people over property, community over privatism,
Respect for others regardless of gender, race, religion, or class.
We choose to be friends of the earth and of one another,
rather than exploiters and destroyers.
We choose to be peacemakers rather than peacekeepers.
We choose a nuclear-free future.
And we will settle for nothing less.

We unite ourselves with women, men, and children the world over,
To join together in communities of resistance to terrorism, war, and the nuclear threat.
We unite ourselves with trust in affirming life;
Justice and love can overcome the machines of destruction.
Before us today are set life and death;
We choose life, that we and our children may live.

Song: HWB 412 “We shall walk through the valley.”

Receiving the Bread and Cup
(The blesser picks up the bread and prays):
Blessed are you, Peaceful and Merciful God,
For you give us this daily bread to nourish us as we work for peace.
As we eat this bread, fill us with strength that eases our fears
And deepens our resolve to create peace.

(The blesser picks up the cup and prays):
Blessed are you, Peaceful and Merciful God,
For you give us this fruit of the vine to ease our spirits as we work for peace.
As we drink, fill us with strength that eases our fears
And deepens our resolve to create peace.

Communion: The blessers pass the bread and drink around the group for all to share.

Greeting of Peace
(The prayer of St. Francis)
Let us pray together:
    All merciful God, make us instruments of your peace.
    Where there is hatred, let us sow love.
    Where there is injury, pardon.
    Where there is doubt, faith.
    Where there is despair, hope.
    Where there is darkness, light.
    And where there is sadness, joy.
    Grant that we may not so much seek
    To be consoled as to console,
    To be understood as to understand,
    To be loved as to love.
    For it is in giving that we receive,
    It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
    And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Let us exchange a greeting of peace with one another.  (Peace greetings.)

Sending Forth
May the spirit of Christ and the love of God fill us with peace.
May our peace radiate to loved ones, family, friends, colleagues, and all we meet.
May the peace of this circle touch communities around the world
So that all may live in peace forever. Amen.

Song: HWB 429 “Go now in peace.”