“Blessed are the peacemakers” – new publication on reconciliation

A practical resource on reconciliation for the global communion

(LWI) - “In a world with increasing violence, loss, pain and loneliness, churches retain their relevance as spaces for healing,” writes Rev. Dr Patricia Cuyatti, outgoing Regional Secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and North America, in her introduction to the new publication Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Mediation and Reconciliation, Skills for the Church.

This new resource, published in March, features writing by theologians and pastors from the LAC and North America regions of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). It explores the Christian responsibility for promoting peaceful dialogue and becoming hospitable communities and safe spaces. It brings together five theological articles on practical approaches to dialogue for change and reconciliation.

Cuyatti writes in her introduction that the “vulnerability and fear to open up and maintain relationships or dialogues with people who are completely different—not only from each other but also in the way they think— is present at all levels of society.” Difference and dialogue are gifts, she adds, which create opportunities for growth and allow “the divine presence to move people or groups living in conflict situations toward a search for a new start.”

“Blessed Are the Peacemakers” offers theological and biblical reflections on the “divine initiative” to reconciliation, preventing conflicts through “mediative leadership” and acknowledges the conflict of migration, offering “mediative presence” and “conflict mitigation” as solutions and taking actions of faith as “responsibility” toward hospitality and welcome. Finally, it provides biblical ways to rethink “habits, needs and consumption” that negatively impact the planet.

The publication is available for download on the LWF’s website in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

LWF/A.Gray

Resource: Blessed Are the Peacemakers