Introduction to WEAPRI

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. – Matthew 5:9 (TNIV)

The World Evangelical Alliance Peace and Reconciliation Initiative (WEAPRI)  has been established in order to respond to the extraordinary opportunity that 600 million evangelicals have, to reach out to the world as Peace-makers through the Church and Christian community internationally.

PREAMBLE

God has created the world to be recipients of His love. Because of sin, we live in a world rife with conflict.  God’s mission is the reconciliation of all things through Christ, and He invites us to participate with Him in the pursuit of right relationships. We honour the faithful examples of peacebuilding and reconciliation in our history.  We confess and repent of our failure, whether through our action or inaction, to bear witness to the Gospel by faithfully living out the peaceable ways of Jesus Christ.  In particular, we acknowledge that in our zeal for evangelism, we have often overlooked the biblical mandate to pursue peace.  We commit ourselves anew to this mandate within our homes, churches, communities, and among the nations.

WEAPRI COMMITMENT STATEMENT

Our vision is for all evangelical churches and Christians to actively engage in peace-building and reconciliation, in obedience to Jesus Christ.

We invite the WEA network through its regional and national alliances and all who share this vision to commit to:

Listening

WEAPRI is committed to listening together to better understand the experience of those caught up in destructive conflict and to discern the heart and mind of God in peace-building and reconciliation today through;

• Ongoing conversation about the complex theological and missiological issues raised by peace-building and reconciliation.

• Seeking to understand and learning from the range of initiatives taking place among evangelicals, in the wider Christian church and in global political and civil society.

• Exploring Christian peace-building and reconciliation in relation to other faith communities, global economics, governance and emerging strategic issues.

Responding

WEAPRI will develop appropriate responses in order to fulfill the vision of being active in peace-building and reconciliation as a witness to God’s reconciliation in Christ by;

• Identifying strategic areas for engagement in peace-building and reconciliation.

• Exploring, researching and promoting creative and innovative approaches to peace-building and reconciliation.

Equipping

WEAPRI is committed to equip the church to be better skilled and resourced to promote peace and reconciliation through;

• Identifying and making available existing peace-building and reconciliation materials and preparing new material.

• Support training in the theology and practical skills of Christian peace-building and conflict resolution.

• Encouraging regional and national alliances to appoint peace-building and reconciliation coordinators.

Serving

WEAPRI intends to serve our broken world through peace-building and reconciliation initiatives at the personal, family, communal, national, regional and global levels;

• Encouraging all alliances, affiliates and partners to have active peace-building and reconciliation programs.

• Engaging in peace-building advocacy and campaigns.

• Pursuing peace-building and reconciliation programs which listen to and partner with victims of conflict while seeking to engage, understand and challenge perpetrators of conflict.

• Recognizing and supporting the important role of children and youth as peace-builders through education.

WEAPRI produces a monthly e-news letter, to subscribe please request via email at kellie@tearfund.org.nz with ‘subscribe’ in the subject.