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Cultivating Peace:Courage, Conscienceand Resistanceto WarWhat comes to mind when you hear the words“conscientious objector?”In the Peace Church tradition, some of us mightimmediately think of men in the past, especiallyduring the two World Wars, who refused to fightbecause of their convictions as followers of Jesus. Butothers may never have heard this phrase at all in theirchurch experience.CornieGiesbrecht ofYarrow, BC, at16 years old,writes a letterhome. MHC JakeKrueger PhotoCollection.As Canada celebrates Remembrance Day, this year the Peace SundayPacket takes the opportunity to remember war stories as well; not necessarily those ofsoldiers who killed and died “so that war would never happen again,” but those of individualswho as a matter of conscience, made a different choice: to refuse to take livesunder any circumstance. The motto, “Lest we forget” is just as true about conscientiousobjectors (COs) who have shaped our peace heritage. If we do not stop to remember, wemay lose what there is to learn from their story.To be conscientious is to act according to one’s principles and to be diligent. To object is toraise opposition or to offer criticism. Rather than limit conscientious objectors to the past,this packet claims this title for all peacemakers who even today wish to heed Jesus’ call tolove enemies and pursue peace. Being conscientious means, among other things, deepeningour commitment to a life transformed by the Spirit, teaching our children the way ofpeace, paying attention to the language we use, scrutinizing our financial choices, usingour political voice as well as celebrating the courage of conscientious objectors in the past.As this packet is written, Canada’s military is moving from away from peacekeepingtowards direct military interventions, especially in Afghanistan. Should peace churches bespeaking out against this? Some Canadian communities are facing more aggressiveadvances by military recruiters trying to convince young people to join forces. How canyoung people’s faith be strengthened to help them make a conscientious choice? Our culturefloods us with images that hold violence to be the only recourse during conflict. Howcan our faith be nurtured to stand up against the rhetoric of violence? There are Canadianlaws that favour the machinery of war. How can we influence change in favour of peace?He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples;they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruninghooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall theylearn war any more (Isaiah 2:4).We are told that in God’s vision, nation will not lift sword against nation, and thatweapons will be turned into planting implements. Presumably it takes hard work to beatswords into ploughshares and pruning hooks. Once the tools are transformed they mustturn to the job of cultivating, cutting dead branches, and planting seeds that will continueto bring in harvests of peace. Peace is like a tree that needs strong roots and good tendingin order to bring about fruit. The resources that follow are meant to inspire your congregationto see themselves as active and conscientious resisters to all violent and war-relatedpressures, as cultivators of peace. On Peace Sunday we worship the God of Peace and wespeak out against war.3 Introduction to Theme