Adding Peace as a Value
Line 17 Add: a Peace flower petal
Line 19 Replace: “six” twice with “seven”
Line 22 Add: Peace (Green)
Line 44 Add: Value Peace. We dedicate ourselves to peaceful conflict resolution at all levels.
We covenant to promote a peaceful world community with liberty and human rights for all. Whenever and wherever possible we will use nonviolent means to achieve peace.
I see this is now a preliminary priority Amendment, so I am trying to imagine where the Value of Peace would go in the list. (I know it’s not meant to be a list, but it inevitably will be a list!)
I think it would nice to list it last. With another of the new Values in the preliminary list, Gratitude, maybe the list would read well in this order:
Gratitude
Interdependence
Pluralism
Equity
Justice
Transformation
Generosity
Peace
Other ideas?
I personally find that trying to put things in an order that flows well helps me find unnecessary (and jarring) duplications of ideas or wording.
(My former post: I definitely value peace, but it seems like it overlaps in some ways with the Justice Value? Is there any way your ideas could be incorporated into Justice? It might take some serious re-working, but I think it would be worth it. The easiest way to combine them that I can think of is to extend the last sentence of Justice to say: “We support the use of inclusive democratic processes and non-violent means of conflict resolution.” But that may not be adequate to your purpose.)
I think this is a very important amendment as the intent of the 6th principle, the goal of work community with peace and justice for all, is largely omitted in the new Section II language. Peace is foundational to Unitarian Universalist practice in the world, and I strongly support this amendment.
Jerald Ross
That’s “world” community. Sorry for the typo.
NO! I will not mandate peace at any cost in UUism. As my congregation has shown, somethings are worth fighting for.
I also support this amendment. Peace is a value and a goal, not a mandate. We can “fight” for our values without resorting to violence and when we do so, I see our goal as peaceful resolution of conflict, not an avoidance of it. I would only support incorporating peace into the justice value if this amendment failed and a more effective way of centering peace had not been accomplished.
No, I don’t think they can really be combined. Although we know that justice is necessary for true peace (how often have we chanted “No Justice, No Peace!”?), the desire for peace seems to me to encompass something different, a sense of calm and coöperation that is not quite the same as justice.
Well said, Sally! There is a strong case to be made that peace and justice do not necessarily coincide with one another. In an ideal world, they would. But in this world full of inequities, we cannot really expect all of those who are systemically, continually wronged to find peace without them being granted a measure of justice first. As you observe, justice here is kind of a prerequisite.
That all said, I do support reincorporating the idea of “world community” into the Article II revision somehow. Mac’s wording is very elegant and flows nicely with the language of the revision. I just don’t know if peace is the right way to frame things; maybe the pursuit of peace would be more apt.
I love this amendment and would definitely support it.
In response to Cynthia the Amendment does not “mandate” peaceful means as it reads “Whenever and wherever possible we will use nonviolent means to achieve peace.” In addition to fighting for world community with nonviolence whenever possible, our UUA 2016 Peacemaking resolution addressed peace in the nation, our communities, churches, families and ourselves – covenants that appear in other proposed Article 2 values such as equity and justice. This amendment deserves high priority and broad support as the A2SC proposal includes text from 6 of the 7 principles, but no language from our current 6th principle that this amendment provides.
When I was one of the 12 facilators for the A2 outreach we were told by the commission that the purpose of the flower was to make sure all the values carried equal weight – no one comes before the other.
Hi @MacG, I don’t have any doubt that that was the purpose of the flower, and I don’t disagree with that purpose. I’m just saying that inevitably, in a document, the values will be listed in a particular order, and that that order has consequences for how it is read.
One of our congregation’s regularly-attending friends put it this way: “I don’t believe this kind of peace is a value, rather, it is a goal. I believe that peace, as a value, is to achieve a tranquil state of mind; staying grounded and calm even when faced with adversity. This type of peace enables clear decision-making and freedom of thoughts and actions. The result may be that which is described above, but the value of internal peace is the surer way forward.”
(I personally would still like to add “non-violent conflict resolution” to the Justice Value.)
When the SOC 'Creating Peace" was put together (I was part of the core team with this assignment) we looked at Peace from International all the way to Inner Peace (Calls to Action) and said that we wanted to see cultures of peace. A question: Is Justice a goal or a value or both?
Thanks for the response, Mac.
I will let the friend know your response and see if she has a reply.
Sadly, I don’t think our denomination actually does embrace peace. I have heard strong support for the war in Ukraine from many of my fellow congregants. I know peace is not simple, and I understand the compassion people feel for Ukrainians (I feel it, too!), but that our answer is to support war does not align with my values.
I agree with you Cynthia. I am for protests, disruptions, and even in some cases riots. As a queer BIPOC UU, this is a big no for me.
How does that stance—which is mine as well—not work with valuing peace? Or starting with nonviolence, only departing from that when and where it is no longer possible? For me, it makes sense to value “ a peaceful world community with liberty and human rights for all”.
FYI, this is the draft UUFMC Statement about Amendment 32:
Peace is an important goal that is highly valued. We support this amendment, although we recognize it could have some overlap in wording, e.g. with some versions of the Equity Value.
However, as with all of the Convent statements, we prefer removing the repetitive word “covenant” so it doesn’t sound like we are reciting and intoning a creed. In this case the verb that would stand on its on would “promote.”
@Hank many UUs have supported Ukraine’s right not to be annihilated.