Church and Peace is a European network of Christian communities, churches and organisations who believe that the peace witness is an essential characteristic of the church of Jesus Christ.

The European ecumenical network Church and Peace will reflect on its beginnings 50 years ago with an anniversary symposium on 28-30 May 1999 at the Bienenberg Education and Conference Centre near Basel, Switzerland.

The symposium will begin on Friday, May 28, at 17:00 with an anniversary presentation by Dr. Wolfgang Lienemann, professor at the Bern Theological Institute. Dr. Keith Clements, General Secretary of the Conference of European Churches, will give the sermon on Zechariah 8:19b: “love Truth and Peace ” during the closing ecumenical worship service on Sunday, May 30. Pastor Wilfried Warneck, the first General Secretary of Church & Peace, and Hildegard Goss-Mayr, Honorary President of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), are the featured speakers for the Saturday morning session “Voices from the Past, Guidelines for the Future ”. A dialogue forum entitled “Joint Responsibility in a Changing Europe ” will take place on Saturday afternoon with representatives from Pax Christi International, IFOR, Kairos Europe, the Hungarian Bokor Movement, the del Vasto Communaut é de l ’Arche and Church and Peace.

The European Church and Peace movement traces its origins to the first meeting of the European Historic Peace Churches Continuation Committee in 1949. The Committee assembled at the invitation of the World Council of Churches to take part in a post-war discussion of the churches ’ theology of war and peace.

Today Church and Peace is a network of 43 churches, communities and peace service organizations and 28 individuals from East and West Europe. Church and Peace ’s members share the conviction that nonviolence is one of the essential teachings of Jesus for his church and that the Gospel message of reconciliation and forgiveness means leading lives of active peacemaking and service for peace.