A politically polarized ­country that just held an election needs Christian peacemakers more than ever, Brethren in Christ pastors and lay people heard at a study conference Nov. 15 in Grantham, Pa.

“Where is God inviting you to lean into peacemaking a little harder?” asked Kerry Hoke, a board member of the Sider Institute for Anabaptist, ­Pietist and Wesleyan Studies at Messiah University.

The conference, “Pursuing Peace in a Messy World,” was chosen in anticipation of the U.S. election year. Now that the election is over, Hoke said, it is “vital to be witnesses to Christ’s peace to people around us.”

Pursuing peace requires “dogged determination” and “stubborn tenacity,” and God desires “embodied peacemakers,” Hoke said.

As an Anabaptist denomination, the Brethren in Christ cite pursuing peace as a core conviction: “We value human life and promote forgiveness, understanding, reconciliation and nonviolent resolution of conflict.”

David Weaver-Zercher, Messiah professor of American religious studies, said in his opening address that pursuing peace “needs to be historically situated” among the BIC. The denomination has taken different postures toward peace over the years.

While their Anabaptist forebears turned the other cheek through martyrdom in the 1500s, the Brethren kept their heads down by pursuing purity and prosperity through group insulation on the Pennsylvania frontier.

The Brethren presented their bodies through sacrifice and nonresistance by serving in Civilian Public Service camps in the 1940s. But they stayed on the sidelines during the Civil Rights era. Although the group condemned racist actions, it discouraged direct challenges to the White status quo through demonstrations and marches. In this way, the Brethren quickly joined the ranks of many other White evangelical churches.

Weaver-Zercher encouraged the audience to consider what pursuing peace means right now, since the BIC’s statement on peace focuses on not simply avoiding violence but on active peacemaking and justice.

Keynote speaker Osheta Moore took up the question in her lectures. Moore, who co-pastors Roots Moravian Church in St. Paul, Minn., is the author of Shalom Sistas and Dear White Peacemakers, published by Herald Press.

Peacemaking in our time, especially after the U.S. presidential election, means being committed to collective wholeness, Moore said. Like the church today, the early church in Acts 2 was living under empire and faced complex social issues. Even as people in the early church enjoyed unity, they had their problems. They still had to navigate life with each other.

Citing Micah 6:8, Moore said justice can mean relational loyalty. She recounted a story in which her congregation took a vote about joining a new denomination. As the vote was announced, she noticed that people who favored the outcome comforted the ones hurt by the outcome. Justice is about responding to others while also staying true to yourself, she said.

Relational loyalty often needs reconciling love. The Moravians, Moore’s denomination, practice reconciling love by holding a Love Feast, a tradition that dates to when the Moravians in Europe almost split apart in the 1700s. Nicholas von Zinzendorf, a founding leader, said the group needed to stay together but encouraged dialogue. Through prayer, honesty and commitment, the group came to a place of reconciliation and marked it with a Love Feast. Today Moore’s congregation holds Love Feasts after conversations that engage difficult topics.

Key to justice and reconciliation is recognizing our belovedness. “Where there is agape love, there is the Beloved Community,” she said.

Referring to Mark 12:30-31 and Matthew 5:43-48, she offered practical advice to maintain everyone’s belovedness during a conflict:
— Listen actively.
— Be gentle in conversations.
— Practice lovingkindness by affirming people’s feelings.
— Practice hope by praying.
— In a church context, it may be better to discuss problems in small groups rather than corporately.

“Peacemaking is also relationship-building, not just activism,” Moore said.

Conversations about pursuing peace continued in workshops. Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz, MC USA denominational minister for peace and justice, and Jim Amstutz led a session on understanding conflict styles to improve interpersonal communication. Jennifer Lancaster, the BIC program director for Thriving Congregations and the denomination’s Project 250 coordinator, led a discussion on orienting congregations to a “positive peace witness.”