by Matt Guynn
Director of Nonviolent Social Change, On Earth Peace
(Note: Nick Mele, Pax Christi USA National Council member, attended the “Christian Peace Circle: People Get Ready,” at Seattle University, a gathering of 50 peace leaders from Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Evangelical traditions, in April. Several other Pax Christi representatives were on-hand. Nick thought people might enjoy this blog post from one of the participants.)
The statue is called Gratia Plena – “Full of Grace” – and it pours out the milk of grace and possibility in the St Ignatius Chapel at Seattle University, where fifty leaders from Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Evangelical traditions, and a broad variety of peace organizations and networks, worshiped together last week when gathered for “Christian Peace Circle: People Get Ready,” an ecumenical gathering at Seattle University in Seattle, Washington.
For those non-Catholics in our reading audience, “Full of Grace” is the second phrase of the prayer known as the Hail Mary. As Mary poured out praise and gave birth to Christ, it seems that a new coalescence around the Christian peace testimony is occurring in our times, though gradually and slowly.
In one of the keynote addresses of the gathering, Michael Kinnamon, the former head of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, traced the last sixty years, during which an emerging convergence of churches – at least in their statements! – have broadly affirmed the following key points…