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A vision of peace and justice flows through all of Mennonite Central Committee's work in the pictures above, including relief sent "In the Name of Christ" to people we can reach who are in need regardless of their history, development work that includes new roles for both survivors and perpetrators of war and violence, and designated peace work through education programs on conflict transformation, encouraging strategic networking between Asian peace organizations, and witnessing to the value of our Asian neighbors' perspectives through MCC's advocacy offices to Ottawa, Washington DC, and the UN.
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Asia is an especially important place for peacemaking as wars, disasters, and changing governments and borders have divided many regions of Asia into active or potential hotbeds of violent conflict. MCC Asia is a source of support for Asian organizations that are working to promote a culture of peace that emphasizes reconciliation as an alternative to grudges and wars for dealing with past and present conflicts. MCC Asia's peace programming involves helping indigenous Asian peace groups connect with each other in supportive networks so they can learn from each other's approaches and take courage in the solidarity of their efforts. MCC Asia's own role in building a global culture of peace is especially prominent in the mutual transformation that takes place every day in our programs when people from different places learn how to build new, inclusive identities together as they live and work in community. We see living and working alongside one another in neighborly unity as the best way to lay the foundations of global unity.
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MCC's purpose and vision
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Part of Mennonite Central Committee’s mission as a whole organization is a call to be neighbors to people whom we could consider to be enemies, including citizens that live under governments whose interests conflict with the interests promoted by the governments of the United States and Canada. MCC Asia seeks to connect with people, regardless of national boundaries, as sisters and brothers in the Kingdom of God, members of one family. Sometimes we walk together by acknowledging the harm western lifestyles do to the people who live with the exported consequences of global economic and enivronmental systems that promote wealth and stability in the United States and Canada. One way this awareness inspires MCC's advocacy is on work to ban cluster bombs. Other times we see violence that has deep roots in poverty and desparation. In response, we can only give and receive help with access to food and water and, whenever possible, share a table and eat together in fellowship.
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MCC promotes nonviolence as a way of life. We believe that Christians are called to be peacemakers, and that our approaches should not break the golden rule. Violent means cannot erase violent problems, only delay or export those problems, and as members of one global family we cannot condone such passing on of troubles to others. But how can we challenge the injustices that prevent people from living together in love and oppress the dignity of so many without resorting to violence? How can we build communities of peace, justice, and nonviolence in a world full of conflict? These questions have no easy or abstract answers, only lived-out answers. MCC Asia, our workers, and our partners are committed to living out cross-cultural bridges through everyday relationships and using these bridges to transform conflicts into opportunities for change through commitment to interdependence rather than through dominating power backed by systemic oppression. We at MCC Asia invite you to join us in ways that involve using your own hands to care for our global family together and to begin a journey toward hope in the face of violence and injustice, a journey toward the Kingdom of God.
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