We seek peace, but all too frequently we do not find it. In fact, my recent naive attempt to embrace the UCC national initiative “100,000 for Peace” has wreaked more havoc in my life than anything else in the four years since my divorce.

I’ve also discovered just how fractured and dissonant the UCC is today. I’ve understood that intellectually and in the abstract for a while now, but I have a new, personal, nearly visceral appreciation of it after the events of the last week. I’m not going to rehash all that, but instead begin again at the first hopeful point I’ve seen since last Thursday.

I’ve heard, both in my own congregation and on ucc.org, that the 100k for Peace letter is too political and insufficiently pastoral. I rejected that at first in my desperation to get Peace “on the table.” Having seen the wider reaction to it, having had some time to digest what I’ve heard, and especially after reading the beginning of a more appropriate letter this morning, I decided that it would be worth while in many ways to start this site as a workspace in which those who seek an alternative message for the International Day of Peace can collaborate on a “replacement” pastoral letter.

I’ve attached my first edit of Deb K’s thoughts, (originally posted on ucc.org), on what this alternative might look like. Feel free to download it, comment on it, add to it, edit it, re-name it by replacing my initials with your own on your version of UCC Thoughts on the Int’l Day of Peace 2007 and attach it to your own post. Kind of like a progressive supper, but with food for thought instead of food.


Peace be with you, and with us all,

Dave Cope

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