“By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:78–79).

The Peacemaking Program has for twenty-five years been looking to Christ—the “dawn from on high,” the Prince of Peace—for guidance in the way of peace. For twenty-five years the Peacemaking Offering has been received in churches on World Communion Sunday to support initiatives on peacemaking and peace education throughout the church. The twenty-fifth anniversary is a natural time to look at what has been done, but more than that it is a time to recommit ourselves to being peacemakers in a world that often seems to resist God’s desire for all the world’s inhabitants to live peacefully and in harmony with each other and with the earth.

One of the strengths of the Peacemaking Offering is that it encourages churches to use part of the offering it receives (25 percent) for peacemaking efforts in their own communities or for peacemaking efforts that are important to them. Many churches give their portion of the offering to local agencies and programs like spouse and family abuse centers; schools and other agencies that teach anger control and nonviolent behavior to youth; CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children) programs; agencies and programs that give aid to homeless people; and Habitat for Humanity. Trinity Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, sponsored a child who attended a camp for children with a parent in prison. Covenant Presbyterian Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, used its offering share to support an after-school program for area students with autism, a program started by a member of the congregation and the only such program in the county. Old First Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, California, and First Presbyterian in Burlington, North Carolina, started fair trade projects.

In addition to local programs, churches have sent money to projects around the world. Many responded to natural disasters in 2004, including the hurricanes that hit Florida and the Caribbean islands and the tsunami in Asia; others responded to areas where there is fighting and unrest, including Iraq, Colombia, and Darfur, Sudan. The PC(USA)’s Extra Commitment Opportunity accounts have been popular ways to give aid for people caught in these situations. Many churches have given to support land mine removal projects.

In these and many other ways, Presbyterian churches find concrete ways to help bring the ways of peace to their communities and to areas around the world that have touched them.

A portion of the Peacemaking Offering—25 percent—goes to presbyteries and synods for their peacemaking efforts. They give support to the churches and also offer opportunities for churches to come together for such things as interfaith dialogues, antiracism training, and nonviolence training. One presbytery started a court watch program that followed domestic abuse cases as they proceeded through the court system. Another sponsored a student to work as a peer minister, encouraging peace on a college campus.

At the General Assembly level, the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program helps the church grow in its witness and commitment to peacemaking. It has developed a variety of resources, events, and programs that assist the church in pursuing peace, including a yearly peacemaking conference. The Peacemaking Program oversees the International Peacemakers Program, which brings persons of faith from other nations to the United States to share peacemaking concerns. These peacemakers go to churches, presbyteries, synods, and Presbyterian colleges and seminaries for dialogue.

The Peacemaking Program also hosts seminars on issues of international concern at the United Nations for congregations and presbyteries; participates in the antiracism efforts of the PC(USA); provides peacemaking resources to congregations, presbyteries, and synods; and offers support to churches in many other ways. The Peacemaking Offering helps fund all of these efforts. (For a complete listing of how the General Assembly allocates its portion of the offering, go to the Peacemaking Offering Web site.)

Twenty-five years ago when the 192nd General Assembly (1980) of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America adopted “Peacemaking: The Believers’ Calling” and created the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program and the Peacemaking Offering, the reality dominating world affairs was the Cold War. A world at peace seemed impossible. The Cold War has since given way to the War on Terror, and we seem as far away as ever from peace. The words from the Gospel of Luke at the beginning of this article were a message of hope uttered by John the Baptist’s father upon John’s birth. They reminded the people that a merciful God was about to bring such a dawn to the earth that those who were paralyzed by the hopelessness they lived in would be able to find a way out, a way of peace. This is the message of hope for us, too. As Christ has made real God’s promised dawn, he breaks into a world torn by the shadows of violence, destruction, and death. And Christ offers to guide our feet even today into the way of peace.

Nancy Goodhue is associate for Mission Education and Promotion. For more information about the Peacemaking Offering, contact her at (888) 728-7228, ext. 5182.