Promoting God’s Justice and Peace

Our Episcopal Book of Common Prayer confirms that the work of restoring all people to unity with God and each other in Christ has three distinct but overlapping movements:

prayer and worship;

proclaiming (by word and by action) the good news of God’s love;

and promoting justice, peace, and love.

Because we believe this, we know that we cannot be faithful to God’s work unless we are serious about promoting justice, peace, and love.  But how?  How are we to understand this justice?  Surely God’s justice is not the imperfect justice of any particular legal system!  And how are to to understand peace?  Surely God’s peace is different from the peace we seek when we merely try to avoid conflict.  

The justice and peace we must promote is much different than the avoidance of all conflict.  We must commit to the justice and peace that restores all people to unity with God, and that restores all people to unity with each other in Christ.  Our world is a challenging place for those who want to live that justice and that peace.

Here at St. Mary’s we are presently in a discernment process, working to clarify the specific ways in which we are called to promote justice and the specific ways we are called to promote God’s peace.  Please check back over the next few weeks, as we will share the fruits of our discernment process here.