Adventists will Celebrate Peace Sabbath on May 23
From News Release, May 12, 2015: Corrected. The Adventist Peace Fellowship (APF) has designated the Sabbath before Memorial Day in the United States (May 23) as the first annual Adventist Peace Sabbath. In other nations it will be scheduled at other points in the year.
This particular Sabbath was selected because it is an occasion when some congregations devote part of their worship service to honor those who have served in the military. In view of the denomination’s official teaching of conscientious objection in times of war, and in because of the sacrifices and heroism of countless Adventist noncombatants and pacifists, APF has urged Adventist churches to also remember Christ’s admonition, “blessed are the peacemakers.”
A resource is available to provide material for worship. The six-page guide suggests four appropriate hymns from the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, and it includes the full text for an invocation, a benediction, four Scripture readings and a litany or responsive reading. The theme is “Let Us Be Peacemakers.” The four Scripture readings include two from the Old Testament (Isaiah and a Psalm) and two from the New Testament, one from the Epistles and one from the Gospels.
The worship resource was created by APF member Yi Shen Ma with assistance from Dr. Maury Jackson, a theology professor in the H. M. S. Richards Divinity School at La Sierra University, and Dr. Nicholas Zork, coordinator of the Music and Worship Conferences at Andrews University for the Center on Youth Evangelism. Because everything is included except the words of the hymns, this resource can be used in small groups or family worship.
“We are also urging all Adventist churches to draw inspiration from the five Adventist congregations that have [voted] to be known as official Adventist Peace Churches,” said a statement from APF. “May 23 is a Sabbath when Adventists can bear creative witness in our worship life to the good news of Christ’s peace.”
APF is an international organization of Adventist Bible scholars, theologians, clergy and laity. It has the purpose of supporting the traditional Seventh-day Adventist teaching about refusing to participate in war-making activities in the military or war-related civilian industries.
The worship resource is formatted for printing as a PDF and can be downloaded free of charge here: https://adventistpeace.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/adventistpeacesabbathservice.pdf
I’ve been an APF member for a decade and joined with my friend Dr. Chas. Bradford. The SDA Church’s position changed almost 180 degrees in the 50’s, 60’s, and early 70’s while we were missionaries to southern Africa.
Carlyle B. Haynes, in 1947 wrote a letter to U.S. military authorities in his role as the War Service Commission spokesperson for church headquarters, stating explicitly that ordained Adventist clergy-persons could not officially join the military as military chaplains! About the time of the Korean War this feeling began to change. Today and for years the department has been known as the “Chaplaincy Dept.” with their motto “For God and Country” — a complete turnaround. As an historical aside:
When a 2nd Lieutenant in the Adventist Medical Cadet Corps at Union College I used to teach younger cadets the biblical reasons for our “conscientious objector” position. I used to wonder why the Quakers and Mennonites used the same texts to support pacifism while our MCC literature took a very dim view of the concept. At that time we did in fact support the “just war” theory though it was never mentioned by that name. To be fair the church was willing ultimately to support honest pacifists, but our official church position then was that we were “Conscientious Cooperators.” I think I know why, but that’s for another time.
I’ve been an APF member for a decade and joined with my friend Dr. Chas. Bradford. The SDA Church’s position changed almost 180 degrees in the 50’s, 60’s, and early 70’s while we were missionaries to southern Africa.
Carlyle B. Haynes, in 1947 wrote a letter to U.S. military authorities in his role as the War Service Commission spokesperson for church headquarters, stating explicitly that ordained Adventist clergy-persons could not officially join the military as military chaplains! Such a position would erode our belief in the separation of church and state. About the time of the Korean War this feeling began to change. Today and for years the department has been known as the “Chaplaincy Dept.” with their motto “For God and Country” — a complete turnaround. As an historical aside:
When a 2nd Lieutenant in the Adventist Medical Cadet Corps at Union College I used to teach younger cadets the biblical reasons for our “conscientious objector” position. I used to wonder why the Quakers and Mennonites used the same texts to support pacifism while our MCC literature took a very dim view of the concept. At that time we did in fact support the “just war” theory though it was never mentioned by that name. To be fair the church was willing ultimately to support honest pacifists, but our official church position then was that we were “Conscientious Cooperators.” I think I know why, but that’s for another time.
To me this is such a complicated dilemma, I don’t know how to address it or think about it. There are no easy answers. I have always thought we participated in the draft to save lives of the wounded. Has this changed when there is no draft? Can one not choose to be a medic; and the troups certainly need the presences of chaplains that minister to all faiths. Wouldn’t that be part of our witness for Christ? Haynes had wrong priorities.
Are you advocating no help?
Then we have the people being slaughtered in the Middle East as in Syria, while we sit in our ivory towers and condemn war. Then there was the holocaust. I don’t under5stand your noninvolvement in the world’s tragedies–it seems cruel.
This does not mean I don’t support APF. As far as I know I am on their mailing list. Peace starts at home; it is in the heart and does not exclude compassion or protection for the suffering.
Being the sinners we are, true peace alludes us.
Those soldiers who give their lives are worthy of honor and not to be judged.