Dr. Paulos Mar Gregorios

“Peace on Earth” – the angelic message announcing the birth of Jesus – remains a matter of hope rather than a visibly realized hope.

What we see everywhere are clouds of war, not doves of peace. But we see one ray of hope. In the West. i.e. Europe and America, hundreds of thousands of younger and older people are demonstrating “Jobs, not arms”, “no nuclear weapons”, “disarmament now” – so go the posters and slogans. The movement is catchy. Mass demonstrations against war have taken place in Britain, in Bonn, West Germany, in Washington, U.S.A. as also in Amsterdam. Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Berne, several Italian cities and even in East Germany. The demonstrators seem rather determined to stop war and slow down the arms race.
Peoples’ spontaneous demonstrations like this can be ignored by the leaders of States only at great peril. And so let us keep hoping that the tide will be turned, that tensions would be relaxed, that mutual trust and confidence among nations and peoples will grow. Let us make that a matter of fervent prayer this season.
But there is another closely related problem about which organized demonstrations are yet to begin. World poverty and injustice thrives in an exploitative international economic system. And that is the root of war. The armaments race is both for the benefit of this system in terms of profits, as well as for defending this unjust system.

Should we the poor of the world start making mass demonstrations about this problem. Perhaps the first step is for the victims of the system to be aware of how the system works and to know who their real oppressors are.

It would have been a wonderful thing if the European and American demonstrations would have kept both issues together – war and want, armaments race and world injustice. Perhaps in the poor countries too such mass demonstrations should begin – against both evils at the same time – the mad arms race and the inhuman injustice in the world. For, the solution to the two problems is the same. We must learn to beat our swords into ploughshares, our rockets into fertilizer, our money into jobs for peace and justice.

That message of Christmas becomes an urgent cry today. May the Peace of Christ rule in the hearts of the decision – makers of the nations! May the same peace abide in the hearts of our readers. And grant you a Blessed New Year.

Peace

1. Towards a Christian philosophy of Peace
2. May God bring Peace among us
3. Problem in a Christian philosophical approach to peace in eastern orthodox view
4. Peace on Earth
5. Life and peace: Some moral and Ethical affirmations about peace today
6. Crisis past. An Introduction of the Christian Peace conference

• A Prayer For Peace
• A Litany For Peace

• Religion and the Creation of World Peace / Dr. Paulos Mar Gregorios

• The Three-Pronged Approach To Peace and the Role of The Non-Aligned Movement / Paulos Mar Gregorios

• Peace for all Ages / Dr. Paulos Mar Gregorios

• Prospects For Peace / Paulos Mar Gregorios