Just Peace Sunday
The Thirtieth General Synod called on the congregations of the United Church of Christ to mark the Sunday preceding September 21 (which the United Nation recognizes as the “International Day of Prayer for Peace”) as Just Peace Sunday.
“Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous? So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Matthew 20:14-16
About the 2026 Campaign
We mark Just Peace Sunday in 2026 under the ongoing fog of war. The genocide in Gaza continues without end, and a war with Iran has killed hundreds of civilians and wreaked havoc on both the environment and global economy for over six months. The administration’s failed policy of “peace through strength” has shunned diplomacy and other peacebuilding measures, instead escalating military might and economic threats. The result is chaos and a less secure world.
The “cost of war” is not simply economic.
The human and moral tolls of these conflicts are incalculable. Woven through it all are the sinful ideals of American exceptionalism, unbridled capitalism, and the idol of military strength that all echo the “triplets of evil” (racism, materialism, and militarism) that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. warned of in 1967. Those triplets are all too present in our political life today.
This Sunday’s lectionary scriptures challenge these systems and call on us to wrestle with the interplay of power, profit, people, and peace. God’s vision of shalom, a just peace economy, as envisioned in the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. The parable illustrates a different system of economic relations that challenges systems of inequity, racism, colonialism, and any structure built to privilege some over others. In these passages, we glimpse God’s abundance and God’s extravagance breaking into, and confronting, our narrow human notions of “fairness.” Workers are valued not on the basis of their labor, but on the basis of their inherent worth as children of God. In Exodus, we witness God’s provision for all in the form of manna, God’s provision, raining down from heaven.
On this Just Peace Sunday and during the Season of Creation, we are called to live into God’s kin-dom on earth, seeking peace in all spheres of life: peace with the planet, peace among nations, peace among the people, and peace in the marketplace. We are called to build a world of just economic relations in which all have enough; a world in which God’s provisions are not squandered on ever more advanced weapons of war but instead bent into plowshares for the common good. May it be so!
-Rev. Michael Neuroth, Director of the Washington D.C. Office
Download the Just Peace Handbook
In 2015, the 30th General Synod held in Cleveland, OH marked the UCC’s 30th anniversary as a Just Peace Church and called for a renewal of the UCC’s Just Peace witness. This booklet is intended to accompany this resolution and be a resource for all levels and areas of the church for further work and witness, especially to local congregations declaring or recommitting themselves as “Just Peace Churches.” This resource includes a summary of the historical and theological uniqueness of the Just Peace vision; the biblical and theological grounding for Just Peace values; and recommended steps for how to become a Just Peace Church. (Download.)
Questions
For more information contact uccjustpeace@gmail.com and join us in conversation via Facebook and Twitter @JustPeaceUCC.