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BY ERIK ALSGAARD
UMCONNECTION STAFF

In the midst of war and rumors of war, more than 240 people, mostly women, gathered at a hotel in Hagerstown July 13-17, for the annual School of Christian Mission.

Sponsored by the United Methodist Women and the Board of Christian Presence in God?s World of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, students came to study peace, globalization, and to learn more about India and Pakistan.

As bombs and rockets began to rain down in Israel and Lebanon, the students heard from retired Bishop Forrest Stith, speaking in a plenary session July 13, about the things that make for peace.

'Peace is a paradoxical word,' he said. 'In Isaiah, we have the image of peace being the lion lying down with the lamb. Later, we hear peace being compared to turning spears into pruning hooks.'

This seems to make no sense, Bishop Stith said, when you look at the world, especially today.

'We live in a world with winners and losers,' he said. 'Instead of giving us strategies for climbing the corporate ladder, Jesus said, ?Blessed are the meek; blessed are the merciful.? Jesus turns our culture around; it becomes the antithesis of the world you and I know.'

Addressing the situation beginning to boil over in the Middle East, the bishop said that each side, throughout history, has tried to find a way to win through force, many times over. 'Talk about slow learners,' he said.

'How many issues have really been solved by war?' he asked rhetorically. 'War and violence can bring relief, but they can never solve the dilemmas that caused the issue in the first place.'

Bishop Stith observed that one of the reasons terrorists resort to their ways is because they know they can?t win against a power like the United States. 'They can?t fight us gun for gun,' he said, 'so they resort to terror.'

Trying to eliminate terrorists, he noted, is like trying to swat mosquitoes: just when you think you?ve solved one problem with them, others arrive and are just as pesky.

The next morning, students gathered after breakfast to go deeper in their learning of peace. Led by Sally VanDerLoop of the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference, participants learned that building peace challenges religious people to engage in several things, some of which are none to comfortable.

'First, we need to engage in self-examination,' VanDerLoop said. 'Do we see other faiths as ?alien? and/or ?incomplete? or ?heathen??'

Next comes active dialogue with others who are different than ourselves, she said.

'There are more Muslims in the United States than United Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians combined,' she said. 'Are you having them in your church? Do you know anything about them?'

VanDerLoop taught the group some of the basic tenants of Islam and Judaism, which combined with Christianity, form the three Abrahamic faiths.

She said the last part of building peace involves comparing what she termed 'heart sets' and 'mind sets.'

'In other words,' she said, 'we have to begin to compare ideals with ideals and practices with practices' when it comes to our faith traditions. For example, she noted that both Islam and Christianity proclaim that they are traditions grounded in faith. And yet, she asked, 'What is your perception of a Muslim person today?'

Participants were given time to reflect and remember a peaceable time in their lives and what it looked like, what made it possible, and who was there. With that remembrance in hand, creation of peaceable times in the future becomes more possible.

Students at the school spent time in both plenary and topical classes. Leadership of these classes came mostly from Baltimore-Washington Conference clergy.

'These studies and this school are really important,' said Joyce Dean from LaPlata UMC. 'We?re trying to blow up the world. We need to learn peace.'

For more information on Schools of Christian Mission, visit http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/Bible/schools.stm.