CHAPTER ONE

General Introduction

Peace is not just the absence of war. Peace cannot be built on foundations of injustice. Peace requires a new international order on justice and respect for the God-given humanity and dignity of every person Konrad Raiser (2002:79).

1.1 Introduction

This study seeks to critique the emerging ecumenical paradigm of Just Peace, and examine its contextual relevance and ecumenical implications for overcoming violence and fostering durable peace in the multi-religious and multi-cultural community of Jos, Nigeria. The Jos context of the research is plagued with intractable violent conflicts claimed to be fuelled by socio-political and religio-cultural factors (Best 2007:7). The Just Peace concept and process was adopted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) during the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) that was held in Kingston, Jamaica in 2011. It was adopted as a global ecumenical pedagogy to equip, empower and stimulate churches in their missional quest and engagements towards overcoming all logics and manifestation of violence and seek ways to promote sustainable peace in a fragmented world.  Some churches in the city of Jos are members of WCC such as Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion, Presbyterian Church of Nigeria (PCN), Methodist Church Nigeria (MCN), Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Baptist Convention (NBC), Reformed Church of Christ in Nigeria (RCCN) and The African Church. The Christian Council of Nigeria commonly referred to as “CCN” is an affiliate body to the WCC and being a Nigeria-based ecumenical organization, it has members who do not subscribe to the vision and mission of WCC. While many of these church denominations that are members of CCN are not members of WCC, but in actual sense benefit immensely from WCC’s programmes because of their proxy membership via CCN.

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