Page 26 - Preservation for the Documentation of Chinese Christianity

Chairman’s Remarks

Rev. Lincoln Leung

The United Nations has designated 1986 as the g ift at the altar, and there remember that your
"International Year o f Peace". The mission o f the brother has something against you, you should
Hong Kong Christian Council is to promote "Church leave your g ift there before the altar and go back; in
U nity” . Now the two terms o f "peace” and “ u n ity ” order to be first reconciled to your brother and then
are similar as well as inseparable, because if people return and offer your g ift to God. Today, the Church
cannot live together peacefully, how can, they unite is not threatened by pressure or persecution from
into one? If people do not have the spirit o f unity, outside, but by the attacking o f one another,
how can they live together peacefully? dissensions and factioning, the desire to be the
biggest, and the unwillingness to forgive — all from
Such being the case, what then is peace? The inside. Only if we act like Joseph, who took the
Hong Kong Christian Service once conducted a initiative to reconcile him self w ith his brothers
servey on the topic o f "peace" among a group o f (Gen. 45), can churches really unite into one.
primary school pupils, and one o f the answers was,
"Peace means no war, no crime, no quarrels, no 3. Proclamation of peace together
hunger . . . and no m is e ry .............’’ If we look at the The most im portant m inistry o f C hristianity is
Bible, “ peace” carries the meaning o f “ tranqu ility”， to preach Jesus* good news o f peace. Yet, if churches

“ safety”， " n o war “ am icability”， and cannot join together in a united fro n t and live

"reconciliation” etc. Indeed, the mission o f the Lord together peacefully, would that not be a big irony?
Jesus Christ coming to this world was to reconcile Even then, if we can try our best and strive towards
man to God through the Cross thereby bringing the same goal, factioning w ill disappear. As it was
hostility to an end. By the same token, the m inistry once described, we can see a lo t of fences erected in
o f peace-making has been delegated to us. the spring field, but crops and vegetables grow up
in the summer, and out grow the fences which are
We can look at the message of peace from three then no longer visible. Likewise, if all the churches
different perspectives: proclaim the good news o f peace in one heart and in
one mind, true unity can be materialized.
1. Reconciliation with God
A ll the tension and strife in this world stem in In the International Year o f Peace, while we
fact from the abnormal relationship between man response to the calling o f "Peace", I hope that we
and God. Very often we say that churches cannot also study deeply the meaning o f U nity, get together
live together peacefully because o f theological, and contribute ourselves for the peace o f Hong Kong
traditional or institutional inconsistencies, but it is as well as the world.
more probable that problems have arisen in our own
relationship w ith God. If we say we are all in the
fam ily o f God, then why are we unw illing to accept
others? Just like the elder brother o f the prodigal
son, because he could not understand the love his
father had fo r him, he was unwilling to accept his
returning brother and kept himself out.

2. Reconciliation with others
According to the teaching o f the Apostle John,
one who loves God w ill surely love his brothers.
The Lord Jesus also said that if you are offering your

24