About the Decade

In spring of 1999, the ELCA Church Council passed a resolution that

• supported the UN Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World
• encouraged the church in all its expressions to teach, practice and model nonviolence
• encouraged the church in all its expressions to develop educational materials and
• training programs to address issues relating to peace and nonviolence
• encouraged churchwide units to work together to accomplish these tasks

Later that year, the ELCA churchwide assembly passed a resolution directing the Division for Church in Society (now known as the Church in Society Program Unit) to coordinate this effort in the form of an Interunit Task Force. (Thirty-one synods had passed resolutions on nonviolence in support of the UN declaration.)

Currently, seventeen individuals representing several churchwide units and partner organizations are actively involved in the ELCA Interunit Task Force for the Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence.

The ongoing work of this group is guided not only by the UN Decade for a Culture of Peace, but also by the following Social Statements and Messages which have been adopted by the ELCA:

• For Peace in God’s World 
• Community Violence 
• Living in a Time of Terrorism 
• Commercial Sexual Exploitation 
• Suicide Prevention 
• Caring for Creation: Vision Hope and Justice 
• Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity and Culture