Rev. Dr. Dan Buttry, global consultant for peace and justice for American Baptist International Ministries (IM), was a key participant in the recent historic Naga peace meetings that resulted in the signing of a peace accord between three nationalist groups in the northeast India state of Nagaland on September 18. 

 Dan served at the invitation of Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) as a member of the Mediation Team that also included British Quakers.  The FNR is comprised of Naga people who represent several organizations, including Baptist groups, all of which pledged to work to end the violence between warring factions in Nagaland. 

 Dan participated in four sessions that took place in Chiang Mai, Thailand, including the session during which the final “Journey to a Common Hope” document was signed. It was during one of these sessions that Dan was asked to preach Sunday morning. With little preparation time, he chose a favorite text – Romans 12:21: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” He concluded with a call to use good to strike at the heart of the spirit of evil, even bringing our enemies to repentance.

 “Peace requires that we set ourselves free from the chain [of reactivity], that we take our clues from good, specifically the good that is rooted in Christ, rather than from the evil that binds our enemies (and often us as well),” Dan summarized in a recent journal article he wrote on the subject.

 “The Naga ‘Journey to a Common Hope’ has never been so lively. The seeds of justice planted so patiently over the years now break through the hard ground of vengeance and promise a harvest of peace.“ This statement appeared in an open letter to the Naga people authored by Dan Buttry, Dr. John Sundquist, retired director of IM, Rev. Ken Sehested, founding director, Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, and Rev. Raimundo Barreto, director, Baptist World Allliance Division of Peace and Justice.

 Dan expressed his hope for a future of peace in Nagaland with these words, “The reconciliation among the Nagas hopefully will make possible a more effective process of negotiation with the government of India to find a long-term and mutually-agreeable solution to the Indo-Naga conflict that first erupted into violence in 1955.” 

 Nagaland, smaller in land area than New Jersey, is an officially English-speaking, predominately Christian state in northeast India. In the mid-19th century, Baptist missionaries played an important role in converting Nagaland’s Naga tribes to Christianity.  The first American Baptist to arrive in the area were Nathan and Eliza Brown who went to Assam in 1836. The first Naga Christian was baptized in 1847.  The first Naga Baptist church was organized in 1872.  Today, Nagaland is known as one of the world's predominantly Baptist states with more than 80% of state’s population being Baptist."

 Since the 1990s, the Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) has been praying and working relentlessly with all churches for peace, unity and reconciliation of the warring Naga groups, the NBCC said.  The Council expressed this hope: “We are encouraged to see that FNR is making headway towards unity and reconciliation of the Nagas political groups. As reiterated by FNR that reconciliation must be inclusive of all Naga organizations, we encourage every organization to be a part of this Common Journey.  May God continue to guide and bless the reconciliation undertaking.”