Peace Aims Group (PAG)
- Date of Founding
- Date of Abolition
- Location
William Paton, a British ecumenist active in the International Missionary Council (IMC), gathered a working group, mainly composed of church leaders, academics and persons with close connections to the British Government to study The Responsibility of the Church for the International Order. The group operated from 1940 until 1944 under the name Peace Aims Group (PAG). Prominent ecumenical figures were part of this group, including William Temple and Bishop George Bell and meetings were attended by Marc Boegner, Visser ’t Hooft, and American representatives from the CJDP.
The main focus of the group was to study the relationship between Germany and the West. Paton explored simultaneously the possibility of a peace declaration, based on the premise of an Allied victory. In June 1943, in response to the The Six Pillars of Peace, the Peace Aims Group in Britain responded with a declaration A Christian Basis for Reconstruction, drawn up by Paton, and a statement titled The Future of Europe, by J.H. Oldham and Dennis Routh. In these blueprints, the British concurred with the American statement and supported it.
After both Paton and Temple passed away in 1943 and 1944, respectively, the Peace Aims Group was dissolved, having its last meeting in November 1944. Together with the CJDP, PAGs experiences during the war influenced the creation of the Commission of the Churches for International Affairs (CCIA) in 1946, as proven by Kenneth Grubb, who became CCIA Chairman largely thanks to his PAG membership.