The Christian International Peace Service has celebrated its 40th anniversary last week with a warm welcome to its new director Mark Cuthbert.

Founder and outgoing director of CHIPS Roy Calvocoressi welcomed the youth and energy that Cuthbert would bring to the leadership of CHIPS as he stepped down after forty years.

With many conflicts erupting over access to scarce water supplies, Mr Calvocoressi also welcomed the particularly vital expertise that Cuthbert's hydrogeology qualifications bring to the role of CHIPS director.

Mr Cuthbert is currently leading CHIPS in the repair of eight cattle dams in Uganda as part of its peacemaking work to resolve conflicts over precious water supplies during dry seasons.

CHIPS teams take up permanent residence in conflicting communities where they bring individuals from each side of the divide to work together in hands-on projects which break down barriers and build trust. Mr Cuthbert said at the 40th anniversary celebration that CHIPS would be expanding its projects into even more countries in the next year.

"There isn't a chance of building permanent peace if you give up hope. There is this idea that you can just make peace but actually peace is something you need to work at continually," Mr Cuthbert told Christian Today.

"As a Christian one of the most important things I find and one of the things our team members find is their spirituality as a resource that keeps them going, particularly when times are hard and you have to make sacrifices. Once you are secure in the love of God that allows you to love your neighbour. That flow of love is what seems to keep them going."

Meanwhile, Mr Calvocoressi said of the enormous challenge of peacemaking, "You lose the battle immediately if you are overwhelmed, and it is about keeping your expectations realistic."

He added, "In peacemaking you don't get instant results...it is really by the Holy Spirit that it spreads, no matter how slowly."

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, and former President of Nigeria, General Dr Yakubu Gowon, were guest speakers at the event on Thursday night.

Dr Sentamu called on Christians to be active peacemakers and not simply peace lovers, and play their part in building peaceful communities centred on the love of Christ and the truth of the gospel.

He said that a "great challenge" remained for those pursuing peace but assured that the "gospel has the power to do it".

"Christians must struggle to find ways to create communities which transcend tribalism, where we strive to love one another as God has loved us in Jesus," said Dr Sentamu.

He added, "The time has come, it seems to me, that this man of Nazareth, Jesus Christ, deeply lived out in small communities, we can actually become the channel in which instead of caste, deception, death the world finds the way, the truth and the life."