Episcopal Press and News
Episcopalians Join Nation in Bracing for War with Iraq
Episcopal News Service. March 18, 2003 [2003-060]
James Solheim, Jan Nunley
(ENS) Episcopalians are joining other Americans, and Christians around the world, bracing for what appears to be an inevitable war with Iraq.
As a sign of growing tensions, some bishops of the Episcopal Church, meeting in their spring retreat at Kanuga Conference Center in North Carolina, scattered for home in the wake of President George W. Bush's March 17 address to the nation giving Saddam Hussein of Iraq 48 hours to comply with United Nations resolutions or leave his country. Hussein rejected the ultimatum, the UN inspectors and other internationals left Iraq, and American troops put their fingers on the trigger in anticipation of a massive attack in the coming days.
The bishops later released a pastoral letter, "In the Shadow of War," calling for "a discipline of fasting and prayer for the return of peace" and urging congregations to open their doors for prayer.
Episcopalians joined in prayer and protest, clinging to diminishing hopes for a peaceful, diplomatic solution to the crisis--and they responded in a variety of ways. Bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish of Utah interrupted her sabbatical in England and returned to the diocese "on a spiritual and pastoral mission because of the war," participating in conversations with all 22 congregations.
"The British and Europeans have known war on their own soil," she said. "For them, war is not an option. Their collective security, the European Union, depends on cooperation." She told the diocese that "spiritual leadership at a time of such fearsome uncertainty will require much from us all."
"War is about killing people--God's people, God's children, our sisters and brothers in our common humanity," said Bishop James E. Waggoner, Jr. of Spokane (Washington). "It's about destroying property and scarring the spirit. Could there be a worse strategy for trying to resolve anything? Have we learned nothing since Cain slew Abel? What could be further from the Gospel we teach, preach and try to live?"
Nation polarized
Many bishops endorsed Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold's March 13 statement, "Finding Our Way: A Christian Perspective," saying that he "supported the alternatives to war that would both address the legitimate concerns of our nation and recognize that war would at this point is not the solution." Recognizing that war seemed inevitable, he said, "I do not believe it is an exaggeration to say that decisions made now will affect our global future for good or ill."
Griswold added, "I am deeply disturbed that some Christians are animated by notions of a God of vengeance and retribution, and adopt simplistic views of good and evil" when the task of people of faith is "to point us all toward a God abounding in compassion and love for each one of us." He also expressed concern that "the call for war and the attendant rhetoric have profoundly polarized our nation" and a loss of "our ability to see ourselves as part of a global community." He warned that "our national spirit is being slowly poisoned."
Meeting with president sought
In his statement, Griswold repeated a request that the president meet with him and other church leaders to share perspectives and "to join with him in prayer that we may be faithful to the ways in which God is inviting this great nation of ours to be a blessing to the nations of the world."
Mainline church leaders have been frustrated that the president has refused to meet with them. "There's never been such unity among the churches in the country, even during Vietnam," said the Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners. He led a delegation of religious leaders--including Bishop John Chane of Washington--that met with Prime Minister Tony Blair in London. The only anti-war church leader to meet with the president is Cardinal Pio Laghi, a peace emissary sent by Pope John Paul II.
The peace delegation, formed by General Secretary Bob Edgar of the National Council of Churches, also met with other international leaders in a last-ditch attempt to energize a diplomatic solution.
In recent months American Christians have debated the morality of war and reached different conclusions. While most mainline churches joined in opposition, most evangelicals agree with the president, arguing that a preemptive strike would meet the traditional criteria of a just war. "The question, as Lincoln said during the Civil War, is not whether God is on our side, but are we on God's?" said Richard Cizik, vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals. "I think President Bush is doing his best to be on God's side."
Debate on local level
On the diocesan and congregational level, some of the polarization Griswold mentioned was quite evident. In Orange County California, near the huge military base at Camp Pendleton, the Rev. Diane Jardine Bruce of St. Clements-by-the-Sea said, "We've faced tough issues but the war issue is the toughest of my ministry here. There is a lot of emotion. Pastoring both sides, taking care of military families, balancing it all out." She is the daughter of two Marines.
The Diocese of Los Angeles considered a resolution expressing "strongest objection" to pre-emptive military action but the resolution was tabled to avoid a turbulent and divisive debate. Although the diocese is one of the most liberal in the church, and Bruno personally opposes military action, he said it was imperative for people to find their own voices on "what God is calling us to do." He added that "we must go slowly. No war is a war of God."
In the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, Bishop Michael Creighton wrote a pastoral letter arguing that preemptive strikes are "out of character with the history of our society...and with our Christian life and faith." But he urged members to wrestle with the issues for themselves, in the light of the Gospel. He and the clergy established a Fund to Aid Military Households to support the families because "the coming months will be financially challenging and extremely lonely."
In the meantime the church's chaplains are being mobilized. Six active-duty and 17 reserve and National Guard chaplains are providing ministry to the troops, according to the Rev. Gerald Blackburn, director of military ministries. He and Bishop George Packard are spending many hours on the telephone offering words of support and encouragement to the families of chaplains called to duty.
Packard said that many bishops at the Kanuga meeting, after hearing President George Bush's address, made plans to leave the meeting immediately and return to their dioceses. "The bishops want to make sure all their churches are open to provide what I describe as 'a St. Paul's Chapel effect,'" said Packard, describing the ministry and presence the little New York chapel offered amid the ruins at the World Trade Tower site September 11, 2001.
No prayers for victory
On the international level, bishops in the Church of England said that they will refuse to pray for victory but instead ask congregations to pray for the safe return of the troops, support for their families, and relations with other faith groups. Bishop Richard Chartres of London said that the church showed great wisdom in not authorizing public prayers for victory during the two world wars.
Experience with war also led to a statement from the Anglican Church in Japan (Nippon Sei Ko Kai) warning that "once USA starts a war with Iraq there will be retaliation which will in turn create another war and the whole world will be covered with wars." The statement alleges that, despite a constitution that "states that we will never go into war and will maintain disarmament," in harmony with Christ's teaching, the government of Japan supports an attack on Iraq.
Candlelight vigils gather for peace
In a widely quoted Associated Press story, a Washington, D.C., layman who has a son in the Marine Corps strongly objected to Griswold "claiming to represent the body of the Episcopal Church" in statements calling for the Bush administration to find a peaceful solution in Iraq. "It's similar to a rock star making pronouncements on world peace," said Jim Oakes. "It's very interesting but what do they know?"
But other Episcopalians apparently agreed with Griswold, as Episcopal churches in cities and small towns across the nation joined in more than 6,500 vigils organized for Sunday, March 16 at the prompting of South Africa's Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the National Council of Churches, beginning in New Zealand and rolling west around the globe.
A handful of people assembled for two hours at the front courtyard at Trinity Episcopal Church in Kearny, New Jersey. About 60 people came to an ecumenical service to pray for peace at Christ Episcopal Church in Springfield, Illinois, organized by the Springfield City Clergy. About 90 Salinas, California, residents attended a candlelight vigil outside the post office in Oldtown. "There are people who feel differently about war, and we carry candles of light," said Tom Woodward of St. Paul's Episcopal Church.
A circle of about 40 people gathered silently Sunday at the entrance to the parking lot at St. John's Episcopal Church in Roanoke, Virginia, holding lights and candles, praying and singing. Another vigil was held at Christ Episcopal Church in downtown Dayton, Ohio.
Morality, not politics
A row of empty coffins headed a procession in St. Paul, Minnesota, and an estimated 1,300 peace advocates carrying candles silently mourned the "not yet dead," then walked to the state capitol in a protest sponsored by the Episcopal Peace Fellowship and other organizations.
A rally called "People of Faith for Peace and Against a Pre-emptive War on Iraq" in Detroit drew about 5,000 members of nearly 2,400 Detroit congregations. "The faith communities are fearful and distrustful of this rush to war, most especially because the Bush administration has so disrespected our historic allies," said the Rev. Harry Cook of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Clawson, Michigan, to Detroit's Daily Tribune. "This is not politics, this is morality."
In the last time zone in the United States, 125 residents on windward Oahu gathered on Kailua Beach, one of 20 vigils held across Hawaii. At St. Christopher's Episcopal Church in Kailua, the rector, the Rev. B. Cass Bailey, called the entire parish to a round-the-clock day of fasting and prayer at the church from 5 p.m. March 19 until 5 p.m. March 20. Last fall the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii adopted a resolution urging Bush to exercise restraint in the use of first-strike capabilities against Iraq.
But Episcopalians have spoken out against war in Iraq for some time.
The Rev. Dan Webster has been waving a sign in front of the Federal Building in downtown Salt Lake City every Thursday evening since last October. From the podium on the Capitol porch March 15, Webster waved a Bible and declared to a crowd, "You can find words in here to justify anything. But to justify death and destruction in the name of God is to act just as the pilots of those planes did on September 11. And you can't do that, Mr. President."
At a "Books not Bombs" rally at the University of Central Arkansas on March 5, one of the speakers was the Rev. Gar Demo of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Conway, who has been hosting peace gatherings at his church on Wednesday nights. "We share peace readings, and we try to encourage each other," Demo told the Arkansas Times.
At the Isaiah Wall across from the United Nations, Episcopalians from the Diocese of New York have chanted the Great Litany in procession each Friday at noon since the beginning of Lent. And for several weeks, passersby have been able to stop in at the Chapel of Christ the Lord at the Episcopal Church Center in New York, just a block from the UN, to light a candle for peace.
Forums, prayer services address fears
A forum on March 3 at St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Reston, Virginia, attracted national attention when Rep. James Moran, a seven-term Democratic congressman from Northern Virginia, told an audience of about 120, "If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this." The remarks were reported to a local Jewish newspaper and were picked up by the national media.
St. Anne's rector, the Rev. James A. Papile, said he had received phone calls from members of the Jewish community expressing "deep concern" that Moran's remarks were anti-Semitic. "My fear," Papile wrote in a letter published on the church's web site, "is that the current rush to war by the [Bush] administration is causing or is exacerbating tensions within our community, tensions between Jewish people and non-Jewish people, between Muslim people and non-Muslim people. This has the makings of a real American tragedy."
At a regular monthly meeting of the Daughters of the King at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in downtown Tampa, Florida, a group of 20 women circulate a prayer list containing soldiers' names and pass out buttons bearing the drawing of a dove and the name and age of an Iraqi child. Members of the parish have been leading noon prayers every day since the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
On South Carolina's Grand Strand, another Daughters of the King-led vigil gathered to pray March 3 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Conway. "I feel God is in charge, and I think he can stop this through us and through prayer," parishioner Edie Burgess told the Myrtle Beach Sun News.
In upstate New York, the Rev. Julie Cicora led teens at St. Luke's Church in Perinton in an overnight "lock-in" to discuss feelings about war recently. "There is just a general feeling among kids of insecurity and fear," she told the Rochester Democrat Chronicle.
In Connecticut, each church in the Middlesex Area Cluster Ministry, a group of Episcopal churches, will open its doors as a sanctuary for peace when war begins. "We have prayers from the Book of Common Prayer that we have put into a bulletin along with some Scripture readings," the Rev. Marsha Hoecker, missioner for the cluster, told the New Haven Register.
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