Episcopal Press and News
Episcopalians Respond to Cease-Fire with Joyful Thanks and Critical Questions for the Future
Episcopal News Service. March 21, 1991 [91069]
Almost immediately after President Bush announced a temporary cease-fire in the war in the Persian Gulf, Episcopalians responded with expressions of joy and thanksgiving -- but also directed their attention to the long-term problem of peace in the Middle East.
"We are united as a world community in our common joy that this conflict has apparently ended," said Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning in a statement released on March 1. Browning said that now that the war is over, it is "time to move on" to the more difficult task of winning a peace for the region. "These choices," Browning said, "will make... a more lasting mark upon the world than the choices made in battle." (See full text of Browning's statement in the Newsfeatures section.)
Browning, an early opponent of the use of military force and one of several church leaders who traveled to the Middle East on a Peace Pilgrimage last December, continued to press for a broader peace settlement for the region.
"We must remember that the only way truly to win a war is to secure the peace, and the only way truly to secure peace is to begin to do justice," Browning said. "More than ever, now is the time to attend with persistence to the other, still festering problems in the Middle East," he added.
In a service of thanksgiving for the end of the war at the Episcopal Church Center on March 8, the Rt. Rev. Charles Keyser, suffragan bishop for the Armed Forces, said that the difficult process of peacemaking is now at hand. "Peace attained simply by wishing for it does not happen," he said.
Keyser added that the success of the war in the Persian Gulf had "thrust our nation once again on the world's center stage because of our might." This has provided the United States with an opportunity to use its clout to find a long-term peace settlement in the region, he said. "May God give us wisdom to facilitate peace."
Keyser reported that his office had established a "network.of helping people," including more than 700 clergy, to assist with the pastoral care of dependent families during the war. "The war is over, but that doesn't mean that pastoral care is over," he said. He expressed particular concern for the children of military personnel who had suffered loss or disruption during the conflict,
Keyser said that more than $140,000 had been sent to the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief to support dependent families.
Across the country, bishops, priests, and lay leaders joined Keyser and Browning in expressions of thanksgiving for the end of the war and calls for new peace efforts.
In a letter to churches in his diocese, the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee of Virginia asserted that "the end of the shooting does not end the volatile instability of the Middle East." Lee, who is chairman of the Committee on International Relations of the House of Bishops, called on Episcopalians to "prayerfully consider going to Iraq or to other areas affected by the Persian Gulf War... to serve as ministers of reconciliation, caring for the needs of others."
"I ask you to live our prayers for peace by encouraging our political leaders to pay close attention to the need to encourage a just resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that has for so long poised the possibilities for peace," Lee added.
The Episcopal Peace Fellowship (EPF) suggested that its members might wish to continue in a fast for the people of the Middle East as a sign of solidarity with all those who have suffered during the war.
In a statement released on the third Sunday in Lent, the EPF said, "This is not a time for celebration; it is a time for mourning -- for the thousands of innocent civilians who died; for the men and women of the Armed Forces of all nations who were killed or injured, and for their families; for the destruction and pollution of the land; and for our country which once again resorted to weapons of war contrary to the teachings and example of our Lord Jesus Christ. We must never accept such means of settling international disputes."