wfn.org | Episcopalians: Episcopalians join nation in bracing for war with Iraq

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

March 18, 2003

2003-060

Episcopalians: Episcopalians join nation in bracing for war with 
Iraq

by James Solheim and 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.

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 letters 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 Bishop 
Jon Bruno asked that the resolution be tabled because of the 
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 16, 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 Hoekler, 
missioner for the cluster, told the New Haven Register.

------

--James Solheim is director of Episcopal News Service. The Rev. 
Jan Nunley is deputy director of Episcopal News Service.