wfn.org | Re: WCC NEWS: NATO urged to move towards a nuclear-weapon-free world

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 31/03/2009

MOVE TOWARDS A NUCLEAR-WEAPON-FREE WORLD, CHURCHES TELL NATO

[Issued jointly by the World Council of Churches and the
Conference of European Churches]

A world without nuclear weapons is not only possible but more
secure, leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
have been told by a coalition of national, regional and global
councils of churches. 

In a 30 March letter, four councils of churches urged the NATO
leadership to "reinforce the vision of a world without nuclear
weapons", consigning to history the notion that nuclear weapons
preserve peace and instead recognizing that they make security
more precarious. 

An immediate step towards that goal, the churches' letter
suggests, would be to update the alliance's strategic concept and
security doctrine. The alliance should also show willingness to
remove hundreds of US tactical nuclear weapons still placed in
European countries. 

The letter, signed by the general secretaries of the World
Council of Churches, the Conference of European Churches, the
National Council of Churches of Christ USA and the Canadian
Council of Churches, comes ahead of the NATO summit of heads of
State and Government to be held on 3-4 April in Baden-Baden and
Kehl, Germany, and in Strasbourg, France. 

"We believe security must be sought through constructive
engagement with neighbors and that authentic security is found in
affirming and enhancing human interdependence within God’s one
creation," the letter states. 

Full text of the councils of churches' letter to the NATO member
states and secretary general 
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=6723

NATO's 60th anniversary summit 

http://www.nato.int/docu/comm/2009/0904-summit/index.html

Additional information: Juan Michel +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363 media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,
witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical
fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings
together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches
representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110
countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic
Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from
the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.