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rally to ban landmines
Date: June 27, 1997
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Clifford L. Willis
Email: CWillis@oc.disciples.org
on the web: http//www.disciples.org

United Church of Christ
Contact: Hans Holznagel
Email: Holznagh@ucc.org
on the web: http//www.ucc.org

97b-41

     DAYTON, Ohio -- In 1986, former missionaries
Karen and Colin Glenn had been in Nicaragua barely
two months before they witnessed firsthand the
horror of landmines.  A truck approaching their
village ran over a landmine which exploded,
killing six and injuring 43.

     "War is horrible enough," Karen Glenn told
worshipers during a special service at Mt. Olive
United Church of Christ in Trotwood, Ohio, near
here, June 15, "without the destructive results
that landmines bring to innocent people caught up
in war."

     The worship service followed a rally at
Northwest Christian Church in Dayton and a car
caravan by members of the Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of
Christ as part of the International Campaign to
Ban Landmines.  On the grounds of the Mt. Olive
church, participants visited six display
"stations" in a silent walk of solidarity. The
exhibit was designed as an educational experience
and included photographs of landmine victims.

     The Rev. Richard L. Hamm, Disciples general
minister and president, and the Rev. Paul H.
Sherry, United Church of Christ president, spoke
at the worship service, attended by about 175
people.

     "Landmines have only one purpose," Hamm said,
"to terrorize."  But, he said, "Christ is there in
the compassion and sharing of a faithful church,"
specifically citing the Disciples' Week of
Compassion ministry and the UCC's One Great Hour
of Sharing all-church offering.

     Reminding the congregation that the church's
ministry is to its neighbors, Hamm told worshipers
that "our neighbors" include "the man plowing his
fields ... the child playing on the street ... and
the woman walking on dusty trails," each of whom
could easily be killed or maimed by a landmine.

     "The campaign to ban landmines is asking our
God to give us back our humanity," UCC President
Paul Sherry told the congregation.  "God's good
earth is meant to be walked and worked and tilled
in safety. God's good earth is meant to be
life-giving, not death-dealing.  In reclaiming the
land, we shall reclaim ourselves."

     Sherry told the congregation that an
estimated 110 million landmines are buried in 68
nations, with another 100 million stockpiled.  He
said that landmines cost only $3 to $30 each to
produce, but $300 to $1,000 each to remove.  Each
year, about 5 million landmines are made with
about half deployed, but only about 100,000 are
removed, said Sherry.

     Sherry urged worshipers to pray for landmine
victims, to learn about the ugliness of this
situation and to enter the legislative arena.  He
also asked them to urge President Clinton to go to
Ottawa, Ont., in December and join leaders of 50
other nations in signing a comprehensive landmine
ban treaty.  Instead, Clinton is backing a U.N.
Conference on Disarmament.  Critics claim that
because of that conference's consensus rules, any
agreement will be slow in coming and will be
watered down.  

     According to a report by the Human Rights
Watch Arms Project, 47 U.S. companies -- including
General Electric, Alliant Techsystems, Lockheed
Martin and Raytheon -- have been involved in the
production of antipersonnel mines.  However, 17
landmine component manufacturers, including
Motorola and Hughes Aircraft, already have agreed
to renounce any future involvement.

     The service concluded with an offering of
petitions calling for an international ban on the
use, production, trade and stockpiling of
landmines.  The two church presidents will travel
to Washington, D.C., to present the petitions,
signed by nearly 10,000 Disciples and UCC members,
to Congressional leaders supporting anti-landmine
legislation introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy,
D-Vt., and Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. 

     The United Church of Christ, with national
offices in Cleveland, has 1.5 million members and
more than 6,100 congregations in the United States
and Puerto Rico.  The Indianapolis-based Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ) has nearly 1 million
members and more than 3,900 local churches in the
United States and Canada.  The two denominations
have been in "full communion" as ecumenical
partners since 1989.

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DISCNEWS - inbox for Disciples News Service, Office of Communication, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), PO Box 1986 Indianapolis, IN 46206, tele. (317) 635-3100, (DISCNEWS@ecunet.org) Wilma Shuffitt, News and Information Assistant; (CWILLIS@oc.disciples.org) Cliff Willis, Director of News and Information; (CMILLER@oc.disciples.org) Executive Director