wfn.org | ACNS3390 Statement from the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship and

["Anglican Communion News Service" <acnslist@anglicancommunion.org>]

ACNS 3390     |     USA     |	  5 APRIL 2003 

Statement from the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship and the Episcopal Peace
Fellowship

Our Prime Minister and our President are confident we will unite to send our
Armed Forces our thoughts and prayers. We must do more than that. Nurse Edith
Cavell, before she was shot in the First World War, declared, "Patriotism is
not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness toward anyone." Our concern,
as Christians, is not only for our own Forces, but also for all the people of
Iraq and throughout the Middle East.

Iraq did not threaten either Britain or America. The UN Chief Weapons
Inspector wanted more time to further peaceful disarmament. Instead, we
invaded with massive force including the use of cluster bombs, whose
unexploded fragments act like landmines to kill indiscriminately, and
missiles tipped with depleted uranium whose long-term effects may well be
deadly.

Protests have failed to stop the war, but concerned voices may help to build
the peace. We must insist that: the US and UK Governments, having spent
hugely on destruction, now spend equally on rebuilding and restoration; the
United Nations, rather than the combatant nations, is in control of the
reconstruction programme; we ourselves say, "never again" should unilateral
national action be allowed.

Politicians may yet be obliged to listen to the voices of peace. We must
maintain the pressure to find a better way than war to solve our differences.

The Rt Revd Colin Scott
Chair, Anglican Pacifist Fellowship

The Revd David Selzer
Chair, Episcopal Peace Fellowship

Sue Dempsey Claydon
Vice Chair, Anglican Pacifist Fellowship

Janet Chisholm
Vice Chair, Episcopal Peace Fellowship

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