Grace to Make All Things New:
A Reflection on World Communion Sunday and Peace Making for Iraq
On Sunday, congregations across our church will be celebrating World Communion Sunday, a time when we are particularly aware of the global Christian family gathered with us each time we meet the Risen Christ in the bread and cup of the Lord's Supper. In our liturgy we pray, "Send your Holy Spirit on this bread and wine, on our gifts, and on us. Strengthen your universal church that it may be the champion of peace and justice in the world. Restore the earth with your grace that is able to make all things new." This year our thoughts are with the vulnerable Christian community in Iraq, and with churches across the United States wrestling with their call to be peace makers and justice seekers in the world.
On Wednesday, October 10, we will be traveling to Washington to bear witness to our belief that God's grace can indeed make all things new. We will be visiting the offices of the House and Senate Majority and Minority leaders to deliver the Pastoral Letter we read at our 50th anniversary General Synod in June, a letter endorsed by each of our Conference Ministers and our Seminary Presidents. We will also be presenting the petitions signed by thousands of our members who share our urgent conviction that it is time for a new way in Iraq. Following our Congressional visits, we will move to the White House where we will pray for peace and for those in our government who earnestly seek peace, and where we will attempt to present our Letter and petitions to the Administration. Our pledge is not to leave the gates of the White House until our message has been received or until we are arrested.
With all Americans we seek the safety of our own sons and daughters in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. But our witness is not limited to bringing them home. We share with the global Christian family a deep concern for the people of Iraq whose suffering is profound. Our plea is to break the current political impasse and turn our policies from the way of violence toward the way of peace. Believing that the presence of our military forces is only delaying the necessary assumption of responsibility by the Iraqi people for their own future, we will call for the immediate start of a deliberate and significant withdrawal of troops. Aware of the millions of Iraqi's internally displaced or living outside Iraq as refugees, we will call for urgent attention to their humanitarian concerns. Knowing of the massive destruction of Iraqi infrastructure, we will call for a reorientation of spending from military purposes toward physical, social, and political reconstruction. Sensitive to the dangers some Iraqis now face because of their work with our troops, we will call for immediate changes in immigration procedures to allow them to be quickly removed from danger. Knowing that unilateralism by the United States has bred mistrust in the region, we will call for new multilateral diplomatic initiatives that include Iraq's neighbors as indispensable participants in fostering stability and reconciliation. Conscious of the physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges faced by many returning United States military personnel, we will call on all Americans, and especially our own members, to welcome them home with respect, compassion, and care. We will call our leaders to political courage rather than political posturing, for their attention to be focused not on the next election, but on the suffering of all people in Iraq.
Our witness will be prayerful knowing that we represent thousands of our members who have asked us to go to Washington on their behalf. We will also be respectful of those in our churches whose views differ from ours. We believe we are at a critical moment when impasse, resignation, and discouragement can easily allow failed policies to continue for months. Therefore, our witness will also include an urgent plea to the leaders of our own church in every setting, and to our ecumenical colleagues, to find their own way to offer visible and courageous witness for justice and peace in Iraq.
We ask our members to continue the unity we will experience at our World Communion tables this Sunday by praying with and for us on Wednesday. And may the faith and companionship of the global church we celebrate at the Table renew our certain hope that God's grace will restore this wounded earth, and make all things, and especially the shattered country of Iraq, new.
The Rev. M. Linda Jaramillo , Executive Minister Justice and Witness Ministries
The Rev. John H. Thomas. General Minister and President