c. 2003 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) As they watched more than six months of efforts _ of prayers, protests and petitions to the world’s governments _ to stop the American-led military strike against Iraq explode over Baghdad on Thursday (March 20), religious opponents of the war said they were “profoundly saddened” and pledged to continue their organizing even while praying for the safety of men and women of the U.S. military and the people of Iraq.

“In the midst of the anguish of today’s events, and aware of the continuing unfolding and unknown consequences of war, we in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America share with all Christians the call to be peacemakers,” said the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the 5.1 million-member ELCA.

“As a church our task of engaging in moral deliberations about this war, and its wider implications, does not and will not end now that war has begun,” Hanson added. “We will continue to press the ongoing moral and ethical questions, which include _ but are not limited to _ the conduct of war or the leadership of Saddam Hussein.”

Hanson’s anguish was echoed across the United States and in churches and church offices from Vatican City to Geneva to the towns and cities of Britain, America’s staunchest ally in the effort to end the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Jim Wallis, executive director and editor of Sojourners and one of the leaders in an effort to find a “third way” solution to the crisis, called the opening of hostilities “a failure of political and moral imagination.

“The efforts by U.S. church leaders to provide an alternative to war fell on deaf ears. We cannot as people of faith now forget the suffering and death that will fall on the Iraqi people and on our servicemen and women.”

In Cincinnati, Roman Catholic Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk reminded his flock of Pope John Paul II’s statement that “war is always a defeat for humanity and a tragedy for religion.

“May the Lord limit the defeat and the tragedy, bring us the justice that we seek, and lead us to a world in which there will be no war, no defeat, no tragedy.”

“Our nation is at war with Iraq,” said Bishop Walter Sullivan of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, Va., and one of the church’s leading anti-war prelates. “I deeply regret that our nation’s leaders have determined that war is necessary to resolve our differences with Iraq. Yet, we must now be united in a concern for all those caught up in this conflict.

“We pray for our troops and their families, the people of Iraq, and the cause of peace,” he said.

The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches and one of the earliest religious opponents of President Bush’s policy of pre-emptive war, and Elenie Huszagh, president of the council, issued a statement expressing dismay at the beginning of hostilities, praying that leaders of the United States, Iraq and the United Nations “learn from the history of failures of heart, mind and will that led to this war.”

Yet, like others, they also offered prayers “for the men and women of the armed forces on both sides, facing grave dangers in a mission not of their making.”

In Washington, the Interfaith Alliance, a liberal group that promotes the role of religion in public life, said it had sent a letter to President Bush again deploring Bush’s refusal to meet with religious leaders concerned about the war.

“Though you regularly invoke your religious beliefs in public statements about national policy, you seem to have no interest in discussions on how the core values held in common by our nation’s varied religious communities _ compassion, civility, mutual respect for human dignity, reverence for the earth, and, ultimately, peace _ can find substantive expression through our nation’s influence upon and involvement in world affairs.”

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Outside the United States, international religious leaders also deplored the turn to war. Pope John Paul II said he felt “profound sorrow” at the war and the defeat of the intense efforts the Vatican had undertaken to prevent it. In London, the Anglican archbishops of Canterbury and York said the beginning of fighting means “we have now entered dangerous new terrain with consequences that cannot be surely known or predicted.”

In Geneva, the Rev. Konrad Raiser, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, called the war “immoral, illegal and ill-advised.” Raiser said that “nonviolent means to solve the conflict have been far from exhausted.”

Denton Lotz, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, said war “is always a failure of humanity to achieve God’s will of peace and thus is always a great sin.”

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Wallis signaled the concern of many religious leaders in looking ahead as well as expressing sorrow over the war.

“Our focus is to now encourage and support every effort to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Iraq,” he said. “We continue to urge the administration to clarify its plans for creating a democratic Iraq, to implement the `Roadmap to Peace’ in the Middle East, and to sustain international cooperation in the campaign against terrorism.”

Similar sentiments were expressed by humanitarian agencies.

“We are profoundly saddened by the recourse to war,” said the board of directors of Church World Service, the humanitarian aid arm of the National Council of Churches. “This is not a moment for triumphalism, but for humility and repentance.”

The group, which has worked in Iraq for many years, pledged to “continue our commitment and presence; therefore, our humanitarian services should not be seen as acquiescence to the war. We will respond on the basis of human need.”

World Vision, the evangelical relief and aid organization, said it is committed to helping Iraqis displaced or otherwise affected by the conflict. “World Vision is prepared to help Iraqis fleeing their homeland, and stands ready to help within Iraq as conditions permit _ not just to provide food and medicine, but to participate in international efforts to help Iraq rebuild a just and peaceful society where children can grow and thrive,” the group said in a statement by Richard Stearns, its president.

And in the United States, some religious peace activists promised a turn to civil disobedience to escalate opposition to the war even as it escalates in Iraq.

In Erie, Pa., more than a dozen activists from Pax Christi, a Roman Catholic peace group, were arrested Thursday for blocking the entrance to the federal building there.

“As peacemakers, we must remain strong in our resolve, committed in our actions, and prophetic in our words and deeds, and we must not surrender our efforts to a war mentality that has risen and will continue to rise in the coming hours and days,” said Dave Robinson, the national coordinator of Pax Christi USA.

DEA END ANDERSON