CRY OUT FOR PEACE, SAY NO TO WARA Pastoral Statement of the Council of Bishops of the
"Where do all the fights and the quarrels among you come from? They come from your desires for pleasure, which are constantly fighting within you. You want things, but you can not have them, so you quarrel and fight." (James 4:1-2a) PEACEMAKING has always been at the hub of our witness as an evangelical community. Peace, we resolutely believe, is the message Christians in all places must always advocate notwithstanding their varied spiritual and doctrinal perspectives. In seeking and pursuing peace, there is no way the Church can go off beam, incorrect or irrelevant. The gospel so lucidly declares Jesus Christ as the Prince of Peace. As a Church, therefore, that claims intimate relationship with the One and Only Prince of Peace, the UCCP cannot divorce itself from the ministry of peacemaking. Without engaging itself in such a noble task, the Church would sorely miss the whole point of its calling. The United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) links up with all peace advocates and peace-loving peoples in the world and expresses its profoundest apprehension over the impending attack of the United States military forces against Iraq. Employing a preemptive military force against Iraqis bereft of any justifiable basis, would indubitably imperil thousands of innocent lives and would certainly bring a loss to humanity. The UCCP, in whatever circumstances, despises any act that destroys and pointlessly sacrifices innocent people's lives. Launching a military attack against Iraq would neither work to forestall terrorism nor protect the world from the threat of horror. We are afraid that war would only exacerbate instability in the region and beget unprecedented ruin not only to the people of Iraq but also to neighboring nations. For all we are aware of, the civilian populace of Iraq has long been suffering from misery on account of more than a decade of isolation and sanctions. The past decade, in fact, has recorded a death toll of 1.5 million civilians. Aside from the human cost, a war against Iraq would undoubtedly induce further desolation and anguish to the already suffering civilians, which include countless of children. It is indisputably unreasonable for innocent people to suffer the weight of death and destruction, an irrational cost that war would exact on them. We, therefore, say NO TO WAR as we also pray for genuine and lasting peace in our troubled world and call for honest reconciliation among parties in conflict. Let this time of uncertainty be an opportunity for all to explore possibilities for building bridges across racial, religious, cultural and ideological boundaries. In saying NO TO WAR, we echo the words of the psalmist, "Come, O sons, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life, and covets many days, that he may enjoy good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it." (Psalms 34: 11-14). Fear of the Lord is, indeed, a basic requirement for the attainment of peace. Unless people learn to do away from evil and to depart from speaking falseness and seeking deception, genuine peace would remain as a sheer figment of our imagination. True enough, those who speak of war speak of evil, and those who advocate aggression promote wickedness and impiety. In the words of Luke, "The good man out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil man out of his evil treasure produces evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45). In affirmation of our faith in God and in keeping with the mandate of the scriptures, we CRY OUT FOR PEACE AND SAY NO TO WAR! In line with that:
To conclude, we call on our local churches, members and church workers to constantly remain in prayer that peace and reconciliation may finally prevail. UCCP Council of Bishops
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