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Anti-War
nuns lighting candles
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GENEVA,
February 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The World Council
of Churches (WCC), which groups Christian and Orthodox churches
worldwide, on Friday, February 21, branded as immoral and unwise
looming U.S.-British war on Iraq and praised U.S. and British churches
for standing up to politicians in their countries.
The
WCC executive committee said in a statement that it "strongly
deplores the fact that the most powerful nations of this world again
regard war as an acceptable instrument of foreign policy," Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"War
against Iraq would be immoral, unwise, and in breach of the principles
of the United Nations Charter," it averred after a meeting.
Humanitarian
Crisis Of Grave Magnitude
Warning
of a humanitarian crisis of grave magnitude, the WCC also appealed to
the U.N. Security Council to "strictly limit the legitimate use
of military force and to refrain from creating negative precedents and
lowering the threshold for using violent means to solve international
conflicts".
The
statement also lauded the courageous stance of church leaders,
especially in the United States and the United Kingdom, "in
direct opposition to the positions taken by their political
leadership."
On
Thursday, February 20, the
leaders of Britain's two major Christian churches joined growing
public opposition to military action, casting doubt on British
Prime Minister Tony Blair's moral argument and urging more time for
U.N. weapons inspections.
"20
years of inspections are more effective, less costly and more relevant
than 20 days of war," the WCC executive committee said.
It
recognized the need to disarm Iraq, but it also said there was a need
"to make the whole Middle East region free from weapons of mass
destruction".
The
WCC groups 342 Christian churches -- Protestant, Anglican and
Orthodox, but not the Roman Catholic Church.
Philippines
Church, Students Join Opposition to Iraq War
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Hundreds
of students from St. Scholastica's College, a Catholic school in
Manila, Philippines, display peace cutouts as they surround their
camp
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Churches'
opposition to war on Iraq extended to Manila, where nuns, students and
activists made up a crowd of 1,000 Friday at an anti-war rally led by
Philippine Church leader Cardinal Jaime Sin at a Roman Catholic Church
shrine, AFP said.
The
nuns and students lit candles while members of the Bayan group
unfurled anti-war and anti-United States banners as the Manila
archbishop celebrated mass.
Sin,
in his homily, urged the faithful to "proclaim the gospel of
peace to a humanity strongly tempted by hatred and violence."
Echoing
Vatican Pope John Paul II, who has been exerting efforts to prevent a
U.S.-led military campaign against Iraq, the cardinal said: "We
must not be resigned as though war is inevitable."
On
Monday, January 13, the
Pope renewed his opposition to the potential military action against
Iraq, saying that all diplomatic means to break the deadlock
should be exhausted before war be declared the "very last
option".
"Let
us allow international law, honest dialogue, solidarity between states
and the noble exercise of diplomacy to take root in our efforts for
peace."
President
Gloria Arroyo has been a staunch supporter of U.S. President George W.
Bush's hard-line Iraq policy.
