Prayers for Peace.

[AspenRose]

Check it out if you're in the Baltimore/Washington DC area. You can also download flyers and pass them out/around.

http://www.bwcumc.org/news_detail.asp?PKValue=2395

The Rev. Jean Weller of Olive Branch and Good Shepherd United Methodist churches, and the Marylanders of Faith for Peace and Justice, invite United Methodists throughout the conference to pray for peace at a vigil Sunday, Jan. 28, at the Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation in Batimore.


STATEMENT ON IRAQ WAR
FOR INTERFAITH PRAYER SERVICE
OF COMMEMORATION AND COMMITMENT


As our nation approaches the fourth anniversary of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom, we note with great concern the deepening significance and human cost of this involvement for United States military personnel, and Iraqi civilians, and the world at large. This war has divided this nation and the people of Iraq.

U.S. involvement in Iraq has exceeded U.S. involvement in World War II. To date, the human cost of the Iraq war has been U.S. troop deaths exceeding 3,000, tens of thousands of injured service members, more than 100,000 Iraqi lives lost by reliable estimates. There has also been devastation of Iraqi infrastructure and economy, and long term damage to Iraqi environment.

In the midst of this conflict and differing views over its value and continuation, we urge a renewed commitment to peace. Religious leadership across all faiths and around the world, including the Vatican directly to President Bush and Saddam Hussein, spoke out against the impending invasion before it occurred. Religious leadership again calls the country to look to our spiritual foundations and moral values to recognize and admit that this is no longer a war of liberation or nation building. As such, little is to be gained by further involvement, while much can be lost in the erosion of our spiritual commitments to peace and justice at home and abroad.

Every major religion contains core tenets of peacemaking, common humanity, and the necessity to share the goods of the earth with all its inhabitants. Scriptural traditions of the three Abrahamic faiths--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam--harkens us all to a vision of peace among peoples. We have recognized not only in our scriptures but also in our history that violence only begets violence. Our consciences call upon us to find nonviolent means of preventing and resolving conflicts now and in the future. Our tradition of peace is not empty promises and vain hopes. It is solidly constructed of choices, commitment, and dedication. It is fostered by a process of moving beyond loss and beyond a sense of helplessness, to taking charge of the future in the name of the God of Peace.

Where there is conflict, not escalation but resolution. Where there is pain, not retribution but healing. Where there is loss, not retaliation but comfort. Where there is despair, not anger but hope.

We call on Baltimoreans and all our citizens to renew our commitment found in our faith traditions, restore our call for jubilee justice, recover our collective desire for true response, and take up individual and concerted efforts in shared responsibility to transform this conflict into a restoration of Iraq and indeed of our country, the United States of America, in the vision of a new world of peace.