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ucc petition to end the iraq war

ucc petition to end the iraq war

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Along with thousands of United Church of Christ members and supporters, I call for an end to the war in Iraq, an end to our reliance on violence as the first, rather than the last resort, an end to the arrogant unilateralism of preemptive war.

I call for the humility and courage to acknowledge failure and error, to accept the futility of our current path, and I cry out for the creativity to seek new paths of peacemaking in the Middle East, through regional engagement and true multinational policing.

I call for acknowledgement of our responsibility for the destruction caused by sanctions and war and a beginning to rebuild trust in the Middle East and around the world.

I call for repentance in our nation and for the recognition in our churches that security is found in submitting to Christ, not by dominating others.

I will join protest to prayer, support ministries of compassion for victims here and in the Middle East, cast off the fear that has made all of us accept the way of violence and return again to the way of Jesus. Thus may bloodshed end and cries be transformed to the harmonies of justice and the melodies of peace. For this I yearn, for this I pray, and toward this end I rededicate myself as a child of a loving God who gives “light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

To add your name to the petition, go to: Call for an End to the Bloodshed: Sign the Petition to End the Iraq War

hope for northern ireland

hope for northern ireland

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Even you is the blog of Elane O’Rourke, a UCC pastor in Campbell, California. Her posts are always thoughtful, well-reasoned, well-written … and faithful to the mind and heart of Jesus. I have given her blog a permanent place on my blogroll (see sidebar).

Today Elane celebrates the formation of a Catholic/Protestant unity government in Northern Ireland in a post entitled Thanking the God of the Irish. Her response to this historic political breakthrough shows deep empathy and an appreciation of the long and painful struggle of the folk of Northern Ireland. She concludes her post this way:

I give great thanks today that, after hundreds of years of pain and sorrow, there is hope in Northern Ireland. And I give great thanks that there is hope for other post-colonial countries, including my own, and for all those we continue to colonize and fight in name of the modern nation-state.

I encourage you to read the rest of this post and to check in with Elane often!

an easter prayer

an easter prayer

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Wow! That was my reaction on reading this Easter letter written by the chair of our congregation’s board of deacons. I knew immediately I had to share it with all of you. Hear his prayer … and, if you will, make it your own!

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of laborers, the genius of scientists, the hope of its children.” Dwight D. Eisenhower, five-star general and the thirty-fourth president of the United States.

Religious people seldom have difficulty finding a scriptural basis for engaging in conflict. The Old Testament is a history of nations in conflict, and God was on the side of the faithful. The lesson of our Savior, however, is to bridge differences, to trample prejudices, and to bury animosities. To the surprise of most everyone, Jesus came not to lead his people in war, but as the Prince of Peace. Jesus died on a cross, not to defeat the Romans, but to bring the Kingdom of God.

As spring awakens the earth, let us be prayful and courageous. Let us pray that our eyes be opened. Let us see the world as it is and as it yearns to be. Let us pray for understanding, reconciliation, and the end of animosities, some of which have lasted for hundreds of years. Let us pray for ourselves. Let us pray for our neighbors and our enemies. Let us temper our passions and tend to the patient labors of peace.