March
17, 2003
ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson
spoke at a news conference on Monday, March 17th in Geneva,
Switzerland. Here is a portion of a March 18 ELCA news release,
"Peace Knows No Deadlines," from that conference:
-------------------
Though President George W. Bush has
declared a deadline for going to war with Iraq, "peace knows
no deadlines," the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), told a group of
international journalists at a news briefing here March 17.
Hanson, making some of his strongest statements thus far about war
with Iraq, pledged that his efforts and those of other religious
leaders to work for peace will not stop.
Hanson arrived here late last week
to attend an executive committee meeting of the Lutheran World
Federation (LWF) in his role as an LWF vice president. He was
joined during the weekend by 17 people comprising ELCA bishops,
pastors, members and staff who are beginning an "ecumenical
journey" with Hanson, scheduled months before war with Iraq
became a possibility. Hanson said he will meet with world church
leaders in several European countries during the trip, thanking
the church leaders for their efforts to seek peace.
The LWF, based here, is a global
communion of 136 Lutheran churches in 76 countries. LWF membership
includes 61.7 million of the world's 65.4 million Lutherans. The
ELCA is an LWF member.
Hanson and the Rev. Ishmael Noko,
LWF general secretary, met with the journalists to discuss a
sharply worded March 15 statement from the LWF executive committee
which criticized the actions of the governments of the United
States, Great Britain and Spain in leading up to the likelihood of
war with Iraq.
"I have deep concerns that the
action of going to war against Iraq, without the support of the
international community ... will sever and isolate the United
States further from the world," Hanson said. "It risks
severing the religious communities that span the globe. It risks
isolating the people of the United States from the rest of the
world."
Hanson repeated criticism of
President Bush for refusing to meet with U.S. religious leaders
who do not agree with the U.S. Administration about war with Iraq.
The leaders' requests for a meeting with Bush have been refused
twice, Hanson said. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a supporter
of the Bush Administration's policy on Iraq, did agree to meet
with U.S. religious leaders, he noted.
"As religious leaders, we
always view war -- first and last -- as a moral question not a
military strategy," Hanson said in explaining why the
religious leaders want to meet with the president. "We
believe that the President of the United States, who describes
himself as a person of faith, must be in conversation with
religious leaders to discuss the morality of declaring war, the
conduct of war and the aftermath of war - - all of which are our
deep concerns. We will continue to ask for these conversations and
to speak out."
War with Iraq threatens to destroy
"bridges" that have been built between Christian and
Muslim communities in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks against the United States, Hanson said. He and
others will continue to work for a "just peace," which
is "about the multilateral disarming of all nations with
weapons of mass destruction, not singularly focusing on one nation
and its weapons," Hanson said.
"I believe firmly that the
voice of the religious community throughout the world will not be
silenced, even if war is declared," Hanson added.
The Rev. Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
