Religious leaders offer clear and
somber
plea
by Michael
Paulson
("The Boston Globe," January 29, 2003)
Led by a Quaker, they sat in
silence. As
Buddhists circled banging drums, they meditated. They prayed at the call
of a
Muslim muezzin, they swayed at the jazz arrangement of a Christian
spiritual.
As members of Congress assembled
at the
Capitol last night to hear President Bush explain the reasons for war in
his
State of the Union address, members of Massachusetts' religious
community
gathered in the landmark Trinity Church to pray for peace.
On a bitter night, an estimated
1,300
people filled the wooden pews of the 125-year-old architectural
masterpiece in
Copley Square, listening to prayers for peace in Arabic, English,
Gurmukhi,
Hebrew, Hindi, and Japanese.
Bishop M. Thomas Shaw of the
Episcopal
Diocese of Massachusetts, who organized last night's event, addressed
himself
directly to Bush.
''Mr. President, even taking you
and
what you say at face value, we do not need you to protect us from Saddam
Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, if they exist,'' Shaw said. He
then
ticked off a list of concerns he said the assembly fears more than
Hussein,
including the damage wrought by AIDS in Africa, environmental
destruction, a
deteriorating economy, and ''how hated we are by so many of our brothers
and
sisters around the globe.''
The assembly was asked to pray,
not only
for peace and for wise leadership, but also ''for those in the military,
of
our country and Iraq, and those who fear for their
safety.''
Shaw exhorted the assembly to go
home
and pray and also to call members of Congress and the president to press
for
peace. He said they should prepare to protest if war is declared.
''Some of you, some of us, if war
does
come, prepare yourself for the civil disobedience that will speak out
loudly
and clearly from our communities of faith,'' he said. ''Our divine power
depends on us to be God's agents of peace. We are all that God has. God
will
use us, all of us, in the weeks to come, if we put ourselves at God's
disposal.''
The assembly included the
religious
leaders of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ,
the
Massachusetts Conference of the United Methodist Church, and the New
England
Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, as well as the
executive
director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches. The array of
Christians
joined a candlelit prayer service that included Buddhists, Hindus,
Muslims,
and Sikhs, as well as representatives of the American Ethical Union, all
praying before Trinity Church's ornate marble altar and underneath its
gilded
cross.
The religious leaders, some of
whom have
been speaking out since last summer against a possible war, had agreed
upon a
shared statement of three paragraphs, declaring ''we stand in solidarity
with
a multitude of religious voices who seek peace here and now, and who
have
spoken out in alarm and concern at this advance toward
war.''
Although cosponsors of the event
included the pastoral associate of a Catholic church, the Archdiocese of
Boston, which is the region's largest church, was not formally
represented.
Pope John Paul II has repeatedly spoken against a possible war, but the
Episcopal Diocese decided not to invite a participant from the
archdiocese
because of concern that the clergy sexual abuse crisis made it unclear
whom to
invite.
Several rabbis participated in the
ceremony, but the leadership of Boston's Jewish community, which is
divided
over the necessity of military action, was not present; nor were
representatives of the state's evangelical Protestant community, who
have been
more supportive of Bush.
The Trinity event was the latest
demonstration of the increasing activism of Shaw, bishop of the largest
Episcopal diocese in the United States. A monk who lives in a monastery
along
Memorial Drive in Cambridge, Shaw has spent the last few years
cultivating a
more prominent role for his church and his office in public affairs,
starting
with his attention-getting stint as a congressional intern in 2000 and
with
his decision in 2001 to join a protest in front of the Israeli consulate
in
Boston.
He has been repeatedly preaching
against
the war in Iraq, and he recently met with the new archbishop of
Canterbury,
Rowan D. Williams, to discuss shared concerns about the support for war
expressed by US and British leaders.
''How can we not be against this
war?''
Shaw asked last night. ''This unity, this interconnectedness that is the
heart
of our faith cuts across all of our national identities and is more
powerful
than all the leaders in the world or the armies or the weapons in the
world.''
In interviews, several of the
organizers
said they believe prayer can have an impact, on public opinion and on
public
policy.
Ekongkar Singh Khalsa, the
president of
the Sikh Dharma of Massachusetts and the master of ceremonies at last
night's
event, said, ''We are people of prayer, and we genuinely believe prayer
can
make a difference in this world.''
