Mass for Peace in the Middle East,
celebrate in St. Mirin's Cathedral, Paisley
- I am sure we are all saddened and horrified at the
escalation of the hostilities between the Israeli army and
the Hezbollah militia which are raging in Northern Israel
and in Southern Lebanon, killing not just combatants but
also civilian men, women and children, and devastating land
and property in that unhappy region. I am sure I speak for
you all when I say that we want the bombing to stop; we want
the rockets to stop; we want the killing to end; we want the
destruction to cease, and for this we pray urgently today,
for this is not how human beings should be living and
behaving.
- As well as that, we want those who have the power to
agree on a permanent ceasefire and to work finally for a
lasting solution to the problems of the Middle East. It is
not my place as a bishop to tell world leaders, who have the
freely-given support of the peoples they lead, how to go
about the business of governing their countries. At the same
time, it is legitimate for me to give voice to the moral
imperatives of our time, especially when these are justified
by the vision of faith which comes from the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ and from the deepest
aspirations of people of goodwill. According to those moral
imperatives, to that vision of faith, and to those human
aspirations, this small voice adds itself to the chorus of
humanity which appeals to world leaders to seek peace in the
Middle East before we are all engulfed in a catastrophe of
global proportions.
- It does seem clear, even in the confusion and mess
and chaos of the Middle East crisis today, that all the
calamities, crises and wars of the Middle East
are the product of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
That conflict has also produced dangerous fundamentalist
movements, disunity and discord in the Arab world, the lack
of development and prosperity in the region, and the
resentment and desperation of the young people who are the
majority of the population of the Arab nations. It seems
clear that a lasting peace with justice in the Middle East
needs a solution to the Palestinian question which is the
fruit of a firm, clear and unified approach both on the part
of the Arab nations and on the part of Israel, the United
States and of the nations of Europe. The world needs its
leaders, Arab, Israeli, American and European, to work
harder and more sincerely for a solution to the Palestinian
question which can be the foundation of a lasting peace in
the Middle East.
- The present conflict in southern Lebanon and
northern Israel is being waged, sadly, by people with
religious faith. Most of them believe in the one God,
whether they call God Yahweh or Allah. This alone is enough
for those who are hostile to religion to lay this conflict
conveniently at the door of religion. Yet this is a
fundamentally superficial analysis. I would say that rather
than too much religion in the region, there is not enough.
- People of faith in the one God should know that God
does not want the men and women he fashioned in his own
image and likeness to destroy each other in war. People of
faith know that human beings are not made to live their
lives in the shadow of misery and terror. People of faith
have access to a vision of humanity in which “nation will
not lift sword against nation” and “where there will be
no more training for war”. They know that it is God’s
purpose that nations will say together, “Come let us go up
to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of
Jacob, so that he may teach us his ways, and we may walk in
his paths.” And even if the combatants in the present
conflict are not Christian, they can surely recognise the
truth and the wisdom of Jesus’ injunction to his
followers: “This is my commandment: love one another as I
have loved you.”
- You should know too that the Middle East is made up
not just of Jew and Moslem peoples. There are also ancient
and historic Christian communities throughout the Middle
East which are indigenous to the region and which survive to
the present day, although not without difficulty in some
places. These Arab Christians are deeply saddened by the
situation in their region today. They call on all Israelis
and Arabs to make of their region a place where there are no
weapons, a place where there is no war or aggression or
hatred, so that it may truly become a land blessed by God
where the faithful of the three great monotheistic religions
– Judaism, Christianity and Islam, can live in peace and
concord – there in the land which is the cradle of these
three great religions. We join with our Arab brothers and
sisters in Christ in their prayer that they can live in a
land where “mercy and faithfulness have met”, where
“justice and peace have embraced”.
St.
Mirin’s Cathedral, 3rd August 2006.
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