Challenge voices for war, Irish urges
by Dan Webster

Challenge "the voices of those who would argue that the war now advocated is reasonable and responsible," urged Carolyn Tanner Irish, the Episcopal bishop of Utah in a pastoral letter sent to 22 congregations in her diocese on the eve of September 11, 2002.

"The stakes are very, very high; ignorance and arrogance are pervasive; escalation could become so tempting," she wrote. "Rather than ‘going it alone’ in a world so clearly interdependent let us renew our commitment to the structures established for peacemaking," she concluded.

The 1952 General Convention of the Episcopal Church USA passed a resolution that concludes, "... we unalterably oppose the idea of so-called ‘preventive war.’"

"In the Anglican tradition," wrote Bishop Irish, "the primary statement on war, affirmed and reaffirmed many times since it was passed by the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops in 1930, is that ‘... war as a method of settling international disputes is incompatible with the teaching and example of our Lord Jesus Christ.’"

Recognizing the approaching anniversary of the "horrific" September 11th attacks Bishop Irish noted, however, that "this anniversary also holds the danger of becoming a time to stoke our feelings of self-righteous indignation and a desire for revenge." "It could, in other words, lead us to support the very kind of violence we have ourselves so recently suffered."

The letter was dated Sept. 4, which on the Episcopal Church calendar is the Feast of Paul Jones, bishop and peace advocate. Jones was the fourth bishop of Utah, 1911—1918. He was forced to resign his office by national church leaders for his pacifist beliefs. Yet he was "sainted" by that same church and given a feast day four years ago as "a sign not only of 20th-century war weariness but also of our capacity to discover non-violent solutions to conflict," wrote the bishop.