1998 NCC News Archives
| Following
are excerpts from two related NCC news releases. Follow the links for the full
stories. CWS to Provide Food, Medicine, Blankets to Suffering Iraqis NEW YORK, Feb. 6, 1998 ---- As increasing alarm about a possible United States military strike combines with heightened concern about frayed social and economic conditions in Iraq, Church World Service (CWS) will provide blankets and layettes and will seek funds for desperately needed medicine in support of a $2 million global appeal to aid the internally displaced and other vulnerable people in Iraq. NCC Leadership Urges Humanitarian, Not Military, Option in Iraq NEW YORK, February 16, 1998 -- The National Council of Churches' Executive Board -- its policy setting body -- today unanimously approved and then forwarded the following letter to President Clinton, counseling: "Seek a humanitarian and diplomatic, not a military, solution to the present confrontation with Iraq's leadership." |
Agreements brokered in Iraq are good news. The positive response of President Clinton is good news indeed. We give thanks to God! With so many in our country and throughout the world, including President Clinton himself, we have hoped and prayed that diplomacy would nullify the possibility of conflict. It now appears that diplomacy has prevailed. Mindful of those who have been spared further jeopardy and suffering on all sides, we again give thanks to God. On behalf of our churches we warmly commend UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for his good service to the community of nations. His readiness to undertake a mission with high stakes and his steady, confident style have been critical ingredients in achieving a peaceful resolution. Well done! The United Nations stands tall. Further we commend President Clinton for his support of the Secretary General's mission as well as his own restraint in this time of high tension. Quick responses or unseasoned judgments could have been calamitous. We continue to appreciate the consistent openness to a negotiated settlement displayed by Secretary Albright, Director Berger and others in our nation's leadership. Again, well done. We are heartened by the insistence of so many Americans that we find a way of resolving this conflict peacefully. It offers a promising future for America's role in the family of nations. The "macho" among us was replaced by a maturity in us that the future will continue to need. Well done! Finally, as we have previously expressed to President Clinton we believe that new ties between the Iraqi people, Americans and other peoples of the world must now be built. We continue to offer the capacity of our churches to deliver humanitarian aid to alleviate Iraq's suffering. We join with others in urging a softening of the embargo against Iraq to permit such aid. We believe that the reduction of tensions now provides the opportunity to build the framework for peace. We long for the day when weapons can be laid aside and the horrible instruments of wanton mass destruction become pointless and repugnant even to those who harbor them. We continue to lift up the Biblical vision of "swords turned into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks" and a family of nations that knows war no more. As we pray in gratitude for the ending of the immediate confrontation with Iraq, so let us pray for a new and universal human commitment to pursue a just and lasting peace. |
Contact: NCC News Department
NCC Home Page