Anglican Communion News Service

The Anglican Consultative Council, meeting in Hong Kong, passed two resolutions regarding proposals for war against Iraq. The first resolution expressed opposition too any unilateral action by the United States against Iraq. The second resolution affirmed ACC solidarity with the position taken by the Episcopal Church, USA in a statement issued by the church’s Presiding Bishop in June 2002.

The first resolution, proposed by the Rt Rev Richard Harries, Bishop of Oxford and episcopal representative to the ACC from the Church of England reads as follows:

This ACC:

1. Welcomes the proposed return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq;
2. Calls on the government of Iraq to comply fully with the UN resolution 687;
3. Believes that, on present evidence, military action against Iraq is not morally justified; and
4. Calls, subject to reports from UN weapons inspectors, for sanctions, except for materials that could be used for mass destruction, to be lifted.

The second resolution, proposed by the Rt Rev David Silk, Bishop of Ballarat and episcopal representative to the ACC from the Anglican Church of Australia, reads as follows:

This Council affirms its solidarity with the position taken by the Episcopal Church, USA, in June 2002, in opposing unilateral military action against Iraq by the United States, and the view expressed by the Presiding Bishop in his statement of 6 September 2002 that:

1. war holds the prospect of destabilising the Middle East and we will all be better served to see our national energies expended in resolving the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, such that Israel finds security and peace with its neighbours and Palestinians achieve statehood:
2. military action would surely inflame the passions of millions, particularly in the Arab world, setting motion cycles of violence and retaliation, further straining tenuous relationships that exist between the United States and other nations; and
3. the United States has the opportunity to express leadership in the world by forging a foreign policy that seeks to reconcile and heal the world’s divisions and reflect its values and ideals by focussing upon issues of poverty, diseased and despair, not only within the US but throughout the global economy of which it is a part.

Each of these resolutions was unanimously passed by the ACC members, a widely representative Anglican group since they are the episcopal, clergy and lay representatives from each of the 38 Provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Article from: the ACC-12 News team - Dan England, Margaret Rodgers, James Rosenthal