highlights

Message from Archbishop Desmond Tutu/Media Call

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Archbishop Desmond Tutu sent a letter of support to you, as a member of Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, as we prepare to gather April 29:

Dear Friends,

Our God is looking at you and smiling and saying how they have vindicated Me, because God had been wondering what had got into God's head to create us sowing so much mayhem in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib, Darfur, Gaza and Iraq. Oh dear why did I create that lot? God says "Thank you" for confessing that the war in Iraq should never have happened.

You are conduits for God's grace and compassion to flow into a world that is hurting, to heal it. You are each an oasis of love, compassion, goodness, laughter and forgiveness. Hold up God's world so that it may be doused with the waters that heal from these oases. God bless you all. God bless America. God bless all of God's world. Amen.

Desmond Tutu

Earlier this year, Christian Peace Witness for Iraq sent a letter to President Obama asking the administration to:

apologize to the people of Iraq on behalf of our nation,
help Iraqis rebuild their country and resettle refuges and
set a timeline to remove all U.S. military bases and troops from Iraq.

"Healing cannot begin without making it clear that we are sorry for the suffering we caused to millions and millions of Iraqis," said Rick Ufford-Chase, executive director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship. "We must pursue the future well-being of Iraqis with the same vigor we applied to war against them."

Ufford-Chase will host a telephone media availability in advance of the CPWI worship and witness. That press conference call will be held at 2:00 p.m. Eastern daylight time, Wednesday, April 22. (Call 712-775-1100, access code 167333#.) Spokespersons for CPWI on that call will include: Susan Mark Landis (Peace Advocate, Mennonite Church USA), Ken Butigan (Pace Bene Nonviolence Service) and Kathy Coggins (Disciples Peace Fellowship, Christian Church Disciples of Christ).

On April 29, we invite you to worship and witness to repent of U.S. actions in Iraq and to insist that the war be brought to an end. Events include a 12:30 p.m. opening convocation at National City Christian Church (featuring Noah Baker Merrill and Kathy Kelly), worship at the church at 7:00 p.m. (featuring Daniel Berrigan, Elizabeth McAlister, Tony Campolo, Lennox Yearwood and Dianna Ortiz), and direct action in front of the White House at 9:00 p.m. (with speaker Raphael Warnock and the presentation of hundreds of loaves of bread to the White House to emphasize Christ's insistence that we are people of life, not death; of peace, not war).

Praying and acting for peace,

David Ensign, for the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq Steering Committee