Prayers, protests planned as fifth anniversary of Iraq War approaches

The Interfaith Peace Witness is a second annual event and will mark the coming fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq March 19. Part of the first event took place in 2007 at Washington National Cathedral.

At midday on March 7, there will be religious services in different houses of worship in Washington, including Eucharist at Christ Church + Washington Parish, Capitol Hill. The service is being organized by the Episcopal Peace Fellowship's (EPF) Iraq Action group headed by the Rev's Hal Hayek of North Carolina and Madeleine Beard of Maryland.

The Rev. Canon Michael Battle, canon theologian in the Diocese of Los Angeles and priest-in-charge of the Church of Our Saviour, San Gabriel, California, will preach.

Prior to the noonday worship, the parish will sponsor a breakfast and will also host a training in non-violent protest.

Also during the morning, Battle is scheduled to represent Episcopalians as part of an interfaith group that will meet with Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi. They will ask her to support HR 5507. The resolution, according to its title, would require the "safe, complete, and fully-funded redeployment of United States Armed Forces and contractor security forces from Iraq and to prohibit the establishment of any enduring or permanent United States military bases in Iraq, and for other purposes."

After the various worship services, participants will process to Upper Senate Park on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol for a rally. Speakers at the rally will include the Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, senior minister emeritus of The Riverside Church in New York and president of the Healing of the Nations Foundation; Rabbi David Saperstein, director and counsel of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (http://rac.org/); and Asma Mirza, national president of the Muslim Student Association.

During the rally "all of us will act for peace, and some may engage in nonviolent action that risks arrest," according to details of the day's events published on EPF's website.

The Episcopal Church has opposed the war in Iraq since before its start. In October 2002, the House of Bishop wrote a letter to Congress as the members debated a resolution authorizing military action in Iraq offering the bishops' prayers on their behalf but declaring that, while they recognized the possibility that war is sometimes unavoidable, "we do not believe that war with Iraq can be justified at this time."

In late January 2003, then-Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold called for the Bush Administration to "exhaust all diplomatic and multilateral initiatives" as the alternative to a unilateral assault on Iraq.

At the 75th General Convention in June 2006, Resolution D020 was passed, which called upon Congress and Bush to "immediately develop for implementation a plan for the stabilization of Iraq, to be followed by the prompt withdrawal of U.S. Armed Forces from Iraq, to provide for a transfer of peacekeeping functions to an international peacekeeping force, to work through international and Iraqi organizations in the reconstruction of Iraq’s civil and economic infrastructure, and for the full restoration of Iraqi sovereignty."

The resolution also called Episcopalians "as an act of penitence, to oppose and resist through advocacy, protest, and electoral action the continuation of the war in Iraq, and encourage the President and Congress to take proactive steps to end our participation as soon as possible."

That resolution and Resolution D019 called for continued prayers and care for those serving in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and their families.

-- The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is Episcopal Life Media correspondent for Episcopal Church governance, structure, and trends, as well as news of the dioceses of Province II. She is based in Neptune, New Jersey, and New York City.