Syria: Archbishop's speech in the House of Lords

Thursday 29th August 2013
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, delivered the following speech in the House of Lords on the situation in Syria:
My Lords, I very much welcome the opportunity to have been able to speak later in this debate because of the extraordinary quality of many of the contributions that have been made, and how much one can learn by listening to them. Like many noble Lords I have some experience in the region, partly from this role that I have and recent visits and contacts with many faith leaders of all three Abrahamic faiths, and also through 10 years of, from time to time, working on reconciliation projects.
I don’t intend to repeat the powerful points that have been made on international law which is itself based on the Christian theory of Just War, and that has been said very eloquently. But I want to pick up a couple of points - first is, it has been said, quite rightly, that there is as much risk in inaction as there is in action. But as in a conflict in another part of the world, a civil conflict in which I was mediating some years ago, a general said to me “we have to learn that there are intermediate steps between being in barracks and opening fire”. And the reality is that until we are sure that all those intermediate steps have been pursued, Just War theory says that the step of opening fire is one that must only be taken when there is no possible alternative whatsoever, under any circumstances. Because, as the noble Lord Lord Alli just said very clearly and very eloquently, the consequences are totally out of our hands once it has started. And some consequences we can predict – we’ve heard already about the Lebanon and about Iran, particularly the effect that an intervention would cause on the new government in Iran as it is humiliated by such an intervention.
But there is a further point, talking to a very senior Christian leader in the region yesterday, he said “intervention from abroad will declare open season on the Christian communities”. They have already been devastated, 2 million Christians in Iraq 12 years ago, less than half a million today. These are churches that don’t just go back to St Paul but, in the case of Damascus and Antioch, predate him. They will surely suffer terribly (as they already are) if action goes ahead. And that consequence has to be weighed against the consequences of inaction. In civil wars, those who are internal to the civil conflict fight for their lives, necessarily. Those who are external have a responsibility, if they get involved at all, to fight for the outcome, and that outcome must be one which improves the chances of long term peace and reconciliation. If we take action that diminishes the chance of peace and reconciliation, when inevitably a political solution has to be found, whether it’s near term or in the long term future, then we will have contributed to more killing and this war will be deeply unjust.
In consequence my Lords, I feel that any intervention must be effective in terms of preventing any further use of chemical weapons. I’ve not yet heard that that has been adequately demonstrated as likely. That it must effectively deal with those who are promoting the use of chemical weapons. And it must have a third aim which is: somewhere in the strategy, there must be more chance of a Syria and a Middle East in which there are not millions of refugees and these haunting pictures are not the stuff of our evening viewing.
- See more at: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/5125/syria-archbishops-speech-in-the-house-of-lords#sthash.Q9DJc6g2.JuDaohTe.dpuf

The gift in our hand - Joan Chittister osb from Aspects of the Heart

To know our gifts is to know our role in life. We are what we are. But the gift of self unfolds as we go, often slowly, always with surprise. It can take years before it becomes clear—the real gift that is hidden within us. Finding the gifts that God has given you takes courage; it takes risk; it takes exploration; it takes failure as we stumble from one arena to the other. But in the end what I get back is the wholeness of myself.

We all come with a gift in our hand designed to make life a better place. The only question is whether we spend it on others or only on ourselves.

It is learning that the gifts we have been given are given for the rest of the human community that makes us more human ourselves. Everyone does some things better than other things. What I have to give is always that one thing that is most needed in every situation because no one else can give it. The obligation is to pour it out like oil on the head of the universe.

Don’t be afraid to follow the dreams of your heart. They are the sign of what should be, of what you must do to be whole, of what you down deep really believe the world must taste to be true to itself.

Without you and me and our little gift, the world will never be filled up. Asked to write a letter to the London Times on ‘What’s wrong with the world?’ GK Chesterton wrote, ‘Dear Sirs, I am. Yours truly, GK Chesterton.’ Clearly, what we are asked to give is only what we are—and that is more than nothing.

Pax Christi Australia deplores indifference towards the plight of Asylum Seeker Refugees

Pax Christi Australia, a member of the International Movement for Peace, Pax Christi International, met for its National Conference from August 23-25, 2013 held at the Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education, Homebush West, with members from Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria with visiting members from Aotearoa New Zealand, West Papua and the United States. The theme of the conference was Peacemaking: an alternative narrative.

The assembly, on this Refugee and Migrant Sunday, strongly deplores the indifference that many Australians, including the media and politicians, have fallen into. Many Australians have the belief that we are a generous and fair minded people but this is not reflected in the cruel and inhuman treatment of vulnerable people who have been driven from their homes as a result of oppression and conflicts, some of which Australia has been, and continues to be, involved in.

Pax Christi Australia acknowledges that people who seek asylum are our brothers and sisters. It strongly refutes the language and false narrative that is used by sections of the media and by politicians that asylum seekers are illegal, which they are not; that they are jumping a queue, which does not exist; that people seeking asylum by boat are a threat to Australia’s border security, which is not true; and, that we are being overwhelmed by an influx of asylum seekers, which is not the case.

Finally, Pax Christi Australia is deeply concerned by the lack of leadership shown by politicians and a number of religious leaders who by their language or silence leave Australians morally diminished.


Contact
Father Claude Mostowik, msc, President, Pax Christi Australia 0411 450953
Father Pancras Jordan, op, Convenor, Pax Christi Queensland 0415 461 620





Bruce Petty The Age July 8, 2013



For I was hungry, while you had all you needed.

I was thirsty, but you drank bottled water.

I was a stranger, and you wanted me deported.

I needed clothes, but you needed more clothes.

I was sick, and you pointed out the behaviors that led to my sickness.

I was in prison, and you said I was getting what I deserved.

(RESV—Richard E. Stearns Version in Richard Stearns, The Hole in Our Gospel p. 59, Kindle Edition.

Requiem for the Children of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

It was a strange summer day, that humid 6th day of August in 1945, while I was sitting by myself just across the street from my home in Nahant, Massachusetts.

I vividly remember the moment ~ I was gazing towards the south, towards the Atlantic ocean and suddenly I felt a shudder from deep within myself.

It was a momentary sense of a deep collective loss and shortly after that I saw my twin brother excitedly running towards me from our home across the street.

He told me that he had just heard on the radio that we had dropped an Atomic bomb on Hiroshima and that thousands had died in the blast. (Actual deaths were 140,000 of which 60% were burned alive) Three days later, like a dagger in humanity's heart, it happened again in Nagasaki. (Actual deaths were 80,000 of which 90% were burned alive ~ It is estimated that out of every 6 deaths in the bombings, 5 were civilians and 1 was military). See Hiroshima and Nagasaki bomb fact sheet ~ overall death listings which does not include at least 23 American POWS who were captured Naval aviators being held in Hiroshima and not acknowledged or reported by the U.S. until the late 1970's. http://www.domlife.org/Justice/Disarmament/bombfactsheet.pdf










I felt very sad for a deep soul connected part of me innately knew the world would never be the same and I also sensed I had felt, at that exact moment in time, the collective loss of thousands of Japanese children, like myself at that time, who were incinerated, maimed and left homeless by these unnecessary barbaric attacks. I also had a profound feeling that something very ominous for humanity had just happened ~ and I was right!

We now had the means to completely destroy the human race ~ particularly evidently the yellow and brown races.