[uua_l@uua.org: [UUA-L] Sinkford Issues Pastoral Message for Easter, 5th Anniversary of Iraq War]
Wolfe Woodbury
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:37:50 -0400
From: Unitarian Universalist Association <uu...@uua.org>
To: uu...@lists.uua.org
Subject: [UUA-L] Sinkford Issues Pastoral Message for Easter,
5th Anniversary of Iraq War
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UUA President William G. Sinkford has released a pastoral message in
print and video, tied to the Easter holiday and the fifth anniversary of
the Iraq War. In it he writes, in part:
"It has been five long years of war and occupation in Iraq. Five years.
Nearly 4,000 U.S. soldiers dead; many more wounded and maimed. An
unknown number of Iraqi dead, some estimate a million; certainly
hundreds of thousands. And millions of Iraqis displaced from their
homes....We know that the invasion of Iraq and the occupation were based
on lies. We know that our nation chose to act unilaterally,
disregarding the international community. We know that if there had been
no oil beneath those sands, and no oil in the region, this war would
never have taken place. And we know that this war has squandered the
reputation of this nation; squandered the sympathy and solidarity the
rest of the world felt for us after 9/11."
And, Sinkford points out, "perhaps the greatest cost [of the war] has
been to the spirit, to the soul of this nation." Sinkford quotes Thich
Nhat Hanh, who has called people who believe in peace to write a "love
letter," rather than only protest that which they believe unjust. In
it, Sinkford suggests, we would "tell the world, and ourselves, that we
want not only to reclaim the image, but to create the reality of
Americans as fair, compassionate and kind people. We want to become the
kind of people we thought we were." He points out, "Peace will only
come when we begin to embody it, when we begin to make it real in our
personal lives and in the life of this nation." This season of Easter
and of marking the anniversary of the war, can, he says, "...be a time
of hope. This can be a time when we commit ourselves to the creation of
the Beloved Community."
The full text of the letter can be found at
http://www.uua.org/news/newssubmissions/102137.shtml
<http://www.uua.org/news/newssubmissions/102137.shtml> . It can be
viewed in Windows Media
(http://media.uua.org:8080/asxgen/DearFriends.wmv
<http://media.uua.org:8080/asxgen/DearFriends.wmv> ), Realmedia
(http://media.uua.org:8080/asxgen/DearFriends.rv
<http://media.uua.org:8080/asxgen/DearFriends.rv> ), or QuickTime
(http://media.uua.org:8080/html/DearFriends.mov
<http://media.uua.org:8080/html/DearFriends.mov> ). Also featured is a
story about the First congregational Church of Essex (MA) sponsoring a
meeting of a group if Iraq War veterans (see
http://www.uua.org/congregationallife/justicediversity/102267.shtml
<http://www.uua.org/congregationallife/justicediversity/102267.shtml> ),
and information about how you can take action against the war and join
the UUA's March to Peace (see
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1272/t/4696/signUp.jsp?key=3070
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1272/t/4696/signUp.jsp?key=3070>
).
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