Iraq: Now is the time to do the right thing

Bishop Peter Price’s message to his diocese from the October edition of The Grapevine, official newspaper of the Diocese of Bath and Wells

OUTSIDE THE Cathedral Church in Alesund, Northern Norway there is a carved statue of an old man, a woman and a child. It is the war memorial to the people who died from the city during the second World War. It struck me powerfully for here was the true cost of war: a father without his son, a wife without a husband, a child without his father.

In recent times I have listened with rather more care and sensitivity to the news items which carry the accounts of service personnel killed or injured. The Alesund statue has frequently come to mind.

Many people from our Diocese serve in the armed forces around the world. Daily we pray for individuals know to us, one of whom has recently been seriously injured in Afghanistan.

Shortly we shall arrive at the season of Remembrance. It is a solemn and poignant time. It raises varieties of emotions.

In Alan Bennett’s play and film The History Boys a group of sixth formers visit a war memorial. The teacher accompanying them says words to the effect that memorials reflect our need to forget, rather than to remember. The implication is that, if we truly remembered the cost of war, it would make our leaders more reluctant to engage in it.

The current conflict in Iraq has been a source of controversy and recent reports, notably that of United States General David Petraeus, have raised the debate in the US and elsewhere: Is it time to end the war? If so, how? Or should we persevere until the war is won? And what would that mean?

In our intercessions each week in Church we pray for peace, the ending of conflicts. Unless this is simply wishful thinking, or passing the buck to God, such prayer must be an indication of our belief in the God who can change things.

Perhaps the greatest tribute we could pay to those who both serve and have served, risking their lives in the cause of war, is to pray for wisdom and courage to end this war in the ways that are most protective of human life, especially of the innocent.

Like many people I have opposed this war from the start, visiting Prime Minister Tony Blair with my American colleague Jim Wallis, as well as by other actions.

Whether we have agreed or disagreed, it is clearly now time to do the right thing. For that we need faith and prayer: faith to believe in the path to peace; prayer for wisdom to know, and courage to do, the right thing.

The Book of Revelation ends with a picture of tears being wiped away and the causes of death being removed. It is a powerful picture.

For me it stands alongside the statue in Alesund reminding us of the true cost of war and of a Christ who came to bring peace and to make peace.

bath & wells: from the bishop