I have recently returned from the semi-annual meeting of the Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches. I am privileged to serve there on behalf of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). In addition to guiding a vital organization which gives tangible expression to the unity we share in Christ with the global church, the Executive Committee is also an important spiritual community for me. I was with that group of Christian leaders from every continent of the world on September 11, 2001. That community provided a caring and compassionate pastoral ministry to me and was a group constant in prayer for the suffering of our people caused by the horrors of the attacks in New York and Washington.

This time my friends continued to express their pastoral concerns for their Christian colleagues in the United States, but they also expressed a deep sorrow and disappointment at what they perceived to be the "strange silence" of the American churches as so much of the world and the world's Christian communities have been plunged into a new error of violence, conflict and injustice. Among the concerns expressed by my friends and colleagues were those of:

• a Filipino woman who had suffered greatly over the years for her stand for human rights who now sensed a return to the "days of Marcos" when the U.S. military presence was aligned with a government that oppressed its own people. She was eager to know what American Presbyterians, who were such strong partners with the churches in the Philippines in supporting the closing of U.S. military bases there, were doing about this new development.

• a Syrian Orthodox bishop who was perplexed that the American government and churches seemed to take so little initiative as the Palestinian people were losing their life, liberty and hope by the thousands. He pleaded with me to share with our church that these are just the conditions that breed terrorism. He was very clear that if we wished to eliminate terrorism, working for justice between Palestine and Israel should be our top priority.

• Christian leaders from Korea, Iran and Iraq (with whom we have worked so closely in recent times for peaceful reconciliation and for the protection of human rights and religious liberty) who now felt that both the Christian community and their hopes for non-violent paths to peace and justice had been put in jeopardy by our nation branding their nations as "the axis of evil."

• the Ecumenical Officer of the Evangelical Church of Germany who shared the hard lessons that German Christians had learned through their years under the Nazis and the Communists about the importance of global standards of human rights and his deep anguish over what seemed to him and his church as an unwillingness of our nation to uphold global conventions for human rights such as the Geneva Convention when it seemed not to further our own military priorities.

• Several African church leaders who reminded us that as important as it is to contain terrorism, true global security will only come when we have a world in which hunger, poverty, deprivation, and the spread AIDS are not destroying the very fabric of life that so many of them see daily in places like Mozambique, Sudan and the Congo.

Most of all these friends were concerned that after an unprecedented outpouring of love and support for us from churches around the world that they had heard so little from our churches as their own Christian communities had found themselves under threat. As a part of a church which has as one of its greatest strengths a commitment to world mission and to unity with the global Christian community, these expressions of concern touched me deeply.

While I did not agree with them on every point, I know in my conscience that in many ways they are right. While many of us are pre-occupied with our own denominational struggles over confessional language and questions about ordination, millions of God's children are dying as a result of wars and other forms of violence; moreover, decisions being made by our own government are affecting many of these situations, directly or indirectly, for good or ill. And many of our partners in Christ around the world are asking us, "Where is the voice of the U.S. Church in all of this?"

For generations, Presbyterian General Assemblies have reiterated the message of Jesus that to be children of God is to be peacemakers. While our policies have not ignored the Reformed understanding that at times the use of force may be necessary to restrain evil and protect the weak, our church has consistently acknowledged the inability of war and the use of physical force to produce genuine peace. Indeed, we have insisted, as the Bible makes clear, that the only foundation of true peace is justice born of reconciliation.

Perhaps it is providential that this year, 2002, is the 35th anniversary of our Confession of 1967, a confession absolutely clear about the Lordship of Jesus Christ and framed around the theme of reconciliation. In that confession we are not only called to be personally reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, but also called to be reconciled with one another, and especially with those we identify as our enemies.

The confession even calls us to "practice the forgiveness of our enemies and to commend to the nations as practical politics the search for cooperation and peace," an exhortation difficult to accept under any circumstances and almost impossible to claim in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001. In the grief, fear, and anger resulting from those attacks, our nation has responded with a full measure of patriotic fury.

Now more and more money is being requested by our government to add to the billions already spent on the war in Afghanistan, so that we can expand the war to other nations that have been identifed as our enemies. At the center of the rhetoric of retaliation is the so-called "Axis of Evil," Iraq, Iran and North Korea, but we are also militarily engaged in the Philippines, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, the Republic of Georgia, and are further strengthening our substantial military presence in the Middle East.

As U.S. Christians, we must not ignore the perceptions of other nations, nor of many of our Christian friends around the world, that the U.S., with its unchallenged wealth and power, feels free to make unilateral decisions affecting global economics and the environment; to bend the United Nations to our will and, most disturbing of all, to initiate a new phase of military imperialism under the guise of the "War on Terrorism," whose true aim is to advance the interests of the United States around the world.

While some may wish to challenge these perceptions, it remains true that in far too many places around the world, the presence of the U.S. is seen primarily as a military presence that is sometimes helpful, but often disruptive of local cultures and frequently in support of the rich, the powerful and, at times, the oppressor. In a world where most people are poor and in need of development, these evidences of massive resource allocation to instruments of death rather than to the enhancement of life should be a source of deep concern to all who claim to be followers of Jesus.

It is critical in these days that the voice of the Church be heard–a voice that urges our leaders to speak not of vengeance but of reconciliation, not of war but of peace, not of annihilation but of life, not of intimidation but of negotiation, not of destruction but of human development. And so I call upon all of you who share these concerns to join in prayer for our leaders, our nation and our world and to speak out on behalf of peace that is built on new relationships of equity and justice even with those we now call our enemies, for so the Lord Jesus Christ has commanded us.

In the Spirit of Christ our Lord,

Clifton Kirkpatrick