06107
Feb. 18, 2006

Anglican leader warns against
military intervention in Iran

by Jerry L. Van Marter
Ecumenical News International

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil — The head of the worldwide Anglican Communion has cautioned against a military incursion into Iran by Western powers who say they are nervous about that country’s revived nuclear technology program.

        “I hope and pray that the West doesn’t embark on another costly and misjudged military adventure that will further destabilize an already unstable region,” Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said during a Feb. 17 media conference.

        The Anglican leader confessed to “some anxiety” about the proliferation of nuclear activity, particularly in Iran, when he spoke to journalists during the World Council of Churches’ ninth Assembly here.

        The International Atomic Energy Agency reported Iran to the United Nations Security Council earlier this month for failing to allay suspicions it is seeking nuclear weapons. The council is awaiting a report by IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei in March before taking any action.

        Earlier, in an address to the global church gathering on “Christian identity and religious plurality,” Williams said many non-Christian majorities “regard the Christian presence as a threat, or at least the sign of a particular geopolitical agenda, linked with the (United States) or the West in general.”

        He noted: “The suffering of Christian minorities as a result of this is something which all of our churches and the whole of this Assembly need constantly to keep in focus.”

        In a global environment of increasingly varied beliefs, Williams said, churches are torn between the temptations of “triumphalism” and “apologism.” Christians and their churches sometimes either “insist that they and they alone possess the truth,” or “slip into the attitude that every faith is like any other.”

        Williams described Christian exclusivism as “impossible.” But neither could the question of Christian identity in a pluralistic world “be answered in clichés about the tolerant co-existence of different opinions,” the Anglican leader said.

        In a video message to the Assembly from his native Jordan, Prince El Hassan bin Talal spoke of the need to promote the “unity of values” between people of all religions.

        “Muslims, Christians and Jews believe in one God. The ethical and moral codes of our faiths center on justice, equality, freedom, charity and faith in God,” said Prince El Hassan, who says he is a direct descendent of the Prophet Muhammad.

        Buddhist and Jewish speakers also addressed the Assembly.