Congregations respond

Five downtown churches continue joint service, expand prayer forcus to all areas of conflict

INDIANAPOLIS — May 06, 2003 — Five downtown congregations (including Central Christian Church of the Disciples of Christ) that have prayed together since the war in Iraq began continue in prayer tonight, and plan to meet monthly to pray for peace in all areas of the world that face conflict.

The Taize services of prayer, silence and song will be held at 6:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of each month, rotating to each of five downtown congregations. Tonight's public service will be held at Zion Evangelical United Church of Christ at the corner of North and New Jersey streets.

Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, the five churches have been holding weekly Taize-style prayer services as "a source of calm and hope for those who participated, as well as others who were present not in body but in spirit," one of the organizing pastors said.

"We feel that God calls Christians to come together across denominational lines to pray and work for peace and justice," said Linda McCrae, pastor, Central Christian Church, a congregation sponsoring the services.

"As overt hostilities wind down in Iraq, we want to keep on meeting, recognizing that peace has not yet come to Iraq or to many other places in the world, including places very close to us," she said. "We will expand the focus of our prayer to embrace all of these places."

Other congregations sponsoring the services are First Lutheran Church, Roberts Park United Methodist Church, and St. Mary's Catholic Church.

Contact one of the congregations listed below to determine location
of future services.

Zion Evangelical United Church of Christ
416 E. North St.
Phone: 639-5411

St. Mary's Catholic Church
317 N. New Jersey
Phone: 637-3983

Roberts Park United Methodist Church
401 N. Delaware
Phone: 635-1636

First Lutheran Church
701 N. Pennsylvania
Phone: 635-9505

Central Christian Church
701 N. Delaware
Phone: 635-6397

Ecumenical service of prayer continues post-war

From Johnny Wray, director, Week of Compassion (written from Honduras)

Friday, March 21, A.D. 2003

Dear Friends,

Clearly the people in Honduras are deeply worried about the war, and each night in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, churches have been holding prayer vigils. Yesterday, we traveled to the remote mountain village of El Porvenir, a village devastated by Mitch and now being rebuilt with resources from WOC\Disciples and our partner communions in CWS under the supervision of CCD. Deb and I were deeply humbled and moved that the people were not only aware of the war but were experiencing consequences from the whole situation as gas and material prices have risen significantly in the last few weeks, thus slowing the reconstruction effort. Most of all, we were moved to hear their poignant pleas for peace and their reminder to us that they were praying for the US churches to be a witness for peace and for the affirmation that we are, all of us, children of one God.

An Adult Church School Class at Christian Temple in Baltimore, Md.

Over the next five weeks the Adult Sunday School class is going to hold a series of discussions concerning Christian responses to issues of war and violence. Our goal is to create an environment that will allow everyone to come together and discuss their thoughts and opinions on this important subject with respect and civility. We hope to develop an analytical framework that will allow us all to test and challenge our own beliefs and gain some insight into the opinions and beliefs held by others of our congregation and in the community at large. We hope that you will join us and add your voice to this timely discussion. In true Disciples tradition there will be no attempt made to force anyone to reach a specific conclusion. Instead, it is our hope that everyone will walk away from this series with tools that they might not have had before, tools that will allow them to analyze these questions in new and insightful ways. The plan for the series is as follows:

• Week 1: A discussion of general violence in our culture and perceptions of war in recent times. The goal of this broad overview will be to set the stage for the more specific discussions that will follow.
• Week 2: A discussion of the three main Christian theological responses to the issue of war: Pacifism, Just War Theory, and Christian Realism. It is hoped that this session will show how conscientious, reflective Christians have used their own understanding of the Gospel message to reach what are often mutually exclusive conclusions.
• Week 3: A discussion on biblical imagery of war from the Hebrew Testament through Revelation. This session will show how God has been perceived at various times to abhor all war, take specific sides in war, and sometimes to even seem to revel in the whole process. Jesus'reaction to all of this will also be discussed, along with the consequences of that reaction for modern Christians.
• Week 4: A discussion in which we will attempt to apply what we have discussed in previous weeks to the current issues of war facing us. This will be a moderated discussion in which it is hoped that we will all have a chance to be heard while carefully taking in what others have to say.
• Week 5: In our final discussion we will look at the issue of the day after a war has been fought. The loser is obviously at the mercy of the victor at war's end, but what is the appropriate follow-up response of the victor? Is a Marshall-Plan response or some other form of Reconstruction always called for? Does a well-conceived, morally upright follow-up plan ever justify the war that has just been fought? And is it morally necessary to have such a plan in place prior to engaging in hostilities?

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