Over 100 Episcopal bishops, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and two former presiding bishops, the Rt. Revs. Frank Griswold and Edmond Browning have addressed a letter to Congress:

As Congress and the Administration consider the future of Iraq, we urge a careful and reasoned debate that avoids the partisan and harsh rhetoric that would diminish the important issues before our nation....[W]e encourage full and open discussion that acknowledges our mistakes as well as our responsibilities. ...

We believe it imperative that the United States now:

Map out a strategy for a responsible transition to Iraqi governance, making clear that we do not have long term interests in occupying Iraq

Join those in the region, including Syria and Iran, in seeking security and economic recovery for Iraq

Provide the women and men of our military and their families with the sustained and responsive care they need

Work for religious freedom and protection of religious minorities in Iraq

Serve the needs of Iraqi refugees wherever they may be

Seek peace in the region, including a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians

The Rt. Rev. John Bryson Chane, Bishop of Washington, has devoted his latest column in the Washington Window to a critical examination of how the Bush administration, Congress and the media led the United States into war with Iraq.

Terrorism has dramatically increased since Operation Iraqi Freedom, with more than 450 suicide bombers killing themselves and others in Iraq since the start of the war. Since then, 3,386 American soldiers have died and 25,245 have been wounded-more than 7,000 so severely that their lives will forever be altered. Between 8 and 10 percent of the nearly 12,000 American soldiers treated at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany had psychiatric or behavioral problems related to their war experience, according to the hospital's commander, Army Col. Rhonda Cornum. Many veterans returning to the U.S. from active duty are being treated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In comparison, the international "Coalition of the Willing" referred to in 2003 and used as a support for our war effort, has lost 273 military personnel. U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan now number 389. Figures for Iraqi military deaths have not officially been released by the Iraqi government.

Warnings put forward by the religious community in the U.S. about the consequences of a military strategy to disarm Saddam Hussein were lost on a compliant Congress and an administration determined to go to war with Iraq. President George W. Bush called the nation to war on unsubstantiated charges that Iraq possessed chemical and nuclear weapons of mass destruction

And:

The U.S. Congress should be held accountable for giving an almost unanimous "green light" to the administration to go to war and for granting the President unlimited war powers. Republican and Democratic presidential candidates need to explain to the American public why they were silent when the short debate on the War Powers Act was being considered by Congress. Some politicians have said that if they knew then what they know now, they would not have voted to extend this power to the President. That is unacceptable. There was clearly enough information available about the Iraq's military capabilities and its severely weakened infrastructure resulting from the earlier Operation Desert Storm to merit significant debate. But Congress was too timid to explore alternative means for dealing with the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein, and it should be held accountable for the crime of silence.

As for the religious community in the U.S., every major Christian religious denomination in the country, except one, registered its opposition to engaging in military action against Iraq. Yet even with such overwhelming opposition, the current administration would not extend the religious leaders of these denominations the courtesy of meeting with them prior to the outbreak of the war.

The media likewise were either unable or unwilling to report the opposition of the broad faith community to military action against Iraq. This is among the concerns that have led to questions about the integrity of the press during the build-up and initial military action in Iraq.

Read it all.

In the next two days, Congress will vote on an amendment to close the notorious School of the Americas/WHINSEC. According to a letter from School of the Amercas Watch

The School of the Americas,... located at Ft. Benning Georgia, has trained -for more than 60 years- over 60,000 Latin American Soldiers in torture, psychological warfare and war against civilian populations. Many of the tactics of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay began at the SOA to be used on civilians and those working for justice in Latin America. This school has graduated the worst human rights abusers in Latin American History. Rep. McGovern (MA) and Rep. John Lewis (GA) will introduce an amendment to the Foreign Operations appropriations bill to cut funding for the SOA/ WHINSEC and stand up against the legacy of torture as a part of US Foreign Policy!

Fourteen bicyclists from Iran who are criss-crossing the United States with a message of peace will make their final U.S. stop at the Washington National Cathedral on July 11, according to a story in Episcopal Life Online.

Episcopal Diocese of Washington Bishop John Bryson Chane is scheduled to greet the women and men who comprise the Miles for Peace group at 3:15 p.m. on the steps of the cathedral's west end (Wisconsin Avenue side).

The Miles for Peace program is a non-profit, non-governmental peace campaign whose objective is to convey the message of peace, friendship and peaceful co-existence with all nations.

John Peterson, the cathedral's director of the Center for Global Justice and Reconciliation, called the visit another positive event in U.S.-Iran relations.

Read it all here

Ekklesia reports on an Anglican Church in Sri Lanka that is becoming a center for peace. It has been a venue for seminars and workshops on peace and inter-religious concerns since it opened as a conflict analysis centre in April 2006.

The buildings of Christ Church along Jaffna's main road stand pock-marked by shell holes, as a grim reminder of the many pitched battles fought between Tamil rebels and Sri Lankan forces in this Tamil heartland on the northern fringe of Sri Lanka - writes Anto Akkara.

Built in 1871, the Anglican church is, however, now getting a facelift. New roof tiles have been put in place, and major holes in the walls are being patched up.

"We're converting this church into a war memorial, and it will be used as a centre for conflict analysis," the Rev S. P. Nesakumar, the archdeacon of Jaffna, told Ecumenical News International as he pointed to the severe damage inflicted by bombing and shelling during the 1990 and 1995 conflicts.

Read it all here.

Bob Okun of ThanksUSA writes in the Wall Street Journal

Stop what you're doing and simply listen for a moment so you may hear a conversation that is going on across America. It is not about who will be the next president, but about why average citizens aren't more fully engaged in the war on terror.

Why haven't we all been asked by our leaders to give more of ourselves as in previous wars? And most importantly, what can and should we all do about the national disconnect between citizen and soldier?

In part, most of us have gone on with our lives with minimal interruption because we are fighting an intensive, protracted two-front war with an all-volunteer force. Only a relatively small slice of American society, myself included, has any real connection to the brave men and women in uniform protecting our freedoms every day. Fewer still have any idea what their families are going through as they wait for their service members to come home.
...
What started as a kitchen-table idea evolved into ThanksUSA, a national nonprofit dedicated to providing post-secondary school scholarships to the children and spouses of those serving on active duty, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over 1,000 military family members in all 50 states and D.C. have already received vocational and college scholarships, and another round will be awarded this year. Hundreds of thousands of other military families need and deserve a variety of support from community members, civic leaders, corporate leaders and all Americans as they set out to reclaim and reassemble their lives in the coming years.

Since the war began, there have been some shining examples, "best practices" in corporate-speak, of businesses supporting the troops and their families.

Home Depot, CVS and Dell have reached out to hire military spouses. Freddie Mac, purchaser of residential mortgages, has helped injured soldiers and their families to manage their finances upon re-entry to civilian life. Entrepreneurs such as Dan Caulfield (a veteran) recently created Hire a Hero, using the Internet to help returning service members connect with eager businesses seeking skilled workers.

Other service organizations are involved, including Fisher House, which provides housing near hospitals for families of wounded veterans, and information clearinghouses for military families such as America Supports You, as well as the modern USO, all doing their part daily to help military personnel.

Read it here (subscribers).

From the way he writes it appears Mr. Okun supports the war on terror. Many of us did not support the war in Iraq, but does that alienate us from his mission to mend the disconnection between citizen and soldier? Many rail that it would not continue if there was a draft, because the pain would be felt by politicians. There is recognition of pain and it is used for argumentation. But few of us ask what can we as citizens do for those soldiers who have felt the pain.

George Packer can hardly be described as a supporter of the war in Iraq, but in his latest article for The New Yorker, he both skewers the architects of the war, and poses some difficult questions for those who favor a rapid pullout.

On the one hand, he writes:

[T]he inadequacy of the surge is already clear, if one honestly assesses the daily lives of Iraqis. Though the streets of Baghdad are marginally less lethal than they were during 2006, sixty thousand Iraqis a month continue to leave their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration, joining the two million who have become refugees and the two million others displaced inside Iraq. The militias, which have become less conspicuous as they wait out the surge, are nevertheless growing in strength, as they extend their control over neighborhoods like Ahmed’s. In the backstreets, the local markets, the university classrooms, and other realms beyond the reach of American observers or American troops, there is no rule of law, only the rule of the gun. The lives of most Iraqis are dominated by a complex array of militias and criminal gangs that are ruthlessly competing with one another, and whose motives for killing are more often economic or personal than religious or ideological. A recent report by the International Crisis Group urged the American and British governments to acknowledge that their “so-called Iraqi partners, far from building a new state, are tirelessly working to tear it down.”

On the other hand, he finds all of the "quick exit" strategies being advocated on the left shortsighted and superficial.

Ekklesia reports that a delegation from a group called The Elders will go to Darfur on a peace mission. The Elders are retired statesmen organized by Nelson Mandela who are attempting to make a difference in making peace, working to alleviate poverty and combatting HIV/AIDS. They include former US President, Jimmy Carter.

A delegation of influential elder statesmen without 'elections to win and constituencies to please' is to be led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in the latest initiative to bring peace to Darfur.

At least 200,000 people have died and some 2m forced from their homes during the four year conflict.

The "Elders" will travel to Khartoum at the end of the month to meet representatives from all sides.

They will then go to Darfur to talk to local community leaders and some of the displaced people now living in camps.

Desmond Tutu, Nobel laureate and former Archbishop of Cape Town said: "We want community leaders in Darfur to feel that they have been heard by us."

"And to the extent that we could then communicate their aspirations, their longings, particularly the women's groups, we will do so", he said.

Read it here

Religious leaders representing tens of millions of Americans stood in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol to call religious communities of various traditions to a day of fasting and prayer to end the Iraq war. October 8th is the date chosen for the fast.

Ekklesia reports:

"We must return to the ancient disciplines so that we will turn away from violence toward reverence," said Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director of the Shalom Center, Philadelphia, to reporters gathered in front of the United Methodist Church office building on Maryland Avenue.

Represented at the news conference were leaders of Muslim, Jewish, Roman Catholic, Unitarian, and Baptist traditions. The Rev. Dr. Shanta Premawardhana, associate general secretary for interfaith relations at the National Council of Churches USA (NCC), and himself a Baptist, organized the news event.

Ancient practices were used at the news conference in the call to the nation. The ram's horn, or Jewish shofar, was sounded to "wake up" a nation. Ashes were placed on the leaders' foreheads as signs of repentance. A bell was tolled to call America's people of faith to join together on October 8 to fast from dawn to sunset, breaking the fast with their Muslim sisters and brothers.

"When you are fasting for Ramadan, you are enhancing your sense of compassion," said Dr. Sayeed Syeed from the Islamic Society of North America. "We will be asking mosques to open their doors to people of other faiths around the world on October 8 for prayer and dialogue."

Dr. Syeed said the Islamic Center in nearby Sterling, Va., will open its doors to interfaith neighbours Oct. 8 to break the Ramadan fast together. Local religious groups are registering events at Interfaith Fast, a website managed by the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Read it all here

Linton Weeks writes in The Washington Post:

It was the coolest of church coffeehouses.

"Thanks for coming to give peace a chance," David Crosby told the crowd of more than 2,500 at Washington National Cathedral, before he and Graham Nash launched into "Lay Me Down."

To kick off last night's Pray for Peace concert, John Bryson Chane, Episcopal bishop of Washington and the evening's emcee, quoted Nash: "No person has the right to take another person's life in the name of God." Churches and religions should be instruments of peace, not war, he said.

When people gather to pray for peace, "what you are praying for is an end to war," Chane said. He said it was not an antiwar event, but a moment to call on nations to lay down all arms. "War," he said, "is the ultimate declaration of human failure. What we are saying is: Enough is enough."

Read it all. CBS has a story, too.

The New York Times reports that the Dalai Lama ... said that he felt “a sense of regret” over the sharp tensions with China unleashed by his visit and the honors conferred upon him.

In gentle language and conciliatory tones, he congratulated China on its dynamic economic growth, recognized its rising role on the world stage, but he also gently urged it to embrace “transparency, the rule of law and freedom of information.”

As Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama received the Congressional Gold Medal today, Voice of America (VOA) broadcast the award ceremony and the Dalai Lama's acceptance speech live to Tibet via radio, television, and the Internet. The same broadcast included videotaped testimonials of the heads of all six sects of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Congressional Medal ceremony will be rebroadcast in several formats to Tibet and elsewhere in China and will be available for viewing here.

In an interview with VOA yesterday, the Dalai Lama expressed support for the Burmese democracy movement, saying that he admired the recent efforts of Buddhist monks and adding that their cause was just. He urged Buddhist members of Burma's military government to remember the Buddhist teachings of "compassion" and "love" as they confront these situations.

Read more here and here and listen to the Dalai Lama's speech.

In other news of peace, South Korea will host the worldwide Anglican peace conference November 14-20. More than 150 Anglican leaders, ecumenical guests and others will participate according to Episcopal Life Online.

Washington National Cathedral hosted a panel discussion on the U. S.--Iranian relationship earlier this week. The Web cast is now available.

The panel, moderated by Congressman Wayne T. Gilchrist, (R-MD), featured: Bruce Laingen, former Iran hostage and State Department official; Stephen Kinzer, former New York Times bureau chief and author of All the Shah’s Men; Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council and author of Treacherous Alliance: the Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States and Dr. Abbas Amanat, Iran scholar, professor of history at Yale University and author of In Search of Modern Iran: Authority, Nationhood, and Culture.

It is a two-hour presentation, and you can safely skip the first 15 minutes.

One might think that Christians, whatever their theological or political differences, could agree on the immorality of torture. Um, no. Andrew Sullivan has been following a debate (1, 2, 3) which has taken place largely on Evangelical Outpost. (1, 2.)

The Washington Post is also asking for your opinions on the subject.

An Episcopal priest from Illinois writes about his experience visiting, and trying to get out of, the occupied West Bank. Robert Cotton Fite describes what it was like to stand in line for hours only to be denied entry and then finally to be let in with the help of a sympathetic Israeli.

Waiting in line at a West Bank border checkpoint, intimidated by the prisonlike atmosphere and frustrated by the Israeli soldier denying me passage back into Israel, I got my first real taste of what it's like most days for thousands of Palestinians. There I was, having just enjoyed visits to several Palestinian towns, looking very much the harmless, middle-class American tourist, with what I was sure were the right stamps in my passport, being told I could not re-enter Israel nor continue my trip to Nazareth.

I gave the young soldier my best surely-you-don't-mean-me look. Then, a polite request to "please call a superior officer." All to no avail. I would have to return to "wherever I came from."

And,

On this trip I was trying to understand a life under occupation.

For a caretaker at a Jerusalem nursing home, it meant that a daily trip that should take half an hour instead takes two to three hours. For a Palestinian father of five, a Jewish holiday meant "closure" of the border and the threat of a lost job when he could not get to Jerusalem for work. For a man in his 60s from Zababdeh whose identity papers would not allow him to travel to Ramallah for the heart surgery he needed, occupation meant "borrowing" his cousin's identity papers to gain passage through a crucial checkpoint.

Read: Robert Cotton Fite: A glimpse at a life in line: For Palestinians, a tense daily grind.

The Archbishop of Canterbury describes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as an tragic mess that fail to conform to the principles of just war theory. According to Ekklesia, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams told an audience of 600 on Remembrance Day, November 11, 2007, that "while people should recognise and honour the bravery of soldiers at war, past and present, the Middle East conflicts fell short of one of the significant requirements of what is traditionally held to be a just war."

“One of the aspects of traditional just war theory is that you need to know what would count as a good end and how you would know when you have that and what to do then."

Dr Williams continued: “I don't think we had that in place sadly. I don't think we knew what we would do next or what would count as our ending. And that is the tragedy.”

Dr Williams also talked about how Christian pacifists can reconcile their beliefs with the reality of war and the church's development during some of the most turbulent times in history saying that for much of its early history it was involved in “damage limitation” exercises.

“Granted there are going to be wars, how do you stop then being nightmares and a mere expression of naked power?" he asked.

Christian peace campaigners have criticised the accommodation of mainline churches to violence during the 1700 years of Christendom, arguing that the core Gospel message calls for a more creative, nonviolent role in a iolent and divided world.

Read it all.

The warriors pose for the camera in a group shot - some holding their weapons in one hand and their holy book in another. Elsewhere, a poster bears a quotation calling for the killing of enemy leaders and forcing the defeated people to convert. If you think the images come from Islamic fundamentalist training camps in remote regions of the Middle East you'd be wrong according to an article in Military.com.

The photo depicts Army trainees at Fort Jackson, S.C., where in addition to basic combat training recruits may also attend "God's Basic Training," while the poster -- boasting a quotation from conservative author Ann Coulter -- adorns the door of a Military Police office at Fort Riley, Kansas.

"These are startling and disgusting revelations of further unconstitutional behavior by technologically the most lethal organization ever created by humankind -- the U.S. military," said Mikey Weinstein, whose group, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, discovered the evangelical-oriented program at Fort Jackson and the Coulter poster at Fort Riley.

The group also has found at the Fort Riley exchange the Muslim-critical "Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam" on display right next to The Holy Bible. And at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., a new "Enabled By Christ" Christian men's store operates at the base exchange, Weinstein said.

Officials with the bases in question and the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, however, deny there is any deliberate intent to impose a religious belief on troops, and a Fort Riley spokesman told Military.com command would look into Weinstein's allegations there.

Read is all here

Five days after President Mwai Kibaki unexpectedly defeated Raila Odinga, ethnic violence continues to ravage the country and its attorney general has called for an independent verification of the vote tallies. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has gone to Kenya to help mediate the explosive situation, which has turned the generally stable nation on its ear.

CNN reports (story here):

The crowds were gathering as Archbishop Desmond Tutu began meeting with opposition officials, including Odinga, in an effort to mediate the election dispute.

"We've come to express our solidarity with the people of Kenya to express our sympathy at the carnage that has happened, hoping that we will be able to encourage the leadership to take action that would stop that carnage," Tutu said.

It was not immediately clear if the Nobel laureate would also talk with Kibaki's party. A government spokesman said a meeting could be arranged with Tutu if it would help with the process.

NPR has a good recap of the situation in Kenya so far here.

IRIN, humanitarian news and analysis by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports on Imidugudo, which translates as “reconciliation village”, in Nyamata, 30km south of the capital, Kigali, an experiment whereby genocide survivors and confessed perpetrators live in the same community, in small tin-roofed houses they built themselves. The village is the brainchild of Pastor Steven Gahigi, an Anglican clergyman who survived the genocide by fleeing to Burundi with his wife and two children. His mother, father and siblings all died and Gahigi thought he had lost his ability to forgive.

Before the Rwandan genocide, Mutiribambi Aziri and Jaqueline Mukamana were neighbours in the town of Nyamata, south of the capital Kigali. When the 100-day slaughter began in April 1994, Mukamana, a teenage Tutsi student, and Aziri, a Hutu farmer, found themselves on opposite sides as 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu militias, known as the Interahamwe, and ordinary Rwandans.

Mukamana went to fetch water from the community well and returned to find her entire family hacked to death by neighbours. She hid in the fields and then fled on foot to neighbouring Burundi.

Aziri was one of those whipped up into a killing spree by Rwanda's hard-line Hutu administration. He did not murder Mukamana's family but he admits to killing some of her neighbours with a machete.

Thirteen years later, they are neighbours again, chatting on the dusty roads and attending church services together.

Read it all here.

HT to epiScope

Author Bruce Chilton, an Episcopal priest and chaplain at Bard College, writes of human sacrifice in an excerpt from his new book, Abraham's Curse:

As Judaism has praised the sacrifice of Abraham, and Islam the offering of Ibrahim, Christianity since the first century has contended that Jesus accomplished in action the offering that Isaac only symbolized. The key Christian belief in Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb of God reinterprets and recasts the image of Isaac in Genesis.

Abraham's story has never been ours more than it is now. Naming the compulsion to take innocent life in the belief that sacrifice is noble goes beyond the incidents of any single crime, and takes us into the foundations of human culture and of how people understand the divine.

The Christian soldier, the Israeli conscript, and the Muslim jihadist are all poised for conflict and prepared for death, armed by their training and motivated by an ethos that is thousands of years old. The impulse to praise martyrdom, and therefore to encourage susceptible adolescents to become martyrs, is embedded in our cultural DNA.

We live on the edge of a prolonged sacrificial commitment, in a war on terror whose end is as obscure as its purposes and whose methods are ill defined. Understanding what it is we're talking about when we speak of human death as a "sacrifice" has become crucial to us.

Read it all.
(Our thanks to The Chronicle Review for taking this piece out from behinds its subscription wall.)

Episcopal News Service observes the fifth anniversay of the war in Iraq by looking at the many ways in which The Episcopal Church remains active "ministering to those involved in the fighting and their families, ministering to those who have come home, and continuing its call for peace in Iraq and the entire Middle East."

Read the article here.

Clergy representing Catholics, Protestants, and Jews gathered in Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco yesterday to offer prayers on the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Throughout the week, people from churches and synagogues throughout the Bay Area brought hundreds of pairs of boots and shoes to honor American and Iraqi casualties of the war.

The American Friends Service Committee’s “Eyes Wide Open” exhibit, a display of 425 pairs of military boots, representing Californians who have died in the Iraq War, formed the centerpiece of the event. To “complement this exhibit,” said an announcement on its web site, Grace Cathedral invited “faith communities and individuals to collect shoes to represent the more than 88,800 Iraqi civilian causalities.” After the exhibition, the shoes would be donated to Episcopal Charities and other organizations serving the needy.

It's all here.

As we cross the 4000 mark of deaths of US service men and women and nearly 90,000 Iraqis killed in the war, Newsweek reports on the difficult work of being a chaplain and offering hope in the midst of death.

Chaplain Kevin Wainwright was preparing his Easter Sunday sermon in Iraq when there was a knock on his door.

The news was grim: 1st Lt. Phillip Neel was dead. The young officer and fellow West Point grad had been a regular at the chaplain's Sunday church services. Wainwright knew and admired him. Now he had to find the right words to honor him.

Wainwright chose the legend of Sir Galahad, King Arthur's noble knight, and the poetry of Alfred, Lord Tennyson to salute Neel in a memorial.

He spoke of his compassion, his devotion to his soldiers. But in trying to understand Neel's death, the chaplain also posed an agonizing question: "Why does it seem that the good guys are the first ones to fall?"

On Easter night, the sad milestone of 4,000 American deaths in the Iraq war was reached with an announcement by the U.S. military that four U.S. soldiers had been killed in a roadside bombing in Baghdad.

Read about reaching 4000 US deaths in the New York Times here.

Other new stories here and a roundup of news stories here.

The Office of the Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincies and news of military chaplains of the Episcopal Church here.

Bishop for Chaplaincies The Rt. Rev. George Packard's blog is here.

UPDATED at 11 a.m. 3/25
More on activities marking this day here.

An Anglican bishop in South Africa has successfully sued in court to prevent the transport of a large shipment of small arms across South Africa that were en-route to Zimbabwe. Bishop Rubin Philips acted in High Court of Durban and invoked a section of South African law to stop the shipments.

According to news reports:

"[The] legal action was being sought in terms of the National Conventional Arms Control Act (NCACC), which 'requires that any transfer of arms be authorised by a permit issued on terms of the NCACC'.

[...]The controversial cargo packed into 3080 cases allegedly includes three million rounds of 7.62mm bullets (used with the AK47 assault rifle), 69 rocket propelled grenades, as well as mortar bombs and tubes.

The cargo is, according to the documentation, valued at R9,88-million."

Read the full news story here.

UPDATE: The BBC is now reporting that the ship in question has departed from the port of Durban.

UPDATE: April 19 10:30 a.m. ET
Reuters reports that the ship is headed for an Angolan port.

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have issued a joint statement this morning concerning the deteriorating situation of ordinary people in Zimbabwe calling for "a civil society movement that both gives voice to those who demand an end to the mayhem that grows out of injustice, poverty, exclusion and violence."

The text is here, but the most arresting thing about the news release from the Anglican Communion Office is the note at the end:

Notes to Editors

The average life expectancy of Zimbabweans hovers around 35, lower than any war zone. Since 1994 it has fallen from 57 to 34 for women and from 54 to 37 for men.

Zimbabwe has the highest proportion of orphans in the world (1.3 million), largely due to the devastation caused by HIV and Aids.

AIDS related illnesses kill 3,200 people each week.

Gregg Zoroya of USA TODAY writes:

High-ranking Shiite and Sunni leaders are preparing to issue a religious decree condemning suicide bombings and other forms of violence, according to an Anglican minister who has led efforts to bring the two Muslim sects closer.

The draft decree, also called a fatwa, cites Quranic verses and says, "The prophet Mohammed prevents the spilling of blood, Muslim against Muslim, and thus suicide bombings are totally prohibited," the Rev. Canon Andrew White said during a dinner Monday with Pentagon officials. The draft calls on Iraqis "to reject and forsake all violence, forsake all killing and provocation," White said.

"What is new is that this will be a fatwa from Shiite and Sunni," White said in an interview. "It's not going to solve all of our problems, but it's the beginning of the process toward the reduction of violence."

The Wall Street Journal carries discussion of whether soldiers wounded psychologically should be given the Purple Heart or not.

... with an increasing number of troops being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, the modern military is debating an idea Gen. Washington never considered -- awarding one of the nation's top military citations to veterans with psychological wounds, not just physical ones.

While many, especially families of the wounded warriors, are pressing for this award to go to victims of PTSD, The Rev. Robert Certain, retired Air Force colonel and Episcopal priest who preached the homily at the funeral of President Gerald Ford has mixed feelings about the question.

The question of whether veterans suffering from PTSD should be eligible for the Purple Heart is a deeply emotional issue for military personnel and their families.

Robert Certain is a retired Air Force colonel who was shot down over Hanoi, Vietnam, in 1972 and held as a prisoner of war. He received a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts and later became an Air Force chaplain and Episcopal priest.

Mr. Certain suffered severe depression in the 1980s and was formally diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in 2000.

Mr. Certain says that he is conflicted about whether veterans with PTSD should be eligible for the Purple Heart. In his own case, the disorder wasn't diagnosed until decades after the Vietnam War ended but he believes that making troops suffering from the disorder eligible for the award might persuade more of them to seek help.

In an email, he wrote: "The scars resulting from PTSD are almost all invisible to the observer, but always obvious to the warrior who has them.

Read it all here.

The NY Times blog, Freakonomics reports on twelve replies given by the Canterbury Club at West Point to the question, "What do you think about war in general?"

1. Unfortunately war is necessary and has been for thousands of years.
2. War is a tragic and hopefully unnecessary part of life. I pray that militaries may become deterrent forces only.
3. War is a necessary evil.
4. While war may appear to be the least beneficial thing to mankind and society in general, there are numerous aspects of it which further our development. Whether it be the liberation of oppressed people or simply the cooperation of two very different peoples, which results in new friendships between cultures, many positives are found amongst the tragedies.
5. War is the most effective way to get things done.
6. War is about protecting the innocent and fighting so others don’t have to.
7. Fear leads to hatred and hatred leads to war.
8. It is a horrible and necessary thing. We may as well be the best at it.
9. I believe war is a necessary evil if there is a good enough reason (e.g., World War II).
10. War is that in which humans grow most.
11. I think war is a way to strengthen our country. It shows other countries that our country will not be stepped on and we will defend our country.
12. War is a failure of diplomacy.

They are all West Point cadets — more specifically, members of the West Point Canterbury Club, whose answers to questions about war were recently featured in an edition of The Episcopal New Yorker".

Read it all here.

Ekklesia reports that an al-Qaeda leader in Iraq has been sentenced to death for the killing of the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho - despite the church's opposition to the death penalty.

The Iraqi government said the criminal court had imposed the death sentence on Ahmed Ali Ahmed, known as Abu Omar.

The archbishop of Mosul, who was 65, was kidnapped in February by gunmen who attacked his car, killing his driver and two bodyguards. His body was found in a shallow grave two weeks later.

The US Embassy in Baghdad welcomed the sentence, saying in a statement: "Reiterating our condolences to the archbishop's family and community, we commend the Iraqi authorities for bringing the perpetrator of this brutal crime to justice."

But the Archbishop of Kirkuk, Louis Sako said the death penalty against the convicted killer would not help improve the situation in Iraq.

Read it all here.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu will visit Gaza later this week to conduct a United Nations investigation into the killing of 19 Palestinians by Israeli shells in November 2006.

According to a report by Ekklesia:

[Tutu] is intending to visit the scene of the incident in which Israeli forces fired an artillery barrage into the Gazan town of Beit Hanoun.

The UN Human Rights Council set up the fact-finding mission in 2006, with Tutu charged with reporting back with his findings, but Tutu had been denied a visa for the last 18 months.

Read it all here.

Recently Bishop Tutu spoke at the UN on Faith and Health. Ecumenical News International (ENI) reports:

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is a man known for speaking out about injustices from whatever side they come, and for his charismatic preaching peppered with heart-wrenching anecdotes. However, when he visited the United Nations in Geneva on 20 May, he stressed the link between "faith and health".

Listen to his speech here.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the Episcopal Church and Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) have released a joint statement on Sudan.

In the coming days, we urge all Americans to pray for peace in the Sudan and to call for strong action from the international community to restore stability in a land whose people have been entangled far too long in violence.

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From the Church of Southern Africa:

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town today called on the Southern African Development Community to establish mechanisms in Zimbabwe to bring about an end to political violence.

He also urged Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF to recognise the legitimacy of its political opponents.

The full text of his statement follows:

Statement by the Most Reverend Thabo Makgoba, Archbishop of Cape Town

"The African Union's resolution calling for negotiations to settle Zimbabwe's political crisis is a welcome first step towards fulfilling the AU's potential to work for an Africa without conflict.

"Now space must be created to ensure that the negotiations are productive.

"Both parties have to be genuinely willing to address one another's fears and aspirations. If the talks are to succeed, Zanu-PF needs to recognise the legitimacy of the MDC. In addition, the talks will go nowhere if Zimbabweans continue to live in terror of being attacked and killed for not having red ink on their fingers.

"We acknowledge and give thanks for what the SADC mediation process has delivered so far. However, it needs now to be expanded, and I urge SADC to establish mechanisms on the ground in Zimbabwe to bring about a climate free of political violence.

"We pray for negotiations between partners fully committed to finding one another and ending the desperate suffering of their people. A lasting settlement would breathe hope and transformation into our common life in Southern Africa."

The World Council of Churches, the Conference of European Churches and World Vision have called for peace in the military conflict between Russian and Georgia.

Ecumenical News International (ENI) reports:

The patriarchs of the Russian and Georgian Orthodox churches have issued calls for peace as military conflict between Russia and Georgia over the pro-Russian separatist enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia escalated into the first war between countries with Orthodox Christian majorities in modern history.

"Today blood is being shed and people are perishing in South Ossetia, and my heart deeply grieves over it. Orthodox Christians are among those who have raised their hands against each other. Orthodox peoples called by the Lord to live in fraternity and love are in conflict," Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II said in a statement on patriarchia.ru, his official Web site.
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The Web site of the Georgian Orthodox Church, patriarchate.ge, reports that in a sermon on 10 August, Patriarch Ilia II called for prayers to end the conflict.

Backing for the patriarchs' appeals came from two international church groupings that said the United Nations must "ensure the territorial integrity and political independence of Georgia".

In a 12 August joint statement, the World Council of Churches and the Conference of European Churches warned, "The use of force in the dispute over South Ossetia and Abkhazia has cost the precious lives of civilians and soldiers, risks destabilising a fragile region, and reawakens deep fears there and far beyond."

Ekklesia carries the plea from World Vision:

As fierce fighting continues in Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region, international aid agency World Vision is calling for the international community to help broker an immediate ceasefire.

"Thousands of civilians are in harm's way right now, including women and children," warned David Womble, World Vision's national director for Georgia.

"The U.N. Security Council must make this matter a priority, and help broker an immediate ceasefire between the parties. If fighting continues, thousands of families will be forced to flee, and we could be faced with a humanitarian crisis."

To avoid any further civilian casualties and suffering, World Vision is calling for the United Nations Security Council to work to broker an immediate ceasefire. It also urges that combatants abide by international law and protect civilians, particularly children and women, who are most vulnerable.

Jewish relief groups are also active in care for refugees:

The evacuation effort has been a lightning, joint project of international Jewish organizations working in close conjunction with the Israeli government. The Israeli Embassy has become a hub of activity where leaders and refugees have shuttled to and from since the conflict began.

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, one of the agencies working on the ground, estimates that more than 700 Jews have been displaced in recent days.

CNN has the details. Let's hope this ends the persecution of the Anglican Church in that country. Pray for Bishop Sebastian Bakare of Harare, who has bravely labored to put this diocese back together under incredible stress.

Click Read More to see the pastoral letter he sent to the people of his diocese in June.

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