The one-year anniversary of the start of the Iraq War is fast approaching. It will be a time for people across the United States, indeed around the globe, to take stock, to mourn the loss of human life, and to direct our energies toward a more peaceful future.
For people in the religious community in the United States, faith instills hope, even as we mark a somber anniversary and reflect on the many ways that the Iraq War has taken its toll among us in lives, resources, and trust.
Today we hold in our hearts and our prayers more than 130,000 U.S. troops in danger in Iraq, more than 535 who have died, and the many thousands who have returned with physical and mental injuries. Many of these soldiers and their families are members of our congregations. The lives of churches, mosques, synagogues and other houses of worship across the country have been directly touched by this tragedy. They will need no prompting to pray for these men and women and their families. They will need no reminder to light a special candle for peace.
Some houses of worship-Christian and Muslim-include members of Iraqi origin, persons who sought refuge in the United States in years past, along with their families who have worked, sacrificed and flourished in this nation. Along with them, we will grieve for the millions of lives lost in Iraq-during the past year and during the long years of brutal dictatorship and devastating economic sanctions that preceded the war. For our Iraqi brothers and sisters, these dead, those who have been wounded, and the places that have been destroyed are an immediate and very personal tragedy. They need no reminder to pray for those who live in memory.
Our houses of worship also include hundreds of thousands of people whose lives have been diminished by the Iraq War but who are not included in any official count of the casualties: people living in poverty, veterans whose benefits have been cut, children whose schools have no books, and families with no health insurance. As poverty deepens in this country, as programs that benefit people are cut back or eliminated, more people every day are facing hunger, homelessness, and lack of medical care. The same is true of people around the globe struggling against poverty and disease, who will receive reduced U.S. support in these days. Let us all heed the reminder that in the grim economy of war, the cost of destruction in one place is paid for by deprivation in others.
As we gather in our congregations and in interfaith settings to mark the first anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, we pray for a world that has become ever more dangerous. Three of the Iraqi religious leaders with whom a National Council of Churches delegation met last year have now been assassinated. As many as a thousand Iraqi professors, doctors and other professionals have been killed. Terrorists who were not in Iraq a year ago are now there. Civil War is imminent. Iraq is not truly free, and in the United States, our own long-cherished freedoms are in peril, as civil liberties come under assault.
With congregations in churches, mosques, synagogues and other houses of worship across the nation, we hold all those affected by this war in prayer. We support all houses of worship in plans to make a special commemoration and to hold peace vigils, according to their custom, at some time during the weekend of Friday, March 19, through Sunday March 21. We encourage them to share their stories with us.
Let us use this time to connect the grief and the deep concerns felt in our families and our congregations with others who suffer across the U.S. and around the globe. Together let us raise our prayers for peace and justice everywhere in God's creation. Inspired and informed by our faith, let us transcend the uncertainties and insecurities of this moment in history. Assured of God's love, we can think and plan and work toward the kind of world that reflects God's will for humanity.
Sample litanies, prayers and other worship materials.
