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Peace campaigners hold ecumenical service outside military base


demonstrators link hands in prayer

demonstrators link hands in prayer

An international team of Christian peacemakers yesterday, (Wednesday) held a service at the gates of the military base where the coalition bombings are planned, to commemorate the eighth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

The worshippers blocked the main gate of Northwood HQ from 12.20pm to 1.30pm (when police removed them).

The group said in a statement: 'Thousands of civilians have been killed in bombings by the coalition forces (according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan) and thousands more by Taliban and other factions. Polls of the Afghan people shows 77% do not think the NATO forces are doing a good job. As Christians from many nations and denominations, the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) performed a ritual of exorcism, consisting of Communion, Bible readings, music and a nonviolent blockade of the main gates.'

"We want to invite people to join us in stopping the bombing and join us at the Lord's Table" said David Moss, a pastor from Sacramento, California. As a mark of this, members of the group offered the base personnel the chance to participate in the Communion. As part of the ritual, some of the team members decided to block the entrance, as an act of non-violently getting in the way of the work that goes on inside the base. Northwood is the centre for the planning of joint military operations such as the bombings of the southern part of Afghanistan."

Christian Peacemaker Teams arose from a call in 1984 for Christians to devote the same discipline and self-sacrifice to nonviolent peacemaking that armies devote to war. Enlisting the whole church in an organized, nonviolent alternative to war, today CPT places violence-reduction teams in crisis situations and militarized areas around the world at the invitation of local peace and human rights workers. CPT embraces the vision of unarmed intervention waged by committed peacemakers ready to risk injury and death in bold attempts to transform lethal conflict through the nonviolent power of God's truth and love.

For more information on Christian Peacemaker Teams see: www.cpt.org

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