Church leaders in Peace Witness at Faslane Nuclear Base

Archbishop Nolan and

As Disarmament Week came to a close on Saturday, 29 October Justice & Peace Scotland gathered with our Bishop President - Archbishop Nolan of Glasgow, Dr Greenshields, Moderator of the Church of Scotland and some dedicated anti nuclear campaigners to hold a Peace Witness at the gates of Faslane Nuclear Base on the Clyde.

Fr David Stewart SJ welcomed those gathered saying: "What you have come to this day is our service of witness here at the very gates of this military establishment where we can see, in plain sight, weapons of mass destruction which, we believe, have no place here or anywhere in our Common Home. We are here because we feel sure that the doctrine of deterrence, of terror, of mutually-assured destruction, cannot ever be compatible with the dream of God the Creator for this world and all the people in it. "Perfect love drives out fear", the Christian Gospel of St John tells us. We look around ourselves, particularly in this really beautiful part of God's creation, Argyll, and we wonder, probably in fear, how it would all look after a nuclear detonation…"

At the end of our prayer service Archbishop Nolan and the Dr Greenshields, Moderator of The Church of Scotland also addressed the Peace Witness, here is an excerpt of their message to those assembled.

Archbishop Nolan said: "For the last few decades our society has become complacent about nuclear weapons, they haven't been used since the second world war, countries with nuclear weapons got used to having them and they weren't seen as a threat, now we are all aware of the threat, but that threat has always been there. As long as these weapons exist someone will be tempted to use them. The only way to remove that threat is to remove the weapons."

Rt Rev Dr Iain Greenshields, said: "From a Christian perspective, as followers of Jesus Christ, he instructed us to be peacemakers and not bomb makers. Do we really want to boast of or maintain such weaponry? How in God's name can we hold such a position? Indeed, will God not one day judge us for condoning even the existence of such weapons of mass destruction and terror."

You can watch the service and hear the remarks of the Archbishop and the Moderator in full here: https://youtu.be/u_-eigdLpzY