Episcopal Press and News
Washington Report Explores N-issues
Episcopal News Service. August 8, 1985 [85170]
WASHINGTON (DPS, Aug. 8) -- The Public Issues Office of the Episcopal Church Center has sent to all bishops and public policy peace network members a 120-page draft report by the Committee of Inquiry on the Nuclear Issue of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.
Established by Diocesan Bishop John T. Walker in June 1983, the committee has, over the past two years, met with over 40 experts and officials and consulted a wide range of published works and statements, in an effort to sort out the moral/ethical and political/security dimensions of the world's nuclear predicament. The report is a description of that inquiry and of the judgements reached by committee members. Its purpose is to encourage and help others make the same voyage toward understanding the dilemmas posed by nuclear weapons and nuclear issues. The draft is being distributed throughout the diocese also.
The draft paper calls for an anti-satellite weapons test ban accord and renewed test ban negotiations and opposes production and deployment of the MX missile and development of the Strategic Defense Initiative.
The committee is chaired by a retired career Foreign Service Officer, the Hon. Viron P. Vaky, former Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs and Ambassador to Costa Rica, Colombia and Venezuela. It is composed of 15 members -- 12 laity and three clergy. Among the witnesses consulted were officials from the current administration, including the Secretary of Defense and the Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and officials from earlier administrations, retired military officers, scientists, academics, arms control experts, ethicists and theologians, as well as representatives from various parishes in the diocese.
The report, entitled "The Nuclear Dilemma: A Search for Christian Understanding," is divided into six chapters plus an epilogue. The report does not attempt to analyze every specific operational problem currently at issue. Instead, it examines the underlying premises, assumptions and beliefs -- the mind-sets -- that underpin particular strategies, concepts and operational decisions. Similarly, the report does not attempt to describe a detailed blueprint for future nuclear policy. Rather, it suggests the general directions in which Committee members believe the nation needs to move.
Copies of the report can be ordered by sending a check for $3.00, which includes postage, to: The Peace Commission, Church House, Mount Saint Alban, Washington, D.C. 20016 (202) 537-6546.