Peace/Justice Stands Affirmed In Anaheim
Episcopal News Service. September 19, 1985 [85179]
ANAHEIM (DPS, Sept. 19) -- The Episcopal Church has again spoken clearly on its priorities for peace and peacemaking. By mid-week in the Sept. 7-14 gathering, both Houses of the Convention had passed a series of resolutions affirming, and in several cases strengthening, actions taken by the 1982 Convention. The actions:
Oppose the production of chemical weapons or nerve gas; Express opposition to the Strategic Defense Initiative, known as "Star Wars."
The Rev. Canon Kermit Lloyd, chairman of the Deputies' National and International Affairs Committee, presented the resolution with the argument that far from being a strategy to prevent nuclear war, as its proponents claim, the Strategic Defense Initiative was actually an escalation of the arms race.
Charles W. Rex III, of Central Florida, representing the minority view on the committee, countered that the initiative "is a potential way of making nuclear weapons obsolete... If we could do away with a weapons system like that, maybe it would give us some additional time to negotiate for peace in the world."
The vote was close enough to warrant a standing vote, but in the end the motion carried and was passed on to the Bishops.
Wednesday morning General Ralph E. Haines, Jr. a committee member from West Texas who had been absent from the House on Tuesday, asked that he be allowed to deliver another minority report, and was granted that privilege by the chair. He strongly advocated the program and said he "sees no indication that the administration sees SDI as a technical fix to be substituted for hard negotiations."
However, the motion to reconsider the resolution failed and thus did not affect the Bishops' concurrence. That concurrence did not come without similar debate and an appeal from Bishop Maurice Benitez of Texas that SDI could be a "stabilizing factor."
The Convention also agreed to provide funding for a staff position on peace and justice issues and converted the Joint Commission on Peace into a standing commission (which does not need to be re-authorized each Convention) with a broad mandate to develop and oversee programs in these areas. The Committee's paper "To Make Peace", which was endorsed as a study document last in 1982, was commended as the Church's official statement on international arms issues and the equivilent work by the National Conference of (Roman) Catholic Bishops was also commended to the Church's attention.
In related actions, the Convention has gone on record as strongly opposing both covert and overt aid to the Contras in Nicaragua by the United States and all other governments and calling for an end to embargos and other activities aimed at destabilizing the government of Nicaragua. This was, essentially, an endorsement of an Executive Council resolution that had itself endorsed the stand taken by the diocesan Convention.