On the brink of war

The Bishop of Chichester, the Rt Revd John Hind, addressed congregations in the Parish Churches of the Holy Cross, Uckfield, and S Saviour & S Peter, Eastbourne, on Sunday 16 March. The message is offered to all Christians.

We meet to celebrate the peace of Christ while the threat of war is becoming ever more pressing.

It is not for us at an act of worship to take sides or make political points, but as this service begins I want to say a word which may I hope be helpful as to how to handle our anguish and confusion, perhaps even our anger and frustration.

As Christians, our sight is fixed on a world where war is no more, and we also know that true religion and virtue can never be defended or extended by violence, force of arms or war.

But even if our real citizenship is in heaven we still live in a world of conflict where it is not always easy to make the right decisions.

Nevertheless, because God in Christ has shared our life we know that we cannot stand on the sidelines.

So what can we do?

Not surprisingly, Christians do not all agree about the right response to the present crisis. We can however all agree to stand together and hold in our hearts those who are facing danger or who have complex and troubling decisions to take.

This is not a pious platitude for those far away from the action, because there is something literally heart-breaking about allowing our own hearts to be the place where conflicting aims and values meet. There sometimes is no simple or single answer to messy human situations.

But our faith tells us that if we can manage to hold in our hearts the people of Iraq and their neighbours, the soldiers massing in the area, the leaders of the nations, and especially our own, as they wrestle with their consciences, God may be able to do more with our sense of helpless anguish than we can possibly imagine.

+John Cicestr:



Prayers in Time of War