Fledgling Christian Group Prepares for Visit to Iraq

A fledgling Christian peace group soon will be tested on a grand scale as it tries to help avert war in the Persian Gulf.

The group, Christian Peacemaker Teams, sprang from the Mennonite and Brethren denominations, which have a longstanding emphasis on nonviolence.

The first religious peace group to travel to Baghdad from the United States was the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which returned from Iraq on Oct. 27 with four people who had been held hostage. One of several clergy who went, the Rev. Mary Jensen, associate pastor of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in North Hollywood, said the Iraqis urged that “there must be no embargo on dialogue.”

The Chicago-based Christian Peacemaker Teams plans to take a dozen U.S. and Canadian church people to Iraq at the end of this month. They will advocate a peaceful solution to the military standoff over Iraq’s invasion of neighboring Kuwait, said Gene Stolzfus, the group’s staff coordinator.

Although the organization was created four years ago, Christian Peacemaker Teams only recently developed a distinct identity, participants said. The Persian Gulf crisis provided new impetus for the group, Stolzfus said.

During the week planned in Iraq, the delegation will try to meet with political leaders and typical citizens, both Muslim and Christian, he said. “We hope to have public prayer services for peace.”

On Oct. 21, the group promoted an “oil-free Sunday” in about 1,000 U.S. and Canadian church congregations to increase awareness of the “hazards of going to war over Middle Eastern oil.”

Supporters of Christian Peacemaker Teams are involved in activities ranging from vigils at nuclear weapons sites to fasting in Washington on behalf of the homeless, Stolzfus said.

The group is a project within the Mennonite Church, Church of the Brethren, General Conference Mennonite Church and Brethren in Christ denominations.