David McLachlan has written a chapter for a newbook on the response of faith groups to Faslane 365.

F365 AND FAITH GROUPS

The centrality of churches in the anti-nuclear movement was well illustrated by the (now) First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond. The occasion was the Bin The Bomb Rally held on Saturday, 24 February 2007 at George Square, Glasgow. A march had taken place around the city centre and the marchers assembled in the square to hear what would be said from the platform of the stage. Following on from Rev. Alan McDonald (then Moderator of the Church of Scotland), Cardinal Keith O'Brien, and Bruce Kent - Salmond shared his realisation with the assembled crowd - he was the first person to speak at the rally who wasn't a clergyman!

My own denomination, the Church of Scotland, has for many years argued against the possession and threatened use of nuclear weapons. The changing political landscape, with the emergence of New Labour and an end to the unilateralism of previous Labour Party Conferences did nothing to deflect the church from its position of sustained opposition, and I think that on this issue at least the church has a proud record of principled opposition. Now, if anything, the situation is even better, with all mainstream churches basically saying the same thing, and the Christian Church in the UK united on this issue as never before.Why should churches and other faith groups getinvolved in this issue? One answer is that people of faith live in the sameworld as everyone else, and the political arguments currently advanced for theneed to maintain the UK nuclear deterrent sound as weak to them as to anyoneelse. A report passed by the Church of Scotland's General Assembly in 2006said: "We will continue to ask the basic question of Trident or anyreplacement: what is it for?"

For the Christian church there are specific issuesthat arise from the teachings of Jesus. There are Christ's commands that hisfollowers should be peacemakers, and that we should love our enemies. Over theyears this has created a division among Christians between those who arepacifists and those who believe that war may be justified as a last resort - indefence when all other options have failed, and where the responsive force iskept to the minimum necessary. But this is still a far cry from first-strikenuclear weapons which destroy indiscriminately - not simply enemy combatants,but innocent civilians and the environment in which they live. There is alsothe fact that Jesus seemed to be angered more by hypocrisy than anything else.There is today a breathtaking hypocrisy surrounding the UK Government's statedneed to continue with a nuclear deterrent whilst denying that right to othercountries.

All faiths concern themselves with moral questionsand the most fundamental objection of all to the existence of nuclear weaponsis that they fail the moral test. The indiscriminate nature of these killersmake them incapable of use in a proportionate way, and the idea of threateningto destroy the planet (or vast areas of it) is seen by most people of faith asdeeply immoral.

Ultimately, what we spend vast sums of money on,(and what we don't spend vast sums of money on), comes down to values, and thusto morals. The billions to be spent on a Trident replacement could instead bespent on hospitals and schools or to tackle poverty in many places around theworld. What we decide are our priorities in spending is a deeply moralquestion. These issues matter greatly to people of faith.

In Scotland, Christian leaders like Cardinal KeithO'Brien and Moderator Alan McDonald have worked hard to keep the issue in thepublic eye and have provided a united front with Catholic and Protestantchurches sounding the same message. They spoke together in Glasgow on June 27th2006 at a packed public meeting organised by Clergy Action.  This meeting took place only days afterGordon Brown first made the statement that he wanted to see Trident renewed andso was met with a lot of publicity. Since then they have joined forces for theLong Walk for Peace, spoken out at the Bin The Bomb rally and issued lettersabout the  NPT, and signed a joint letterto the Scottish people at New Year 2007 where their prayer for the non-renewalof Trident was stressed.

These sentiments are echoed in other churchstatements north and south of the border. For example, the Rt Revd Peter Selby,Bishop of Worcester said: "Nuclear weapons could never be justified; thereasons that were given in support of our having them have become less and lessplausible. To renew Trident is to allow an opportunity for a real gesturetowards disarmament and peace to pass us by."

Revd R Graham Carter, President of the Methodist Conference, concurs:"The Methodist Conference of 2006 overwhelmingly expressed its opposition to therenewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system... Britain has the opportunity ofgiving a lead to other nations in nuclear reduction and peace-making. If theopportunity is not taken, it seriously weakens any argument against othercountries' development of nuclear weapons. We need to develop more imaginativeways of making peace rather than retreat into the old 'cold war' ways ofthinking."

Last November, the Roman Catholic Bishop's Conference of England andWales expressed similar sentiments when it stated: "We urge the governmentto take a long-term view and act with courageous leadership by seeking to makethis breakthrough toward total nuclear disarmament."

Christian groups were the largest faith groupingsat Faslane 365. That is perhaps not surprising. Despite the decline inreligious affiliation, over 70% of people within the UK still claim to beChristian, so Christians make up the biggest faith communities in the country.Another reason for the church's involvement is that the church has been herefor so many years as part of society and has built up links and relationshipswith government. Over the years there has been a great history of Christiansbeing involved in the political process and lobbying governments on issues ofconcern.

Though church groups, Quakers and Buddhists weremost represented during the blockades, Muslims signed a statement of supportfor the aims of F365.  And, of course,other groups taking part in the campaign will have included people of differentfaiths among their numbers.

Faith groups are often able to mobilise anothersection of society. Many of the people coming to the faith groups blockadeshave not been the "usual suspects" of the past. Christian groups offer a chanceto sing, to worship and pray and usually to share communion in a really uniquesetting.

Faith groups were also vital in providing behindthe scenes support for the campaign as a whole. It was worship centres andchurch halls that provided accommodation for many of the groups over the year -especially those who had travelled long distances.  They also worked at keeping the issue in thenews both locally, nationally and internationally.

Three of the Christian groups most involved in thejoint Christian blockades were Clergy Action, the Iona Community and CANA.[1]  The way in which faith groups worked togetherwas well illustrated by the blockade on November 1st 2006. On thatday Clergy Action, the Iona Community and CANA overlapped with the departingQuakers from Cumbria who invited us to share in their final act of worship. Inour block there were representatives of the three organisations along withpriests from the Church of Scotland, Church of England, Baptist and Catholicchurches, as well as individual lay people who came out to join us. In all, ournumbers were around 45-50 that day. During the course of that afternoon we tookpart in another three services - one led by the Anglicans of CANA, oneby the Iona Community, and a Communion led by Clergy Action. Thiswas followed immediately afterwards by a march down to the front of the MainGate to coincide with the 4pm shift change, where the actual blockade tookplace and some arrests were made.

The following statements were made to the pressafter our release:

The Rev Ainslie Walton (Church of Scotland)Glasgow, said, "It is sheer hypocrisy for the UK to tell other countries theycannot develop nuclear weapons whilst we are designing and intending to deploya whole new generation for ourselves. Blair and Brown told the world theywanted to Make Poverty History. £76 billion would go a long way to making thattrue. If this kind of money can be found for war purposes let's use it insteadfor peace.

Rev David McLachlan (Church of Scotland) ofLangside Church, Glasgow said:

"I want to claim my faith back from those"Christian" world leaders who lie to their public, start wars to destroy othercountries, do little to help the world's poorest, whilst finding £76 billion tothreaten death on an unimaginable scale. I don't know what Bible they read.It's not the one I've got. Giving aid to the needy instead of creating morenuclear weapons would go much further in making this world a safer and betterplace."

Rev David Paterson (Church of England) of Oxfordsaid, "Our "independent" nuclear deterrent is a myth. The nuclear weaponsBritain holds can only be used with U.S. permission. We should have our owndefence system. Do our neighbours in Europe, all of whom (except France) haveno nuclear weapons, go to bed each night in fear of attack? If they can defend themselveswithout resort to nuclear bombs then so can we."

Rev Colin Anderson (Church of Scotland) Glasgow,said, "Jesus is the Prince of Peace and calls his followers to work for peaceacross the world, the possession of nuclear weapons does nothing to promotepeace but only adds to the aggression and posturing of division."

Rev Kay Stiven (Church of Scotland) Edinburgh,said, "The government wants to spend £76 billion and has not agreed thatParliament should even get to vote about it. How is that for good housekeeping!The fact is that there is no situation whatever that could morally justifyusing nuclear weapons. Therefore we shouldn't have them."

At another action on March 9th 2007members of CANA led by Canon David Partridge, with students from Wescott HouseTheological College, travelled north to meet with members of Clergy Action andthe Iona Community. They were joined by Rt Rev Stephen Cottrell, the Bishop ofReading, who presided over a Eucharist in the rain across the road from themain gate of the nuclear base. The service ended with a procession down to thegates and there were some arrests.

In his sermon, Cottrell referred to the beatitudesof Christ and his call that we should be peacemakers. "A peacemaker looks verymuch like a troublemaker! Indeed most of the people who have done the most goodfor peace in the world have caused a lot of trouble for those in authority. AndI not just thinking of Nelson Mandela and Lech Walensa, Desmond Tutu and TrevorHuddleston, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, troublemakers every one of them, but ofordinary men and women; ordinary men and women like those of you who have bornwitness at these gates.... It is a vision that looks crazy to the world. But itis our only hope. While the eyes of the world eye each other with suspicion,build the barricades higher, post sentries along its borders, secure vastarsenals of weapons, and makes pre-emptive strikes against each other callingit defence, we look to Christ, who teaches that all are made in God's image andthat all are worthy of God's love."

Some very effective blockades were staged with aminimum of activists. The Saturday before Advent Sunday seemed like anappropriate day to stage a Nativity Play and that was what the radical Prayer158 group decided to do. Mary, Joseph and a (lock-on) donkey arrived at thebase gates only to be told there was no room for them at this inn. The policehowever did find room for them in the cells that night.

Ten Quakers were arrested on March 4 2007 afterforty invaded the road outside the main Gate for a 15 minute Peace Witness.Participants ranged in age from 16 to 75, and included civil servants,probation officers, students, architects, teachers, poets, tax consultants, andeven brush-makers! Helen Leach, from Leeds, said, "I feel compelled to be herebecause I'm a Quaker; and if you want to live in peace, you must do somethingabout it - however small it may be". Ruth Corry explained, "As a grandmother I want to make a smallcontribution to the security of my grandchildren."  Jenny Biggs, fromYork, said, "We believe that we should respect the laws of the state, but webelieve too that our first loyalty must be to God's purpose". Quaker groupsappeared throughout the year from such places as Moredale, the South ofEngland, and York. 

On Pentecost Sunday a group of marchers from anInterfaith Walk arrived at Faslane as part of their 86 day trek from Dublin toLondon. Only six people took part in the entire walk - though they were joinedby hundreds of supporters along the way. One of the walkers was a JapaneseBuddhist monk.

The Glasgow Buddhist Centre organised a day ofmeditation at the gates after having held several meditative vigils at othertimes.

A group of traineepriests and ministers, supported by their theological colleges, arrived atFaslane in June to witness for peace. The group of 28 included Anglican and Roman Catholic ordinands,Methodist ministerial candidates and staff from four theological colleges. Theparticipating colleges were The Queen's Foundation in Birmingham (ecumenical),and the Durham colleges Cranmer Hall (Anglican), Ushaw College (Roman Catholic)and the Wesley Study Centre (Methodist). The spokesperson for the group was Professor John Hull, "Our faith demandsthat we condemn the planned renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons programme,not simply because these weapons are immoral, illegal, a dreadful waste ofmoney and cannot be justified politically in today's post-Cold War era. Butbecause their use would cause destruction on such as scale that the veryability of creation to create would be destroyed. And that is an offenceagainst God that cannot go un-challenged."

One thing is certain - people of faith willcontinue to be part of the opposition to nuclear weapons as long as theythreaten life and peace.

David McLachlan.

This forms a chapter of a soon tobe released book: Faslane 365, edited by Angie Zelter, published by Luath.

[1]             ClergyAction (my own organisation, which has now changed its name to SCANA (ScottishClergy Against Nuclear Arms). This may seem confusing, but the hope is thatthis name will link us with the work that is being done south of the border.),are a small group of people with a history of mobilising the churches inScotland on this issue. They have organised services of Communion at the Gatesof Faslane during blockades of previous years, as well as actively supportingaction for F365. Many have been arrested during protests. Clergy Action set upthe public meeting with church leaders Rev Alan McDonald and Cardinal KeithO'Brien which generated good publicity. They ran a postcard campaign during therun up to Parliament's vote called MAKETRIDENTHISTORY. Over theyears they have organised vigils and written letters and articles to keep theissue of nuclear weapons before the churches.

                TheIona Community is an ecumenical Christian Community founded by Rev GeorgeMcLeod, with members and associates around the world. Part of their aimsinclude action for justice and peace and the integrity of creation. Members arecommitted to opposing nuclear weapons, campaigning against the arms trade andfor ecological justice. Rev Kathy Galloway, the present leader of theCommunity, led worship during the day of the Big Blockade marking the end ofthe year of activity on October 1st 2007.

                CANA(Clergy Action Against Nuclear Arms), based in England, are another small groupof committed clergy, ministers and laity concerned about war and peace issues,and in particular those with a nuclear dimension. It was set up in the 1980sand encourages supporters to preach and teach about issues of peace and justiceand to lobby the government and witness at demonstrations. They produce papersfor consideration on peace related topics as well as a regular newsletter.