Statement from Faith Organizations and Leaders  Calling for a Christmas Truce in Ukraine

SIGN ON STATEMENT:

As people of faith and conscience, believing in the sanctity of all life on this planet, we call for a Christmas Truce in Ukraine. In the spirit of the truce that occurred in 1914 during the First World War, we urge our government to take a leadership role in bringing the war in Ukraine to an end through supporting calls for a ceasefire and negotiated settlement, before the conflict results in a nuclear war that could devastate the world’s ecosystems and annihilate all of God’s creation.  

Initiated by Fellowship of Reconciliation-USA, CODEPINK, the Peace in Ukraine Coalition, and the National Council of Elders

Background and Context:

As the war in Ukraine rages on, the toll of death and destruction continues to mount and the potential for escalation and the use of nuclear weapons grows. The direct catastrophic impact the war has already had on the people of Ukraine is still unknown but countless thousands of civilians have already died and 14 million have been displaced. The war’s impact is multiplied outside of Ukraine’s borders as rising prices for wheat, fertilizer and fuel are creating growing crises in global hunger and poverty. 

Whether it’s Christians around the world preparing for Christmas or Jews awaiting the Festival of Lights holiday of Hanukkah all of the Abrahamic faiths embrace the prophetic voice of Isaiah who exhorted us to transform swords into plowshares. In this winter holiday season of peace, we ask our government’s leaders to recall another murderous conflict between nations that took place on the European continent over a century ago. In 1914, roughly 100,000 German and British soldiers along the Western Front in World War I declared an unofficial Christmas Truce and ceased hostilities for a short period. 

It was a moment so shocking to our usual expectations that it continues to reverberate in our collective imaginations over 100 years later. Another Christmas Truce could save lives and pave the way for critical peace talks. 

The way out of the war in Ukraine will not be a military solution. The path toward peace in Ukraine requires powers of a different sort: negotiation and imagination. As leaders of a diverse group of faith communities, we sign onto the petition below and pray that our leaders have the courage and conscience to use those powers instead.

Initial signers include:
Bishop William J. Barber, President, Repairers of the Breach
Dr. Cornel West, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary
Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., Founder & President, Rainbow PUSH Coalition
Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Director, Kairos: The Center for Religions, Rights, & Social Justice; Co-Chair, Poor People's Campaign
Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler, FOR-USA senior advisor; Racial and economic justice advocate
Dr. Zoharah Simmons, civil rights movement veteran, National Council of Elders
Joyce Ajlouny, General Secretary, American Friends Service Committee
Rev. Dorsey O. Blake, Presiding Minister, Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco, National Council of Elders
Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, General Secretary Emeritus, Reformed Church in America
Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, President, Sojourners
Rev. Janet Wolf, National Council of Elders
Rev. Jim Wallis, Founding Director, Center on Faith & Justice, Georgetown University; Founder, Sojourners
Bridget Moix, General Secretary, Friends Committee on National Legislation
Rev. William Lamar, IVMetropolitan AME Church, Washington, DC
Rev. Freeman Palmer, Conference Minister, Central Atlantic Conference of the UCC
Rev. Dr. Dorsey Blake, Presiding Minister, The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, National Council of Elders
Imam Abu Nahidian, Manassas Mosque
Sư Cô Thích Nữ Chân Không, Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism
Thầy Thích Chân Pháp Ấn, Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, Pastor and Author
Rev. Bob Roberts, Jr., Senior Global Pastor, Northwood Church, Keller, TX
Rev. Dr. John Dorhauer, General Minister and President, United Church of Christ
Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, President, Unitarian Universalist Association
Nicholas Sooy, Director, Orthodox Peace Fellowship & In Communion
Imam Mujahid Abdul Malik, President, Sound Vision Foundation
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Founder & Director, The Shalom Center
Marie Dennis, Senior Advisor, Catholic Nonviolence Initiative Program, Pax Christi International
Rick Santos, President & C.E.O., Church World Service
Rabbi Phyllis Berman, ALEPH Ordination Program’s Hashpa’ah Program
Rabbi Michael Lerner, Founder & Editor, Tikkun magazine; Rabbi, Beyt Tikkun Synagogue-Without-Walls 
Dr. Tarunjit Singh Butalia, Executive Director, Religions for Peace USA
Ariel Gold, Executive Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation USA
Rev. Dr. Iva E. Carruthers, General Secretary, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference
Rev. Michael McBride, Pastor, The Way Christian Center; Director, LIVE FREE campaign, Faith in Action
Dr. Daisy Khan, Executive Director & Founder, Women's Islamic Initiative for Spirituality & Equality
Rev. John Heagle, Chair, Gospel Nonviolence Working Group, Association of U.S. Catholic Priests
Rev. Terrence Moran, Director of Peace, Justice, & Ecological Integrity Office, Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth
Dr. James Zogby, President of the Arab American Institute & professor of religion
Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili, Metropolitan Bishop, Peace Cathedral
Valarie Kaur, Sikh leader and author; Founder, Revolutionary Love Project
Brother Chan Phap Dung, Senior Teacher, Deer Park Monastery
Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe, General Secretary, United Methodist Church, General Board of Church & Society
Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia Thompson, Associate General Minister, United Church of Christ, Co-Executive, Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ
Rev. Marco Cable, President, Division of Overseas Ministries, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Co-Executive, Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ
Rev. Dr. Shanta Premawardhana, President, OMNIA Institute for Contextual Leadership/ Interfaith Peace Teams

If you are not a lay or ordained faith leader, please take this to your faith community/congregation and ask them to sign on.

*We are requesting individual signatures, whether or not you are signing on for your organization
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