Ecumenical initiatives in support of peace continue in France. A prayer vigil organized by the Council of the Christian Churches of France was held in the church of “La Madelaine” in Paris on 10 February, on the occasion of the visit to the French capital by a delegation of the National Council of the Churches of the USA. Representatives of the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches were present. “The American delegation says a press release put out by the Protestant Federation came to France to thank the Churches for their actions in support of peace”. The American delegation went on to meet German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Berlin and also visited Rome and Moscow. In the regions of Belfort and Montbéliard, meanwhile, Lutherans, Catholics and Orthodox decided to send an “open letter” to all the MPs of their Region to ask them to do all in their power to ensure that France “resolutely opposes, with all the legal international means at its disposal, the outbreak of a preventive war in Iraq. While it should not be forgotten that the regime of Saddam Hussein has massacred tens of thousands of Kurds and starved his people, and that many regard Saddam as a tyrant, it should also be recalled that a war may have still more disastrous consequences at the human, social and political level”.
