The religious leaders of the European countries that are members of the UN Security Council left for Washington on 26 February, to “convince the USA not to launch a war against Iraq”. Participating in the mission are the president of the Protestant Federation of France, pastor Jean-Arnold de Clermont, the president of the Council of the German Protestant Churches, pastor Manfred Koch, the Rev. Alan McDonald of the Church of Scotland and Salphy Eskidjan of the World Council of Churches. The mission is also being accompanied by the members of the American delegation, on their return from a trip to Europe where they actively lobbied European governments to ask that every effort be made to prevent a war in Iraq. In Europe the Church leaders met British prime minister Tony Blair and German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. A meeting is also planned with the president of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. US president George Bush has declined a meeting. This is not the first time that a European ecumenical delegation has gone to the USA: the last time was immediately after the terrorist attacks of 11 September. On that occasion recalled French pastor Clermont “the Americans gave proof of their solidarity and communion with other populations living in suffering”. “So you will understand the pastor added how shocked and disturbed we were to see the French position interpreted as hostile to the USA. It is, on the contrary, the affirmation of the will to find through negotiation a solution to the Iraqi crisis and the disarmament of a totalitarian regime we all condemn”.
