Stop The War Coalition
At a congregational meeting on 28 October 2001 fifteen members of All Hallows explored and discussed their feelings about the war in Afghanistan. The meeting decided upon a press release and statement about the war; this was then circulated to most PCC members who were not present at the meeting, and after their approval was received was sent to the press, local mosques and the anti-war movement. The statement committed All Hallows to supporting the Stop the War Coalition and to mobilising for the 11 November demonstration in London, at which we would hold a Eucharist in Hyde Park. It also committed us to a series of meetings under the title of Understanding Islam — Challenging Islamophobia at which we would increase our understanding of Islam while deepening our connections with the local Muslim community. Speakers included representatives from the local mosques and other local Muslims. After the series on Islam was completed, we organised another series, educating ourselves about the current world situation with speakers on United Nations, Palestine and Afghanistan.
The statement was received well in the local Muslim community. One of the mosques read out the statement at Friday prayers, and parents of children who attended our local playgroup wrote letters of support and thanks. The statement also gave us a profile in the local anti-war movement.
Some people in All Hallows were unhappy with the way this decision was arrived at, and in a few cases with the anti-war stance itself. In order not to mirror the silencing of opposition to the war in the outside world, we committed ourselves to making space for alternative points of view through structured discussion, and at the beginning of December we had a preacher, suggested by people who felt uncomfortable with our position, who put forward an alternative view.
In the end 20 people from All Hallows attended the London demonstration. Below is an article written by Julie Greenan, a church member, on her experience of it, followed by some photographs taken during the Eucharist and the demonstration.
‘Be the change you wish to see in the world’ — Gandhi
by Julie Greenan
Dusk in Trafalgar Square. Floodlit buildings of the British Empire. Beneath Nelson’s column, the muezzin sounds the call to prayer, before iftar, the breaking of the fast from dawn to dusk during the holy month of Ramadan. The fast that is kept in solidarity with those who have no food. The vast crowd stands in silence.
100,000 people, two whole hours for them all to leave Hyde Park, where the peace march begins. Where the towering puppet figures were built, images of death and destruction, made of camouflage and webbing, with bayonets and machine guns for limbs, skeletal heads, collages of mayhem and chaos.
Near Speaker’s Corner, one small group from one small church in one city stacks plastic boxes to form an altar. The rainbow altar cloth becomes their banner. Ten metres away people following a different path unroll prayer mats and begin their prayers. They carry out their rituals alongside each other.
In counterpoint to the routine demo chants, a woman’s strong voice begins to sing ‘All we are saying, is give peace a chance.’ As they walk, laugh, sing themselves hoarse, people along the route smile, nod. Police are surplus to requirements. A thin line of mounted riot police stands redundant. What do we want? ‘Stop the war.’ Park Lane, Piccadilly, Haymarket and into Trafalgar Square.
Speakers of Christian and Muslim faiths, MPs, journalists and writers, political activists and human-rights campaigners of long standing, American and British trade unionists. Women and men. Voices calling for a new way bounce off the colonial stone. The grotesque puppet figures hover and leer over us. One woman speaks of the anguish of the women of Afghanistan. They have no answerphones, no mobile phones to broadcast to the world their messages of grief, loss, horror. To let us know their last words of love.
At the breaking of the fast, bottles of water and dates are passed through the crowd. Food is offered in return, which is immediately shared with others. There is care, courtesy, awareness. The kindness of strangers.
At 5 o’clock they sit on the coach and talk about riding on the London Eye. Gradually, share their thoughts and feelings about the day. It has made a difference. They went to walk and be counted for themselves and for those who could not go. They went because they must, because it was all they could do. They went not because they knew the answers but to take steps with others in the search. To join in that shout down Whitehall, down to the Houses of Parliament that war is not the answer.
At the motorway services, a white driver and a Muslim woman exchange sharp words. He knows, he says, he lives in Bradford. Don’t play the race card with him. Anger flares. ‘But we are all just doing what we can’ says the woman with the strong, beautiful voice. We are just doing what we can. On the way home they discover that the world has been told that they amounted to only 15,000 people. Knowing the magnitude of this lie makes them see more clearly what is at stake.
Photographs
