Interfaith Call for Christmas Truce in Ukraine

Dec. 24, 2022 (EIRNS)—More than 1,000 faith leaders, “representing believers from every major tradition and every state in the nation” have signed a statement calling for a Christmas truce in Ukraine, writes Ariel Gold, the Executive Director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation USA (FORUSA), in an op-ed for the New York Daily News.

Working with the National Council of Elders, CODEPINK, and the Peace in Ukraine Coalition, FORUSA organized signatures calling for a Christmas truce, as an opportunity for greater moral clarity towards negotiations for a lasting peace.

“As people of faith and conscience, believing in the sanctity of all life on this planet, we call for a Christmas Truce in Ukraine,” the statement begins.

“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.”

Other signers include Veterans for Peace, Dr. Cornel West, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow.

“The way out of the war in Ukraine will not be a military solution,” writes Gold. “The way to peace requires powers of a different sort” than those provided by weapons: “negotiation and imagination.”