Posted Friday 23 February 2007
The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, The Most Rev Dr Idris Jones, gave his support to the 'Bin the Bomb' road-show meeting held in Edinburgh last night.
In his address, Bishop Idris reminded those present of the Church's General Synod call in 2000 to "begin a process to enable the exploration of issues surrounding the arms trade as the most pressing global issue".
"The issue is not just about the nuclear range of weaponry, but about the suffering caused by the arms trade now," said Bishop Idris, who highlighted this issue when preparing to present a petition of about 20,000 signatures to the Ministry of Defence last November.
On that occasion he said: "The Churches in Scotland have consistently spoken out against the use of nuclear armaments. A wider issue is that of the arms trade in general which generates huge sums for the economy but puts into the hands of irresponsible and brutal men weapons that they use to kill, maim and torture others. It fuels on-going violence in many nations across the world - Christian partners in Africa say that the best help we could give them is to stop the arms trade."
The Primus supports the report from the Church of England's Mission and Public Affairs Council which criticises the Government's White Paper in terms of its proposed process of consultation, sharing the concern that the period for public consultation on this matter is too short. He upholds the Archbishop of Canterbury's statement last December which states that careful consideration be given to three distinct levels of concern about the White Paper proposals: the Moral dimension, the Legal dimension and the Strategic dimension.
Category: Bishops, Dioceses, Glasgow & Galloway, General
