Four member churches of the World Council of Churches (WCC) are represented among 26 faith leaders in the United Kingdom who issued a joint statement recently calling on states with nuclear weapons to join other states in negotiations to eliminate nuclear arsenals.
The signatories of the statement include representatives of Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist communities across the UK. The statement, issued ahead of the upcoming Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, argues that nuclear arsenals “violate the principle of dignity for every human being that is common to each of our faith traditions”.
The faith leaders have urged nuclear weapons states to “develop a robust plan of action that will lead us to a nuclear weapon free world” and have stressed that “it is necessary to move beyond the division of our world into recognized nuclear and non-nuclear weapons states”.
The statement is signed by the Rev. Dr Chris Ellis, president of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Rev. John Chalmers, moderator of the Church of Scotland General Assembly, Rev. Kenneth G. Howcroft and Gill Dascombe, president and vice-president of the Methodist Conference; John Ellis, moderator of the United Reformed Church and Paul Parker, Recording Clerk for Quakers in Britain.
Read full text of the statement from faith leaders in the UK
Civil society including churches again denied access to disarmament forum (WCC news release of 24 February 2015)
