Bishop Bill Nolan will address a “Faslane Peace Witness” event tomorrow (Saturday 29 October) at 1pm.

He will be joined by Rt Rev Dr Iain Greenshields, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, who will also speak to supporters at the gates of HM Naval Base Clyde at Faslane.

The event is organised by the The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland’s (BCOS) Justice & Peace Commission, of which Bishop Nolan is president, along with Scottish Christians Against Nuclear Arms (SCANA) and the Church of Scotland.

 

Fr David Stewart SJ, of Sacred Heart Church, Edinburgh, will lead a short prayer service at the event.

He said: “Weapons of mass destruction, have no place here or anywhere in our Common Home.

"We feel sure that the doctrine of deterrence, of terror, of mutually-assured destruction, cannot ever be compatible with the dream of God the Creator for this world and all the people in it.”

Rt Rev Dr Iain Greenshields, said: “From a Christian perspective, as followers of Jesus Christ, he instructed us to be peacemakers and not bomb makers. Do we really want to boast of or maintain such weaponry?

"How in God’s name can we hold such a position? Indeed, will God not one day judge us for condoning even the existence of such weapons of mass destruction and terror.”

The Scottish Bishops' opposition goes back to 1982 when they published a pastoral letter on Peace and Disarmament.

Archbishop Cushley recently said: "In an intervention at the UN, the Holy See urged that the arms race be condemned unreservedly, because it is a danger, an injustice, a theft from the poor and a folly."

Faslane Peace Witness, 1pm, Saturday 29 October, North Gate, Faslane.