YOUR EDITORIAL of April 30 ends by claiming that it is blasphemous to maintain that there is nothing worth dying for. Isn't killing not dying the actual issue?
The real problem that faces us, all today, and not only in the Falklands crisis, is what is worth killing for and what limitations there ought to be on such killing.
I suppose today that only a minority of Christians are total pacifists. Many more are what is now called nuclear pacifists.
But all will be well aware by now of the great risks posed today by our precarious world balance of 50,000 nuclear weapons spread today among at least live world powers.
Perhaps all of us could forget for a moment our special differences and think positively about the foundations for world peace which we should all be building.
The United Nations Second Special Session on Disarmament starts in New York on the June 7 and we, in all religious traditions, have been asked to use the weekend before as a time of prayer and reflection about the arms race and the ways in which we can bring it to an end.
Happily that is the weekend of the Pope's Visit here since, in view of the lead constantly given by the Papaci, no theme could be more appropriate than that of world peace.
Literature for that weekend, May 28 to 30, described as Choose Life is available from Pax Christi as is also information about the United Nations service in Westminster Abbey June 6.
If there are those who would like to go to New York for this critical disarmament session then CND is arranging for a visit from the second to the thirteenth June on a special 'Peace Plane'.
From the United Nations Association and from the World Disarmament Campaign information is available about the actual proposals which are being made by our Government and other Governments.
Peace work after all does not mean simply how we happen to react to the Falklands crisis or to particular weapons systems like Trident and cruise.
It means as much and more the work of building a world in which nationalism, militarism and social injustice have much less place than they do at present.
It means creating the conditions in which non-military ways of settling conflicts will seem much more obvious than military ones. In this work Christians have so much to contribute.
Reconciliation must be one of the major tasks for the transnational body of Christ which must be made a practical reality not just a pious aspiration.
Peace work cannot be left only to diplomats and politicians. It is the responsibility of everyone of us and there is no person or community without the ability to take practical steps aimed at building confidence and international understanding.
If you wonder where to start then ask one of your local Quakers to come and tell you about the understanding peace work of that small but critical Christian community.
We still have time, but not much time, to end an arms race which otherwise shows every sign of ending us.
Mgr Bruce Kent General Secretary Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.