ANGLICAN Church leaders from all over the world indicated last week that they could endorse civil disobedience in efforts to promote nuclear disarmament. Twenty seven bishops said ins statement following a meeting in Washington. USA. that the idea of a "just war", fought with limited use of force and for a just cause. was "not appropriate for • modern times." But not all of them agreed that pacifism was the only legitimate stance for the Church. • In response to a question at a press conference after the meeting, Bishop Alastair Haggait of the Episcopal church in Scotland said that the bishops could endorse civil disobedience since the statement advocated support for "those who seek hy education and other appropriate means to influence those people and agencies who shape nuclear policy."
The bishops also pledged themselves to work for multilateral disarmament and called for arms reduction talks to be "resumed and pursued with determination."
Earlier the archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Robert Runcie had told the National Press Club in Washington that "tactical nuclear weapons contribute to the dangerous illusion that limited nuclear war is possible."
He added: "It is vital that we 'see modern weapons of war for what they are — evidence of madness."
As well as urging talks to ban tactical nuclear weapons, Dr Runcie called for a total ban on nuclear testing.