by Mary Miller (Past Chair of EPF’s National Executive Council and Executive Director Emeritus)
Over the years of this history, EPF tried to be clear that we support the Episcopal Church’s obligation to minister to those in the armed forces, that we do not believe the church can abandon them. Now that the office also serves as overseer of VA hospital chaplains and federal prison chaplains, it’s even clearer that the church needs to be in those places, that we cannot leave that work to others who see nothing wrong with war or the death penalty or any number of other issues about which we don’t agree. It is working within The System and much about that is repugnant and involves us in immorality Nobody in this business is free of complicity at some level.
Pacifism is a journey and those pieces of us which are un-pacific may always be there, always things we need to work on. EPF is totally opposed to war as a method of settling international disputes and not compatible to the teachings and life of Jesus Christ and of God’s intention for humanity. War is not a moral way of being in the world, as a nation or as an individual. We must recognize that the Pentagon exists, that we may or may not find any common ground on which to stand. And we will not stop trying to make a difference – we will not go away.
Both EPF and the military chaplains and their bishops have grown over the years in how we deal with each other. We cannot serve God and country both most days and must choose God’s leading before any other loyalties. We’ve discovered ways to argue with folks who disagree with where we are – it frequently means our agreeing to disagree even if they can’t even agree with that. EPF is present at these consecrations as a witness to another way of being in the world. We’ve given up our traditional protest in this case in favor of modeling a different way of being.
