The Moderator of the General Assembly and the Archbhishop of Glasgow were amongst clergy who took part in a peace vigil outside HM Naval Base on the Clyde to make a fresh call for a world free of nuclear weapons, the Church of Scotland media team reports.
Moderator Rt Rev Gordon Kennedy was accompanied by Rev Sarah Brown, convener of the Public Life and Social Justice programme group of the Church of Scotland, at a time when conflicts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe rage and the threat posed by these soon-to-be upgraded and expanded stocks in the UK is greater than in recent memory.
The No To Nuclear Weapons ecumenical peace gathering on Saturday was organised by Justice & Peace Scotland.
Eighty-one years ago, an estimated 140,000 people in Hiroshima, Japan, were killed and at least 74,000 people died in Nagasaki a few days later, leading to the Japanese government surrendering on 2 September of that year, ending the Second World War.
The current generation of warheads – held by nine nations – is understood to be 80 times more powerful than those dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Praying for a world that turns its back on nuclear weapons and embraces justice and peace was the central theme of the Moderator’s address to the vigil.
“Praying is not talking to the wall; praying is striving against all the enemies of justice and peace,” he said.
“We make peace when we act for reconciliation, not just with those that we like but with any other.
“If we walk in the way of peace with all our God, with all our neighbours, it might be that God will grow from our walking in his ways and nations will no longer desire to keep and deploy weapons of mass destruction.”
The vigil was led by Most Rev William Nolan, Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow, and Bishop-President of Justice & Peace Scotland.
Patsy Thomson, a lay preacher from the Scottish Episcopal Church, and representatives of the Quakers in Scotland, the United Reformed Church, the Iona Community and Pax Christi Scotland also attended.