“The US, under its banner of “War on Terror,” is the biggest threat to global security for it targets any state, nation, or individual that it deems to be a threat to US economic and geo-political interests,” participants of the International Ecumenical Conference on Terrorism in a Globalized World declared in a statement.

Delegates of the conference held September 23-26, 2002 at the Bayview Park Hotel forged the statement as a united position to challenge the US-led wars of aggression against their targeted countries.

Participants also called on the churches to initiate visible actions on October 7, 2002 to mark one year of the US war on Afghanistan and to reject US unilateral military actions against Iraq and other perceived terrorists of the US.

They also decried the presence of US military troops in the country: “The presence of US troops and their activity in the country violates national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) general secretary Sharon Rose Joy Ruiz-Duremdes, one of the conference organizers, declared that “the conference is a big success for it gathered a large number of respected ecumenical leaders, scholars, academicians and peace advocates from all over the world -130 delegates (103 foreigners from 22 countries, 14 denominations) and it has paved the way in facilitating a global coalition of ecumenical and inter-faith movements against US global hegemony.”

"These delegates will go home to their respective countries, churches and organizations and circulate the unity statement, confront the issue of state terrorism and globalization. This means that the conference will spark a worldwide movement calling for peace based on justice,” she added.

The delegates, local-church based groups and sectoral organizations mobilized in front of the US embassy on September 27 and chanted “ Justice Not War.” They also wore body placards bearing “No to US Wars, Not in our Names!,” and dramatized their calls by forming a human chain in front of the embassy.

Rev. Chris Fergusson of the United Church of Canada read the unity statement during the mobilization and stressed that,"We are here to say that among the things that must stop is the US aggression against Iraq and the US support for the Israeli aggression against Palestine."

Mr. David Wildman, a conference delegate from the US, spoke during the mobilization and expressed the sentiment of a growing number of Americans that “the US war of aggression against Iraq and its deployment of US troops in the Philippines is not supported by the American people. Pres. Bush must not use us to justify the war, NOT IN OUR NAME!”

Ms Linda Banks from the Caribbean and Ms Moana Cole from New Zealand, participants to the Peace Mission in Central Luzon, also delivered speeches during the program.

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