3-minute version:
When a former Secretary of State, a former Secretary of Defense, several United States Ambassadors, a famous physicist, and a few friends pray each month for the elimination of nuclear weapons, it raises lots of questions. What do they know that everyone needs to know? Why are they praying? What is their prayer?
In this video, you are invited to view the unfolding of this prayer and to meet these veterans of nuclear negotiations:
• The Honorable William J. Perry, former Secretary of Defense under President Clinton
• The Honorable George P. Shultz, former Secretary of State under President Reagan
• Dr. Sidney Drell, Professor Emeritus at the Stanford Linear Accelerator
• Ambassador James E. Goodby, former Strategic Nuclear Arms Negotiator with the U.S.S.R.
• Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr, former Senior U.S. Diplomat
• Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute
• Monica Willard, United Religions Initiative Representative to the United Nations
• The Right Rev. William E. Swing, former Episcopal Bishop of California, and President and Founder of the United Religions Initiative
Voices for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons is part of the United Religions Initiative; an international nonprofit that brings together people of all faiths and traditions to solve the problems facing our world as a whole. Learn more at http://www.uri.org/cooperation_circle...
Read the prayer:
The Beginning and the End are in your hands, O Creator of the Universe. And in our hands you have placed the fate of this planet. We, who are tested by having both creative and destructive power in our free will, turn to you in sober fear and intoxicating hope. We ask for your guidance and to share in your imagination in our deliberations about the use of nuclear force. Help us to lift the fog of atomic darkness that hovers so pervasively over our Earth, Your Earth, so that soon all eyes may see life magnified by your pure light.
Bless all of us who wait today for your Presence and who dedicate ourselves to achieve your intended peace and rightful equilibrium on Earth. In the Name of all that is holy and all that is hoped. Amen.
The Rt. Rev. William E. Swing,
President and Founder, United Religions Initiative (URI)
