On March 23, 1999 four CPTers and supporters joined 15 others at the Sword and
the Cross war memorial at St. Paul's Anglican Church to call on Toronto's
church leaders to renounce the Just War Doctrine. This was the sixth in a
series of monthly vigils which urge the Christian church to reconsider its
1700 year history of supporting war.

This vigil commemorated Archbishop Oscar Romero's homily on March 23, 1980 in
which he challenged the government of El Salvador to "Stop the Repression!"
Prayers at the vigil were led by workers from Romero House, a reception centre
for refugees fleeing the dozens of wars which continue today. In his homily,
Romero said to the soldiers, "No one has to comply with an immoral law. It is
time now that you recover your conscience and obey its dictates rather than
the command of sin." The next day, March 24, 1980, he was assassinated while
celebrating the eucharist.

The three leaders of these vigils have written again to the leaders of the
Toronto-area mainline churches (Anglican, Roman Catholic, United,
Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist) asking them to lead the church in removing
the bronze sword from this stone cross as a public renunciation of the Just
War doctrine. Only the Anglicans have responded to these vigils saying they
agreed a year ago to undertake a church-wide study of the Just War but they
are still studying how to do the
study.

During Holy Week, the three vigilers will visit the headquarters of the
mainline churches to pray and again seek to meet with the leaders. On Good
Friday, the vigilers will pause in prayer one last time, hoping that some
church leaders will lead the church in taking down the Sword from the Cross.
If that does not happen, the vigilers feel bound in conscience to begin the
process themselves.

This Easter, will the Church choose the Sword or the Cross, the power of
violence or the power of love?