Key points:
- With no deal in sight, United Methodists are praying for peace as they’ve done since the beginning of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran.
- They also are speaking out against threats of genocide and the disregard for human life.
- A Colorado church is among the congregations taking a stand, with a memorial that has garnered attention around the world.
At the close of their Good Friday service, each worshipper at Cedaredge Community United Methodist Church carried a candle outside for another memorial.
They walked around the corner and stopped at the Colorado church’s driveway where an artist had arranged with care, along the driveway and up the stairs in the shape of a heart, 168 pairs of tiny shoes. Each pair symbolized one of the 168 children and teachers killed Feb. 28 when a U.S. Tomahawk missile hit a girls’ school in Minab, Iran.
Standing around the display, worshippers prayed, shared words of remembrance and then lit their candles in silence.
The Rev. Bob Anders, the church’s pastor and a retired Army nurse, told United Methodist News that he felt it made sense to mourn the students and teachers on the same day that Christians around the world also mourned Christ’s Crucifixion.
“On Good Friday, we remember that Jesus suffered and died for us,” he said. “And these little girls, they made a sacrifice, too. Their lives were taken.”
With ceasefire talks ending without any agreement and the U.S. moving to blockade Iranian ports, United Methodists around the globe are continuing to pray and advocate for peace as they’ve done since the U.S. and Israel first launched widespread airstrikes against Iran about seven weeks ago.
Other United Methodists, like the Cedaredge Community members, are seeking to draw attention to the human cost of the conflict.
The ongoing strikes and retaliation have not only upended the global economy but also led to thousands of deaths across Iran, Lebanon, Israel, Palestinian territories and multiple countries around the Gulf and beyond.
Among those caught in the crossfire are Filipino United Methodists who work and worship in the United Arab Emirates. Despite multiple attempts, UM News has been unable to reach church leaders in the country.
With President Trump defending his threats to destroy Iran’s “whole civilization,” United Methodist bishops and other church members are joining with faith leaders, including Pope Leo XIV, in speaking out against the disregard for human life.
“In the face of war and threats of genocide, we reaffirm our Social Principles’ call to ‘deplore war’ and to ‘pursue peaceful settlement of all disputes,’” Council of Bishops President Tracy S. Malone said.
“We reject any language or action that endangers civilians or threatens to destroy entire civilizations, and we raise a prophetic call to our leaders, urging them to persistently choose the path of peace.”
Malone, who also leads the Indiana Conference, reiterated the United Methodist bishops’ call, issued at the start of the conflict, to pray for peace. As the bishops’ pointed out, Jesus said in Matthew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
Likewise, Malone told UM News, the bishops “call the Church to prayer — for the nations, for the vulnerable, and for the courage to embody peace. And we commit ourselves to the sacred work of justice and peace.”
The experience of the United Methodist church in Cedaredge, an agricultural community on Colorado’s Western Slope, shows that people around the globe hunger for the church to take a public stand against war.
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Virginia Unseld, a local artist, conceived the display and gathered the shoes. Through a United Methodist friend, she asked if the church — which typically averages about 44 people in attendance — would be interested in hosting her design.
Anders, the pastor, said he and the church’s worship team, did not hesitate to say “yes” and add the memorial to the Good Friday observance on April 3. However, Anders was stunned when the church’s Facebook post depicting the memorial went viral — drawing more than 5,000 mostly supportive comments from across the United States, Canada and even Iran itself.
“Mothers. Fathers. Nurses. Veterans. Muslims. Christians. Indigenous voices. People of no faith at all,” Anders wrote on Facebook. “All of them stopping long enough to say: These girls mattered.”
Anders, who retired as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, later told UM News that he recognizes the bombing of the school was probably an accident.
“But the bottom line is: They’re dead,” the pastor said. “And so, I think, people are just feeling the pain of that and wanting to at least acknowledge it and realize that this is not abstract. This is not something we just watch on the news. These were real lives, mothers and fathers who are now without children. I think that’s what is hitting people.”
United Methodist Bishop Julius C. Trimble put it this way: “Whenever bombs drop, children die.”
Trimble is the top executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, the agency with the responsibility of helping church members advocate for the denomination’s Social Principles. The social teachings represent the prayerful and earnest efforts of General Conference, the denomination’s top policymaking body, to speak to contemporary issues.
Since Feb. 10, Church and Society has urged United Methodists in the U.S. to call on their Congress members to rein in the president’s ability to wage war in Iran. After a two-week recess, the U.S. Congress is back in session as of April 13.
Trimble said Church and Society staff are also joining with interfaith and ecumenical partners on Capitol Hill and in the United Nations to advocate for peace. He noted that the Trump administration launched the attack without consulting Congress. He added that the Trump administration is explicitly choosing warfare over child care or health care.
“I never speak out against the military. I have family members who are retired military,” he said. But, he added, he is speaking out against the choices made by the Trump administration.
“The war in Iran is a choice,” he said. “When the history is written about this time of American society, I believe no one elected official or follower of Jesus is going to regret being against the war in Iran.”
United Methodists and their predecessors long have worked for peacemaking. The most recent slate of Social Principles, adopted overwhelmingly at the 2024 General Conference, express the church’s yearning “for the day when there will be no more war and people will live together in peace and justice.”
“We reject the use of war as an instrument of foreign policy,” the Social Principles add, “and insist that every peaceful and diplomatic means of resolution be exhausted before the start of armed conflicts.”
The Social Principles also recognize that many church members feel called to military service. According to the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, 154 United Methodist-endorsed chaplains currently serve in the U.S. military walking alongside those who serve.
Mountain Sky Conference Bishop Kristin Stoneking, whose area includes Cedaredge United Methodist Church, said United Methodists cover a spectrum that includes pacifists and people who see military service as a way to protect the vulnerable.
“But military action is always governed by agreements around use of force, with the ultimate commitment being the restoration of relationship after violence has ended,” she said. “A state of endless war is not what God intends.”
In fact, the Social Principles also call for United Methodist military service members to perform their duties “in harmony with the tenets of the Christian faith and in accordance with the laws of the Geneva Conventions.” The 1949 Geneva Conventions, which the U.S. helped negotiate and have since been adopted by all nations, seek to safeguard civilians and the infrastructure they use.
Stoneking added that peace and security come when all have enough, when resources are shared so that all are fed, have no thirst and when conditions are such that migration isn’t necessitated for life and health.
“As Easter People, we hold the hope of such a world as the reality that Jesus offered to us and invited us into,” she said. “May we act and pray to embrace this vision of the kin-dom of heaven on earth.”
Bishop Dottie Escobedo-Frank, who leads the California-Pacific Conference, shared a similar sentiment.
“Take hope,” she said in an April 8 statement. “Although these acts of violence can feel far away, and we worry that decision-makers will not listen to their constituents, I encourage you to take action today. Talk to your neighbor. Talk to your friend. Call your congresspeople. Join the effort to create peace in our time.”
When asked to host the memorial display, Anders said, he felt God telling him it was the right thing to do.
“I think getting this message out is so important,” he said. “And you know how God works — you never know how far-reaching it will be.”
Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or [email protected]. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.
