U.S. churches denounce Iraq war, “American terror”

A coalition of American churches issued Saturday a statement strongly denouncing the U.S.-led war in Iraq and accusing Bush's administration of "raining down terror".

In the statement, read at a huge gathering of Christian churches, members of World Council of Churches, which includes more than 350 mainstream Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches, apologized to the world nations for "the violence, degradation and poverty our nation has sown," warning that Washington’s pushing the world toward environmental catastrophe with a "culture of consumption" and its constant refusal to back international accords seeking to battle global warming.

"We lament with special anguish the war in Iraq, launched in deception and violating global norms of justice and human rights," the statement said. "We mourn all who have died or been injured in this war. We acknowledge with shame abuses carried out in our name."

This is part of the mounting domestic and international pressure on the U.S. President George W. Bush who has repeatedly stated that the American forces will stay the course in Iraq.

"There is much internal anguish and there is division," said The Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, the moderator for the U.S. group of WCC members, ecumenical officer of the Orthodox Church of America.

"I believe church leaders and communities are wrestling with the moral questions that this letter is addressing."