GUEST OPINION, Oct. 14
By: The Rev. Robert Moore
As the Princeton-based Coalition for Peace Action moves toward the conclusion of its 25th anniversary year, I’m reminded that it originated with and has continued to be sustained by the leadership and support of faith communities across the religious spectrum.
In 1979, a series of talks on the escalating nuclear arms race by the late Ambassador George Kennan at Trinity Church in Princeton inspired their clergy to bring that concern to others in the Princeton Clergy Association. That led, in September 1980, to the first Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace titled "Can We Reverse the Nuclear Arms Race?" with some 23 area Catholic, Protestant and Jewish congregations as co-sponsors.
The Interfaith Service for Peace was at Princeton University Chapel, and renowned experts in the field spoke there and at the associated conference at Nassau Presbyterian Church. Some 2,000 people came, galvanizing a strong concern in faith communities in the region. The speakers said the nuclear arms race was reversible, but that the key to actualize that possibility was the active involvement of citizens.
A subsequent follow-up meeting for people to take up that challenge was held several weeks later at Princeton United Methodist Church. Over 400 attended, and the Coalition to Reverse the Nuclear Arms Race was born. Subsequently, the name of the organization was changed, first to the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament, then to the current Coalition for Peace Action.
Since then, CFPA has grown to a major regional organization, with 12 chapters in central and southern New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania, with 6,700 member and supporting households. It is one of the strongest affiliates in Peace Action which, in turn, is the largest national peace group in the U.S. with 100,000 members.
A major part of what has sustained and made CFPA so successful and persistent in its peacemaking mission is the ongoing leadership and support of faith leaders and communities. Two of CFPA’s staff are ordained ministers, and the 25th annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace last year was co-sponsored by over 65 organizations, the majority of them faith-based.
CFPA is broadly interfaith in its approach, drawing on the core value of peacemaking that is central to all great world religions. The ongoing leadership and support of the growing number of faith groups involved is what makes CFPA as effective as it is. Over the years, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh and Hindu faith communities have joined the original Protestant, Jewish and Catholic faith groups to enlarge the interfaith community actively working together for peace.
So it seems appropriate that one of the first co-sponsors of the Nov. 13, 2005, annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace, which will mark the conclusion of CFPA’s 25th anniversary year, was the Princeton Clergy Association. For more information on that event, which will feature former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter and former New York Times war correspondent Chris Hedges, or on other CFPA activities, go to CFPA’s Web site at www.peacecoalition.org or call the office at (609) 924-5022.
The Rev. Robert Moore has served as executive director of the Coalition for Peace Action since 1981. A member of the Princeton Clergy Association, he has served as its president, vice president and treasurer.

