Don Booth is used to sitting alone, but soon he may not have to. The 89-year-old Quaker has sat in front of the State House every weekday lunchtime for five years demonstrating against the Iraq War, often with a single companion, he said. His painted banner calls for "peace, justice and hope." But in recent months, more people have stopped by to support him, he said, and not only Quakers.

New Hampshire's Christian community is slowly becoming a voice in peace activism. The Peace With Justice Task Force, a faith-based peace organization founded by a United Church of Christ pastor, hopes to attract 1,000 people to today's antiwar rally in Concord. The rally was endorsed by the New Hampshire Council of Churches, which represents 10 Christian denominations and 650 congregations, and by social justice or peace wings of several other churches.

"Now is the time for the faith community to be visible," said David Lamarre-Vincent, executive director of the New Hampshire Council of Churches. "There's been plenty of opportunity to be pastoral, but little opportunity to be prophetic, to engage in a public conversation about the direction the nation's heading."

But while peace activists say they represent Christian values, some in the community say endorsing specific politics should not be the role of leaders of faith.

"I think it's important to not say, 'This is the church's position,' " said the Rev David Jones of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Concord. "We have within the congregation people of every possible range and variety."

The task force

The Peace with Justice Task Force was founded in the fall of 2004 by the Rev. Gordon Crouch of the First Congregational Church of Hopkinton, as a vehicle for UCC clergy and laity who wanted to provide leadership within their churches to oppose the Iraq war. The group aims to articulate a Christian philosophy that supports nonviolence.

An idealistic and charismatic pastor who enjoys widespread support from a congregation that is divided over the war, Crouch hopes to be a unifying force among antiwar activists in the church. He said his own views on peace have evolved, and he took a sabbatical last winter to study nonviolence.

"We were not hearing much about the philosophy of nonviolence, a philosophy we wanted to give voice to, particularly among UCC churches in New Hampshire," Crouch said. "It's not something we've focused on in seminaries, not something you hear from the pulpit or in classes."

Although UCC affiliates account for only 5.6 percent of the state's total religious adherents, according to the North American Religion Atlas, Crouch hopes his denomination can spearhead a larger movement.

Its first event, an April conference on nonviolence and the Iraq war, attracted 80 people and gave Crouch the idea for the march. This summer, the group began circulating the Declaration of Peace, a petition calling for immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Today's march is scheduled for the conclusion of a national week of action. It is billed as an effort of the faith and peace communities to call for an end to the war in Iraq, an immediate return of troops and opposition to any future military invasions.

"The outreach going on to Christian churches is like nothing we've ever seen in the state," said Anne Miller, director of New Hampshire Peace Action, which is cosponsoring the march. "The UCC task force has blossomed."

A political awakening

For some churches, like the Quakers, antiwar activity is old hat. Before the war started, the American Friends Service Committee, founded on the basis of nonviolent conflict resolution, had protesters in the street and members calling elected officials, said Martha Yager, economic justice project coordinator for AFSC's New Hampshire office.

Yager explained that one of the Quaker faith's core beliefs is peace; they do not believe in the concept of just war. "There's that of God in every human being and everyone deserves to be treated with respect and dignity," she said. "No one thinks Saddam Hussein's a good person, but that doesn't mean we have the right to go in, especially when it costs the lives of thousands of Iraqis and U.S. soldiers. (next page »)