Newsletter of the WSCF Asia-Pacific Region
No.1, January - April 2003
No More War 
Perspective
Women and War

Guide our Feet into the Way of Peace

Suggested Prayers and Litanies
Women Space
Reflections
Solidarity
We have had enough!
New Publications
Regional News
Movement News
Editorial Team:
Rev. Shin Seung Min
Ms. Necta Montes
Ms. Wong Yick Ching
It is with a very heavy heart that I am writing this editorial as the news on missiles and bombs raided on Iraq just yesterday (20 March 2003). We are now witnessing a war that will bring many deaths, sufferings, pain, hunger and widespread diseases. This is a time of great disillusionment, sadness, fear, bitterness and anger felt by millions of women, men and children. In a time like this, women are usually the ones who would suffer most: suffering the consequences of a war that is not of their choice. While men would become soldiers, women would become war refugees, bearing multiple tasks for the sake of the family. Women need to endure the long periods of war with a mental strength that has to be steadfast.

However in these times of hardship, women often demonstrate that they are pillars of strength, playing their new roles with endurance, brilliance and vigour. For example in the reports of the Balkan War and the Civil War in Sri Lanka, it was found that the women who were the first to adapt quickly to the chaotic situations, the first to take any kind of job and the first to have a strong will power for a new start, to return to their lives and the lives of their families to a kind of normality. This great inner strength of women is to be remembered.

Remembering a woman's strength comes in many ways and this year, the participants of Women Doing Theology remembered it as they joined other women in the March 8 International Women's Day rally in the Philippines.

Lastly, as a gesture of our strong opposition to this war and to pay our respects to all those who have suffered and will suffer, the front cover of Praxis is in black. Also we dedicate this issue to all those women and children in Iraq who have and will become the most vulnerable victims in this tragedy.

In this issue, you will find articles on the struggles experienced by women and their strength in overcoming these struggles, you will also find reflections and liturgies on peace which is what is needed most at this moment. Through these, we hope you will find a light in the midst of these chaotic times now.

Wong Yock Leng
Regional Women's Coordinator