UCC and Disciples Joint Statement on the US-Israel attacks against Iran

published on Mar 2, 2026

March 2, 2026

He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. – Isaiah 2:4

After weeks of heavy US military build-up alongside ongoing US-Iranian negotiations on Iran’s weapons, the United States and Israel began a new unprovoked assault on Iran on Saturday. The joint military attack, in Tehran and several provinces in Iran, was described by President Trump as “major combat operations.” He also urged the Iran people to “take over your government.” This initial wave of attacks has led to Iranian counterstrikes on the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait, where the US has military bases, resulting in the loss of American lives, on Jordan and Israel, and now Lebanon. Attacks on Saturday mark the second time in less than one year that the United States has joined Israel in waging war on Iran, without authorization by Congress either time.

Since April 2025, the United States and Iran have been engaged in talks aimed to address Iranian military capabilities. In the talks, the US has sought to eliminate Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, limit its ballistic missile program, and end Iran’s support of regional allies; Iran has remained focused on the nuclear question, seeing the additional demands as “excessive.” In 2015, the Obama Administration, along with China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Germany, signed with Iran the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which limited Iran’s nuclear program and offered some relief from US sanctions. The US withdrew unilaterally from the JCPOA in 2018 under President Trump. President Biden announced that he would reinstate the deal, but never did. President Trump, in his second term, has pressed Iran for a “better deal,” but even in the midst of negotiations, the US followed Israel’s attack on Iran in June 2025 with a set of strikes of its own targeting Iranian nuclear facilities, strikes that Pres. Trump at the time said “obliterated” them. That “12-day War” ended negotiations, but they were re-started in October 2025, continued until this past week, and had been scheduled to resume.

This US military action against Iran is another in a long and difficult history between the two countries dating back to 1953 when the US overthrew the nationalist Iranian Prime Minister Muhammad Mossadegh, and continuing through the 1979 Iranian Revolution that replaced the Iranian monarchy with the Islamic Republic, the subsequent takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran and the holding of US hostages for 444 days. More recently, President Trump ordered the assassination of a top Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani, in 2020 and has used what he calls “maximum pressure” – a combination of heavy sanctions and military threats – in dealing with Iran. The current military operation has killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top Iranian leaders, as well as hundreds of Iranian citizens, including students at a girls’ school in southern Iran.

Our partners in the region have shared the impact they have felt already. Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem Archbishop Hosam Naoum wrote, “Every single nation now engaged in this combat, and those bearing the brunt of the retaliatory strikes, resides within our ecclesiastical boundaries…. We implore God to protect the innocent – the mothers, the children, and the elderly – who are caught in the crossfire of this epic ‘Operation Epic Fury’ and the subsequent ‘crushing responses.’ …We refuse to see our neighbors as enemies, whether they be in Tehran, Tel Aviv, or the military bases of the Gulf.”

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land’s Bishop Dr. Imad Haddad stated, “In the face of yet another war in our region, our hearts are filled with deep anguish…. We must speak with moral clarity: the continued decision to resort to war is a failure of human responsibility before God…. Dear partners, we urge you: pray and pray fervently. But do not let prayer become a substitute for responsibility. Let your prayers be joined with courageous and concrete action. Stand publicly with those who are afflicted. Advocate persistently for a just peace that safeguards the dignity and security of all people. Challenge policy makers whose narratives make endless war appear inevitable.”

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ have consistently supported diplomacy and adherence to international law and conventions, opposed military intervention and intensified sanctions, and urged adherence to the JCPOA. With renewed US and Israeli aggression against Iran, the potential for large-scale destruction of lives and communities in Iran, the Gulf region, Israel, Lebanon, and elsewhere is great and unpredictable. This current dangerous aggression extends Israel’s US-supported war in the Middle East, which has impacted Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and the Palestinian West Bank, as well as the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

As we witness the US and Israel assert their military power, we invite our churches and members to join us as:

We call for an end to this belligerency, urging our elected officials to do everything in their power to do so, including asserting Congressional authority and supporting the Iran War Powers Resolution; and that all parties re-engage in good-faith diplomacy that would seek a durable peace, addressing all outstanding issues, including nuclear enrichment.
We call on all countries – signatories and non-signatories of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) alike – to refrain from threats and actions that risk escalation; and support the containment, constraint, and reduction of nuclear weapons by all who possess them.
We urge those countries that are not signatories to the NPT to sign it, and for its provisions to be followed equally by all.
We fervently pray for all those affected, including our partners and mission co-workers in the Middle East, that they may be safe and far from harm.

We continue to support peace and justice for all people in the Middle East, including those most vulnerable who have felt the impact most directly.

In a time of ongoing war, we affirm our faith in a peace-loving God who neither blesses nor desires war but calls all nations to “beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.”

Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia A. Thompson General Minister and President/CEO United Church of Christ	Rev. Teresa Hord Owens General Minister and President Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Rev. Shari Prestemon Associate General Minister United Church of Christ Co-Executive, Global Ministries	Rev. Dr. LaMarco Cable, DMin President and CEO Disciples Overseas Ministries Co-Executive, Global Ministries

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