Origins and Early History
The Anglican Pacifist Fellowship was established in 1937, and now has some 1,400 members in over 40 countries, as well as a sister organisation, the Episcopal Peace Fellowship, in the United States of America. APF was founded as a specifically Anglican offshoot of Reverend Dick Sheppard's secular Peace Pledge Union. APF was formed by Anglican clergy and laity led by Sheppard who were intent on undertaking a torchlit peace march to Lambeth Palace in 1937 as the threat of a Second World War loomed on the horizon. The aim of the march was to give Sheppard's colleague, the then-Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Lang, a statement of pacifist conviction. This was at a time when many churchmen were intent on "trying to reconcile the teachings of Christ with the practice of war" .
Besides many priests and bishops, notable early members of the group included British Labour Leader George Lansbury and famous literary figure Vera Brittain. In 2006, songwriter and fellow Anglican Pacifist Fellowship member Sue Gilmurray wrote a song in Brittain's memory, entitled "Vera" .
In addition to her famous novels, which were heavily imbued with pacifist ideology, Brittain was very much an active member of the "Ban the Bomber" campaign during the inter-war period, which sought to outlaw bomber aeroplanes as an illegal weapon of war, in recognition of the fact that they directly target civilian populations, beyond the frontline of conflicts and that they carry increasingly deadly payloads. This campaign had parallels to later attempts to ban nuclear weapons and ICBMs
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“Lucretius
Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
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Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
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