wfn.org | CHURCH CALLED TO CONTINUE SUPPORT OF UNITED NATIONS

[PCUSA_NEWS@ecunet.org]

25-Aug-95

95295  CHURCH CALLED TO CONTINUE SUPPORT OF UNITED NATIONS 
 
                      by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y.--As the United Nations begins its second half-century, 
participants in the Presbyterian Peacemaking Jubilee were urged, Aug. 13, 
to continue their support for the organization. 
 
     The Rev. Robert F. Smylie, director of the Presbyterian United Nations 
Office, reminded the Jubilee crowd of 1,600 that the denomination has 
supported the United Nations since its inception. During the first 50 years 
of the U.N., General Assemblies have issued some 200 statements in its 
support, Smylie noted. 
 
     "The Presbyterian Church's support of the U.N. is a reflection of our 
moral and ethical concern for God's creation and for Jesus Christ, who came 
preaching reconciliation, justice and peace." 
 
     Smylie pointed out that denominational support for what was to become 
the United Nations in 1945 had its genesis in Presbyterian participation in 
the 1940 Commission on a Just and Durable Peace of the Federal Council of 
Churches (a precursor of the National Council of Churches).  In 1943, the 
General Assembly endorsed the World Order Movement, which further sought to 
insure that international cooperation would emerge from the chaos of World 
War II. 
 
     John Foster Dulles, a Presbyterian elder and diplomat later to become 
secretary of state under President Eisenhower, was a key adviser to the 
U.S. delegation that helped create the U.N.  The U.N.  charter was signed 
in June of 1945 in San Francisco, and, Smylie said, Dulles' contributions 
"shaped the formation of the U.N. according to many Presbyterian principles 
of peace and justice." 
 
     Despite its shortcomings, the U.N. remains indispensable, Smylie 
insisted.  "The U.N. has an extraordinary record of accomplishment," he 
said.  "It has not solved all the world's conflicts, but imagine where we 
would be without it -- it is the only instrument [of global conflict 
resolution] we have. 
 
     With Jubilee participants scheduled for all-day tours of the U.N. in 
nearby Manhattan Aug. 14 and 15, Smylie told the crowd "we must continue to 
support it, to strengthen it, to reform it." 
 
 

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