wfn.org | Guatemalan and Middle Eastern partners appeal to Assembly

[George Conklin <gconklin@igc.apc.org>]

28-June-1996 
 
GA96002 
 
 
    Guatemalan and Middle Eastern partners appeal to Assembly 
 
 
ALBUQUERQUE--Appeals for help from church partners in Guatemala and from 
the strife-torn Middle East were referred to the 208th General Assembly in 
actions taken Friday by the General Assembly Council. 
 
    The National Evangelical Church of Guatemala (NECG) is again asking the 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to condemn ongoing violence there that has 
resulted in the kidnaping of the denomination's moderator and the murders 
of two Presbyterians. 
 
    The Middle East Council of Churches is asking U.S. Presbyterians for 
prayers and support in the midst of a spasmodic -- and fragile -- peace 
process that continues to disrupt life in Israel and in Lebanon. 
 
    "This kidnaping has brought another round of harassment in Guatemala 
and the church has asked us to support them in this time," Worldwide 
Ministries Division Guatemala liaison Julia Ann Moffett told council 
members.  "[THE NECG] is adamant in its use of the word 'condemn' ... They 
are asking that we use our international channels to send information about 
what is happening there and to write more letters [condemning the violence 
to U.S. and Guatemalan government officials]. 
 
    "They're asking, too, that we have a time for prayer for the Guatemalan 
people at the General Assembly," Moffett said, in addition to filing 
protests with officials. 
 
    U.S. Presbyterians have answered the NECG's appeals for accompaniers 
since the torture and murder of the Rev. Manuel Saquic last June. Saquic 
was pushing the government to prosecute a former military commissioner 
accused of killing a Presbyterian human rights worker.  Accompaniers have 
stayed with Saquic's widow and children and other Presbyterians in Saquic's 
presbytery who have received death threats. 
 
    Just last month, the NECG's now former moderator, the Rev. Samuel 
Merida, was kidnaped and released unharmed several days later.  He was told 
to have approximately $20,000 on his body should he be found again alone -- 
or to renounce his work with the Presbyterian church.  The NECG made no 
comment to press about Merida's kidnappers, but the Ecumenical News Service 
International in Geneva reported that disgruntled Presbyterians are among 
the suspects. 
 
    The Rev. Herb Valentine, a former PCUSA moderator and Baltimore 
Presbytery's executive, represented the denomination in Guatemala earlier 
this week when the NECG marked the first anniversary of Saquic's death. 
 
 
    In response to an appeal from the Rev. Riad Jarjour, general secretary 
of the Middle East Council of Churches in Cyprus, the council is 
recommending that the Assembly adopt the report, "Concerns for the 
Arab-Israeli Peace Process." 
 
    Jarjour wrote Stated Clerk James E. Andrews:  "We are afraid and 
concerned about justice and peace in the region.  We appeal to your 
Assembly to stand with the people of the Middle East and ask for your 
prayers and support for the future of the peace process." 
 
    Among its proposals, the report calls for Israel to end "its continued 
seizure of land," for Syria to "withdraw its troops from Lebanon" and for 
the Palestinian Authority to "exercise its police and security 
responsibilities in ways that are consistent with international human 
rights standards."  It urges Presbyterians to pray for peace in the Middle 
East, to advocate for public policies outlined in the report and directs 
the Stated Clerk to communicate this action to both U.S. and international 
leaders. 
 
    "Fear and anxiety characterize the prevailing mood in the Middle East," 
Worldwide Ministries Middle East liaison Victor Makari told the General 
Assembly News Service.  "In the past few months or weeks alone, there was 
the assassination of Israel's late Prime Minister Yizhak Rabin by an 
Israeli Jew, the deadly bombing of buses in the streets of Tel Aviv and 
Jerusalem by Palestinian extremists, and the subsequent tight closure of 
Jerusalem with disastrous results for Palestinians.  There was the heavy 
bombardment of Lebanon by Israel, the election of a new government in 
Israel which is widely expected to be more hard-line, the destruction of 
Palestinian olive groves [near Bethlehem] and the proposed construction of 
Israelis-only roads. All [of these acts] present an ominous threat to the 
peace process. 
 
    "Our Christian partners," Makari said, "have urged our prayers and the 
expression of our support for the sake of a just and enduring peace." 
 
 
Alexa Smith 

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For more information contact Presbyterian News Service
  phone 502-569-5504             fax 502-569-8073  
  E-mail PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org   Web page: http://www.pcusa.org 

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