wfn.org | CLOSING STATEMENT FROM PRIMATES MEETING

[a.whitefield@quest.org.uk]

March 18, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
The Anglican Communion Office, London, UK
Director of Communications - Canon James M Rosenthal
Tel: [44] (0)171 620-1110   Fax: [44] (0)171 620-1070

97.3.3.4

A CLOSING STATEMENT FROM THE PRIMATES MEETING JERUSALEM
March 1997

To our beloved in Christ in the Anglican Communion:

Greetings in the name of the blessed Trinity;

As Primates of the Anglican Communion, gathered in the Holy City,
Jerusalem, the Mother City of our Christian faith, we join with the
Christian leaders in the Holy Land in a call for peace, justice and
equality for all people. Of particular concern for us is the status of
Jerusalem, a place sacred to the three great world religions,
Christianity, Judaism and Islam. As we pray for the peace of Jerusalem
we have constantly been reminded by the indigenous Christian community
of our Anglican tradition, the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem and its
bishops, that this peace can only be accomplished through dialogue,
sharing and the acknowledgment of the equality of all three faiths.

We have experienced generous hospitality and the warm welcome of the 
Christian community as we discussed our concerns and priorities for the 
forthcoming Lambeth Conference of Bishops in 1998 and studied the
document of the Inter Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission.

During our time here we heard the shocking news  of the killing of
Israeli children at the border of Jordan and we have seen first hand the
dire poverty in the refugee camps in Palestine. We have expressed our
concern over the Israeli governmentUs plan to construct a new
development at Har Homa between East Jerusalem and  Bethlehem and see
this as a violation of the Oslo Accords and a threat to the peace
process.  We were the guest of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in
Gaza and Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey greeted the President of
Israel  on our behalf. The Archbishop and the Presiding Bishop of the
United States, the Most Revd Edmond Browning, met with Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu on the last day of our meeting. 

We have joined  in worship with Roman Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox 
leaders, as well as Jewish and Muslim clergy, in a service in St
GeorgeUs Cathedral. We take great pride in the Anglican presence here in
the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East and we pledge our support 
to the Primate, the Most Revd Ghais Abdel Malik of Egypt and to the
bishops of the several dioceses.

We call upon Anglicans throughout the world to work and pray for peace
to take deep root in this troubled land.  As the Archbishop of
Canterbury,  the Most Revd George Carey, said in preaching at St.
GeorgeUs Cathedral, Jerusalem, RWe are one with the people of Israel in
their search for a lasting peace in the Middle East.  The Jewish peoples
have suffered enough in their long and terrible journeyI We are one with
the Palestinian people, also a proud and ancient people, whose journey,
too, has been one of suffering.  There can be no justice for one part of
the human family without justice for anotherS.

We rejoice with the Anglican Bishops in Jerusalem in the honours
bestowed on them by presidential decoration by President Arafat. We pay
tribute to the ministry and  witness of the Rt Revd Samir Kafity, Bishop
in Jerusalem, and thank him for all his work for justice and peace in
this land.

Even though the Holy Land was ever before us during this past week,  we
also heard stories from around our Communion of Churches - a suffering
Communion - the never ending war in the Sudan, forced and illegal
repatriation, the spirit of mistrust, hatred and exclusion in Burundi,
the internal struggles of the church in Rwanda, the violation of rights
in India and Pakistan, the long history of sectarian violence in
Northern Ireland  and the constant threat of conflict in Sri Lanka.

As part of our Lenten journey together as Fathers in God of this beloved 
Anglican Communion, we followed the Via Dolorosa for the Stations of the 
Cross. The vigour of  this act of devotion reminded us of the suffering
that awaits the Christian in this life. This is the city for which Jesus
wept and we too weep over a city that still expresses the agony of  that
cross. But our hope as we approach the next millennium is in the reality
of the Empty Tomb that we found at the end of our walk. 

Alleuia Christ in Risen.
He is risen indeed, alleluia