wfn.org | The Urgent Struggle for an Enduring Peace

[a.whitefield@quest.org.uk]

April 11, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, U.K

[97.4.2.13]

Statement by Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning of the Episcopal
Church, April 3, 1997

The Urgent Struggle for an Enduring Peace

The Middle East, the Holy Land, the home of our faith and still home to
more than 10 million Christians, is poised on the brink of an uncertain
future.

Its people are searching for a future that could be based either upon
the hope for justice and loving coexistence or one that will bow to past
antagonisms and an endless cycle of violence and discord.

After my visit to the region--to attend a meeting of Anglican Primates
in Jerusalem and to travel to Gaza and the West Bank, Cyprus, Lebanon
and Syria--I am more convinced than ever that it is critical for the
international community to support those who are working for a peaceful
future.

 Perhaps no two cities capture more clearly both the hopes and the fears
of the region than the Holy City of Jerusalem and the war-torn but
miraculously tenacious city of Beirut. During our time in Jerusalem we
learned of the horrendous murder of Israeli children at the "Island of
Peace" between Israel and Jordan. We also witnessed the beginning of the
highly controversial construction of the new settlement in East
Jerusalem, accompanied by predictions that the fateful decision by the
Israeli government might derail the fragile peace process. And in
Jerusalem itself, a touchstone of faith for three religions, we
experienced a increasing level of distrust.

In Beirut we saw a city that has emerged from 16 years of civil war and
external invasions with a seemingly indomitable will to recreate a
society in which Christians and Muslims live and work together. Out of
the ashes of war is rising a "new," reconstructed Beirut that also
clings to the "old" in its attempts to recapture Lebanon's unique
vocation of  pluralism and coexistence in a region too often torn by
national and sectarian rivalries. We were moved and encouraged by the
role of the Middle East Council of Churches in this process of
reconstruction and rehabilitation.

>From our visits with religious and political leaders several common themes emerged:

1.  Throughout the region people are deeply worried about the future of
the peace process and disappointed by the role of the United States as a
sponsor of that process. The repeated vetoes by the U.S. of United
Nations Security Council resolutions produced both anger and incredulity
among Muslims and Christians alike. They questioned the basic fairness
of a process in which one side expressed almost uncritical support of
only one partner in the process.

2.  Many expressed concern about the emigration of Christians, a growing
phenomenon throughout the region stemming from a variety of
reasons--worries about religious extremism, a shaky economic climate,
the constant threat of war.

3.  We walked through dusty refugee camps of Gaza and southern Lebanon
where, in some cases, several generations of Palestinians stubbornly
cling to the hope that the international community will remember their
plight as they try to survive with diminishing support from the United
Nations.

4.  The Lebanese expressed frustration with the continued ban on travel
to that country by American citizens, arguing that the ban is no longer
justified by the security situation and may even be punitive toward
Lebanon as a result of its role in the peace process. The ban is
particularly galling to U.S. churches that have had a long and
honourable tradition of work there.

5.  From all of our conversations we sense incomprehension and deep hurt
over the caricatures of the people of the Middle East in much of
American society.  We were constantly urged to ask members of our
churches to visit and experience not only the problems but also the
strength of diverse cultures seeking new ways to live together in peace.

We returned from our trip with a renewed commitment to the people and
the churches of the Middle East--and a resolve to work for peace.  I
pledge my own personal efforts to communicate what we learned to church
and government leaders and to work for a just and loving policy toward
the peoples of a land that is still holy.

>From 'The Times'  Saturday April 5 1997

CREDO

Rejoice that the Church is human too

by The Rt. Rev. John Hind

St Augustine wrote confidently of the Church: "We are the Easter people,
and Alleluia is our song!"  From the resurrection of Jesus, the Church
emerged as God's sign and agent of the new life He wills for the entire
world.

Despite the shortcomings of its members and some of the negative
publicity the Church attracts, these days between Easter and Pentecost
provide a particular focus for reflection on the nature and purpose of
god's Easter people.  It is important to keep emphasising the sense of
new life and salvation at the heart of the Christian message, especially
in the face of the cynical comment by a 19th-century critic that "Jesus
preached the Kingdom of God, and what we got was the Church".  It was
meant as an insult but, like many similar gibes, was closer to the truth
than the critic intended.

Over the centuries, there has been no shrotage of people ready to draw
attention to the contrast between the nobility of Jesus's message and
the frequent failures of his followers, individually and corporately, to
live up to it.

It is a saving grace that probably the larger number of critics are from
within the Church.  Even among unbelievers, the complaint is often not
that the Church is Christian, but that it is not Christian enough. 
"Call yourselves Christians?" is one of the more polite forms of
complaint.

None of this should surprise us.  Jesus himself, in the tradition of the
Old Testament prophets before Him, was sharply critical of the way in
which the institutions of religion can deflect and distract people from
God. Faced with this ever present danger, self-examination, repentance
and a purpose of amendment of life are essential exercises for us all. 
We should not resent criticism of our lifestyle and our institutions. 
We should rather ask if there is any truth in the criticisms.

There is, however, a way of criticising the Church that suggests not
just that Christians and their earthly institutions are fallible, but
that the idea of embodying religion in institutions is somehow wrong.
"institutional religion" has a bad name.  We live in an age in which
institutions generally have a bad name.  It is good that we are not as
overawed by hierarchies, as in previous generations, and good that
freedom of speech is welcomed, enabling hypocrisy to be exposed.  But
these goods can spill over into what has been called the "culture of
contempt".  We are in danger of considering cynicism a virtue

The simple fact is that institutions will always be with us.  They are
part of the God-given way in which the world works.  Because they work
under human influences, they will be prone to distortion and sin.  That
does not invalidate them.

Christians believe that this world is not only made and sustained by
God, but that it is restored and renewed by Him.  The flesh, meaning our
earthly life, in all its aspects, may be weak but it is still capable of
being the bearer of divinity.  Human beings can be redeemed, and so too
can their institutions.

In Easter week, Christians celebrate not only the resurrection of Jesus
Christ but also our own share in His resurrection.

The Church - God's Easter people - is precisely one way in which the
message of the Kingdom of God is embodied .  No human individual,
philosophy or institution is perfect; but here in the Church, there is a
community that shares completely in the ambiguities of earthly life but
is at the same time one with the world to come.

God's Easter people rejoice that even institutions can rise again - and
again.  "Alleluia!" they sing, as they love this strange, mixed body of
saints and sinners, in which life is a constant struggle but the joy of
Heaven is a present reality as well as a future hope.

This is a way of looking at life which is good news indeed, not for
religious interest groups, but for people everywhere struggling to make
sense of a world in which the highest treasures are contained in earthly
vessels.

John Hind is Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe.