wfn.org | Presiding Bishop Griswold thanks Secretary of State Powell

[ENS@ecunet.org]

2001-166

Presiding Bishop Griswold thanks Secretary of State Powell for his peace efforts

by James Solheim

     (ENS) In the wake of a June 7 meeting of church leaders with Secretary of State 
Colin Powell, Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold wrote to Powell expressing support for 
his peace efforts in the Middle East.

     "We want to support your careful efforts on this agonizing issue while carefully 
articulating what we believe our faith requires of us," Griswold said in the June 21 
letter. "While we adamantly support Israel's right to exist and to be accepted by 
neighboring states, we support with equal vigor a just outcome for the Palestinians who 
are now the victims of Israeli Occupation. Our government's role in rectifying the 
Occupation will test its resolve to end this conflict that cripples the region's 
development and threatens its future."

     Reflecting on the conversation, Griswold raised the difficult issue of 
negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians in the closing days of the Clinton 
Administration, when Prime Minister Ehud Barak made a proposal that President Yasser 
Arafat rejected.

     "There was a belief among a number of Middle East watchers that Israel and the 
United States thought the Palestinians would be more ready to agree to deep compromises 
to UN resolution 242 than was just or fair to expect," Griswold said in the letter.

     "We hope both sides can set aside blame and motive for the collapse of the peace 
talks," he continued. "Neither side was prepared to compromise as much as the other 
expected, and therefore the process needs to continue."

     Noting that President George W. Bush has invited Israeli Prime Minister Ariel 
Sharon to the White House, Griswold urged the Administration to "invite President 
Arafat for a meeting as soon as possible in order to demonstrate U.S. resolve to treat 
both sides fairly."

     The letter concluded with gratitude for Powell's leadership. "Please know that we 
are pledged to walk this difficult road of peacemaking to which Christ calls us," 
Griswold wrote.

     The delegation of church leaders is preparing a statement addressed to Arafat and 
Sharon that will be sent and made public next week.

--James Solheim is director of the Episcopal News Service.