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2001-342 (News Brief Update)

Episcopal bishops challenge Bush administration on policies in the Sudan

          (ENS) Nineteen Episcopal bishops joined church leaders who signed a 
letter to President George W. Bush questioning his Administration's commitment to 
ending the slaughter and enslavement of Christians and animists in southern Sudan 
by the Islamic government in Khartoum.

          The letter argued that violence has increased in the country since the 
terrorist attacks on the United States, the bombing of the United Nations World 
Food Program has forced the evacuation of aid workers, and the Sudanese 
government has refused to allow relief shipments to villages where people are 
starving to death. The letter also said that the United States no longer appears 
to support sanctions against Sudan and that the State Department has praised 
Sudan's cooperation in the war on terrorism.

          "By rewarding and praising Khartoum at the very moment it is stepping 
up its bombing, starvation and literal enslavement of religious minorities, the 
U.S. appears to be willing to tolerate religiously based internal terrorism," the 
letter said. "We believe that even the perception of such a policy will increase 
contempt for the United States on the part of all terrorists, not only those in 
Sudan."

          Episcopalians who signed the document include Diane Knippers, 
president, Institute on Religion and Democracy; Keith L. Ackerman, Bishop of 
Quincy; the Rev. David C. Anderson, president, American Anglican Council; Robert 
W. Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh; Andrew Fairfield, Bishop of North Dakota; James 
Edward Folts, Bishop of West Texas; William C. Frey, Bishop (retired) of Colorado 
and Guatemala; Robert J. Hargrove, Bishop of Western Louisiana; the Rev. David R. 
Harper, Chair, SOMA (Sharing Of Ministries Abroad); Edward Haynsworth, Assistant 
Bishop (retired) of South Carolina; Daniel W. Herzog, Bishop of Albany; John W. 
Howe, Bishop of Central Florida; Stephen H. Jecko, Bishop of Florida; David Colin 
Jones, Bishop Suffragan of Virginia; John B. Lipscomb, Bishop of Southwest 
Florida; Edward S. Little II, Bishop of Northern Indiana; 

          Larry E. Maze, Bishop of Arkansas; Faith J. H. McDonnell, coordinator, 
Church Alliance for a New Sudan (IRD project); the Rev. Herb McMullen, Standing 
Commission on International Peace and Justice; Edward L. Salmon, Bishop of South 
Carolina; John-David Mercer Schofield, Bishop of San Joaquin; William J. Skilton, 
Bishop Suffragan of South Carolina; Catherine M. Waynick, Bishop of Indianapolis; 
and Roger J. White, Bishop of Milwaukee.