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August 14, 2002

2002-192

Episcopalians: News Briefs

Anglican Peace and Justice Network expresses dismay at Mideast 
impasse

(ENS) Members of the international Anglican Peace and Justice 
Network issued a statement August 12 expressing "deep dismay at 
the continuing impasse between Israelis and Palestinians" and 
deploring "the unbroken cycle of violence that has claimed too 
many innocent lives on both sides." (Full text on the Episcopal 
Church's Peace and Justice Ministries web site at 
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/peace-justice/middleeast.asp) The 
statement assured both Israelis and Palestinians of "our love 
and support in ending this long and troubled conflict. We 
embrace all those who have lost loved ones in the violence and 
extend our deepest sympathies."

The primary cause of the present violence, according to the 
statement, "is the continuing Occupation of the West Bank and 
Gaza imposed by Israel which inflicts humiliation and suffering 
on the Palestinian people, inflaming passions and breeding 
further violence. Collective punishment of the Palestinian 
people must be brought to an end."

Members of the network said that they were also "deeply 
troubled by the use of U.S. made weapons and aircraft provided 
to Israel and being used for attacks on civilian targets," 
urging a moratorium on "the use of such weapons which violate 
U.S. law."

In outlining steps "to achieve a sovereign and independent 
Palestine living alongside a secure Israel recognized by and at 
peace with her neighbors," the statement urged the withdrawal of 
Israeli forces from Occupied Areas; the introduction of an 
international peacekeeping force in the Occupied Territories to 
maintain security; humanitarian relief for the Palestinians; and 
the immediate resumption of negotiations.

"The unconditional recognition of the state of Palestine must 
be hastened if peace is to prevail in the Middle East," the 
statement concluded. It also called on the faith communities, 
especially the Anglican Communion, to pray for peace and "to 
exercise a ministry of presence in the region as a gesture of 
solidarity with the people."

New archbishop of Canterbury challenges plans for attack on 
Iraq

(ENS) Archbishop of Canterbury-elect Rowan Williams of Wales has 
joined other church leaders in questioning the legality and 
morality of plans for an American-led attack on Iraq in a 
declaration that was sent to Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The declaration was written by Pax Christi, the international 
Roman Catholic peace movement, and says that "it is deplorable 
that the world's most powerful nations continue to regard war 
and the threat of war as an acceptable instrument of foreign 
policy, in violation of the ethos of both the United Nations and 
Christian moral teaching."

The statement, signed by over 3,000 leaders, added, "The way 
to peace does not lie through war but through the transformation 
of structures of injustice and of the politics of exclusion, and 
that is the cause to which the West should be devoting its 
technological, diplomatic and economic resources."

Williams has said that it would be immoral and illegal to 
support an American war on Iraq without authorization by the 
United Nations. Bishop Richard Harries of Oxford said it would 
be difficult to see how military action in Iraq could meet the 
criterion for a "just war." Church of England theologians argue 
that a war must have "proper authority and right intent."

Middle East Council of Churches expresses alarm at prospect of 
military intervention in Iraq

(ENS) The Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), an umbrella 
organization of Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches with 
headquarters in Beirut, has issued a statement expressing alarm 
about possible U.S. military action against Iraq.

The August 5 statement said that the MECC "views with 
disappointment and increasing alarm intensified efforts in the 
United States to gather support for major military action 
against Iraq. Apart from its humanitarian concerns for the Iraqi 
people who, for over a decade, have been ground down by 
sanctions and daily air raids, the MECC is committed to Iraq not 
least of all because of the cries of its member churches there 
for peace and sanity."

The statement said that the council viewed the conflict as 
"one against the people of that country, the common people, not 
the politicians or power brokers. The UN sanctions, themselves a 
type of violence, have not really touched Iraq's governing 
elite, but have caused the people untold suffering."

"Not only has the sanctions regime failed; that failure is 
now to be compounded by an initiative that lacks justification 
and has discernible or constructive goal," the statement said. 
"It has no support in the region. All that military offensive 
will leave behind is ruin and a shattered country. Chaos will 
ensue. In the meantime, nothing will be done to ameliorate the 
human suffering that has already scarred and ruined a whole 
generation of Iraq's youth, caused the death of thousands of 
infants, destroyed one of the region's most productive and 
creative middle classes, and left a wasteland, a swirling pool 
of despair and rage, a time-bomb to bedevil the future."

The statement urged the Christian churches of the West "to 
speak to their governments," arguing that violence will mean 
more suffering. "The churches of the Middle East are committed 
to peace that comes through the power of the Word to establish 
justice, and champions the cause of the poor and downtrodden. We 
believe that through peaceful intervention, the moral force of 
truth can break the cycle of violence in Iraq, in Palestine, and 
throughout the world."

The statement was signed by the Rev. Riad Jarjour, general 
secretary of the MECC.

Church World Service urgently appeals for aid to suffering in 
West Africa

(NCC) Returning from a recent trip of church leaders to the 
troubled nations of West Africa, the Rev. John McCullough, 
executive director of Church World Service, has appealed to the 
U.S. and United Nations for aid to "a troubled sub-region of 
West Africa that has known too much suffering." The eight-member 
delegation visited Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Gambia.

McCullough wrote Secretary of State Colin Powell and UN 
Secretary General Kofi Annan about the urgent need for peace in 
Liberia, where civil war has raged off and on since 1989, 
displacing nearly half the population. The delegation visited a 
camp near Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, where 6,000 people 
have not had access to food aid from international aid agencies.

CWS also is calling for multifaceted assistance to the 
region, especially to Sierra Leone which is attempting to 
recover from a brutal civil war that ended last January after 11 
years of violence. The ecumenical humanitarian agency supported 
by members of the National Council of Churches is helping some 
25,000 Liberians who have sought refuge in Sierra Leone. It has 
also helped the Liberian Council of Churches and other 
faith-based groups to provide material for shelters, food, 
income-generating projects, and trauma counseling for internally 
displaced Liberians.

CWS is now seeking appointments with Powell and Annan to 
discuss West Africa's urgent needs, as well as a meeting with 
the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees, members of the 
U.S. Congress, and ambassadors to the UN from Guinea, Sierra 
Leone and Liberia.

Anglican Pakistani bishop reacts to recent violence at 
Christian hospital

(Barnabas Fund) Bishop Mano Rumalshah of Peshawar, Pakistan, 
expressed deep sorrow at the recent attack on Taxila Christian 
Hospital that killed five nurses as they left chapel services.

"After nearly 100 years of Christian diakonia [service] at 
this hospital, for anyone to brutalise those faithful servants 
of God is not only a criminal act against humanity but also an 
act against God," said the bishop. He cut short a visit to the 
United States when diocesan officials begged him to return 
because "we need someone with whom people can cry."

Rumalshah asked Christians around the world to pray for staff 
at the hospital, which specializes in treating eye diseases 
common among the poor. "I appeal to people of sense and goodwill 
that sanity may prevail, with healing and reconciliation," he 
said. 

Although the hospital is run by the Presbyterians, all 
Christians in Pakistan are feeling the vulnerability because of 
recent attacks against Christians. In October 2001 four gunmen 
burst into a church service in Bahawalpur and killed 15 
Christians, most of them women and children. Later a grenade 
attack on the international church in the diplomatic area of 
Islamabad killed five, including two Americans. A recent 
shooting at Murree Christian School, serving mostly the children 
of foreign missionaries, killed six Pakistanis.

The government of Pakistan is making strenuous efforts to 
protect the Christian community but there is speculation that 
recent attempts to provide more political representation for 
non-Muslim minorities may actually have provoked violence as a 
protest. Some speculated that the violence stems from the 
Pakistani government's alliance with the international campaign 
against terrorism led by the United States.

Earlier in the year Rumalshah had pleaded with several 
western Christian agencies working in Pakistan to allocate more 
funds for security, especially to provide professionally trained 
security guards.

Ecumenical group looks at implications of September 11 
attacks

(WCC) An ecumenical gathering on the theme, "Beyond September 
11: Implications for US churches and the world," has outlined 
the basic principles for human and national security. In a 
statement at the end of the August 5-6 meeting outside of 
Washington, DC, the participants called on American churches to 
"press their government to work for a just resolution of the 
Palestine-Israeli conflict," and to "speak out against the 
threat of military attack by their government against Iraq."

The statement, addressed to the Central Committee of the 
World Council of Churches meeting in late August, calls for 
"ongoing dialogue" with Christians and other faith communities 
around the world. It also argues that the war on terrorism led 
by the United States is threatening genuine peace. "Peaceful 
relations among nations and peoples are achieved through 
multilateral decision-making, not by the unilateral economic and 
military actions of one country," the statement said.

"As Christians we put our security in the hands of Jesus 
Christ and the biblical witness that says 'perfect love casts 
out fear'," the statement concluded.

The meeting was organized by the WCC, the National Council of 
Churches and Church World Service.

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