wfn.org | Episcopalians: News Briefs

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

March 12, 2003

2003-055

Episcopalians: News Briefs

Pakistani says Islamic leaders should thank Christians for 
opposition to war

(WCC) Pakistan's foreign minister, Mehmood Kasuri,  told General 
Secretary Konrad Raiser of the World Council of Churches that he 
knew many US and European Christian churches opposed a war with 
Iraq--and that Islamic leaders should thank them for their stand 
on military violence against a Muslim country.

On his recent trip, Raiser also met with the president of 
Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, and Prime Minister Mir 
ZafarUllah Jamali who agreed with him that, despite media 
reports, the conflict around a possible war with Iraq could not 
be considered a "clash of civilizations." During meetings with 
church leaders and representatives of Pakistan's Christian 
community, Raiser heard them express fears of a possible 
backlash in case of war. They expressed fears that military 
strikes in Iraq could lead to renewed attacks against local 
Christians, hospitals, schools and other institutions. They also 
complained about a general trend towards intolerance and 
discrimination in the country.

Raiser raised these concerns with government leaders, telling 
Musharraf that, although he appreciates the present government's 
measures to restore a joint electoral system, he is concerned 
about blasphemy laws and the fact that those responsible for 
killing Christians and attacking churches have not yet been 
brought to trial.

Raiser also raised the possibility of establishing an 
independent minorities commission as an advisory body to look 
into grievances. The president expressed appreciation for the 
Christian community's contribution in all fields of national 
endeavor, especially health care and education.

The  four-nation Asian trip by Raiser was meant to assure 
Christian communities living in minority situations that they 
have the support of the worldwide ecumenical family. In a 
meeting with the Christian Muslim Federation International he 
suggested that differences between the two religions should be 
resolved through dialogue that fosters closer relations and 
maintains international peace, trying to determine what 
constitutes a viable relationship between church and state--and 
the status of religion in society.

Children of Abraham should seek peace, Griswold tells Muslim 
website

(ENS) "A superservant always has the welfare of the global 
community as their first concern rather than simply their own 
national interest," said Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold 
recently in an online interview with the website 
SoundVision.com.

Emphasizing Griswold's stand for a peaceful solution to 
conflicts in the Middle East, the interview is aimed at the 
predominantly Muslim audience for the website, owned and 
operated by a Chicago-based foundation which produces 
documentary films, multimedia programs, Islamic songs, and 
original content on the World Wide Web for Muslim religious 
educational purposes. 

"We are deeply concerned about the war on Iraq and feel that war 
is absolutely the last resort," Griswold said, stressing that 
his opposition to war stems not only from his concern about the 
death and injury of civilians and destruction of property and 
infrastructure, but because of possible repercussions on the 
entire Middle East. 

"Our church, being part of a worldwide community, is deeply 
aware of the ramifications, the intensification of anger, and 
misunderstanding and violence that war can occasion. Certainly 
our bishops in Muslim countries have said war could profoundly 
destabilize the Middle East and set in motion a situation 
disastrous for all of us," Griswold said.

"We are all children of God," Griswold concluded. "God's 
compassion embraces all of us and how wonderful it would be if 
we, the children of Abraham, could find a new way to honor one 
another and work together to make the world a place of peace and 
justice."

Former house of torture in Kenya to undergo spiritual 
cleansing

(ENI) Religious leaders in Kenya are planning to perform a 
cleansing ceremony at a building in the capital where secret 
torture chambers were discovered last month. Leaders of the 
Roman Catholic, Anglican and Presbyterian churches told ENI they 
needed to spiritually purge Nyayo House, a 24-storey building in 
Nairobi's city center, of the acts of cruelty practiced under 
its roof in the 1980s and 1990s. 

Hundreds of people, including university students and lecturers, 
artists, politicians and journalists, are believed to have been 
interrogated and tortured in 12 tiny cells in the basement of 
the building. They were considered a threat to the government of 
Daniel arap Moi, who was president of Kenya for a quarter of a 
century until leaving office in December.

"We shall be disintegrating the evil spirits that were 
responsible for the torturing of the people. We believe that the 
torturers were possessed," said the Rev. Peter Machira of St 
Mark's Anglican Church in Nairobi. "We want to do this so that 
the chambers can be used for another useful purpose."

The new government opened the building to the public last month, 
and torture survivors have been visiting the little cells, 
tearfully reliving their torments. Although they describe 
frightening scenes reminiscent of accounts of the Gulag in the 
former Soviet Union, some survivors say they have forgiven those 
responsible for the torture. 

The building now houses the Nairobi Provincial Administration. 

Clergy and church workers targets in intensified Colombian 
war

(ENI) Churches have increasingly become targets of violence 
perpetrated by both left-wing and right-wing groups in Colombia, 
said eyewitnesses to the worsening situation in rural areas.

"The churches were once removed from the conflict. But no more," 
said Luz Marina Gomez, a human rights activist and member of a 
small independent Protestant church, at a March forum at New 
York City's Interchurch Center. Gomez and Luis Teodoro Gonzalez 
Bustacara, a Roman Catholic priest, said increased 
militarization was raising the level of bloodshed and crippling 
Colombian society. The activists spoke as the guests of US-based 
groups active in issues related to Colombia, and echoed concerns 
made by other Colombian church representatives who have visited 
the United States in the past year.

In some ways, the war in Colombia today differs from Latin 
American conflicts of the 1970s and 1980s. In those clashes, 
activist clergy and church workers influenced by liberation 
theology, a teaching that included Marxist economic analysis and 
elements of social activism, were often targets of right-wing 
groups and military units. 

Today various clergy, including pastors of small independent 
Protestant or Pentecostal churches in rural areas who claim to 
be apolitical, have become targets of violence from both leftist 
guerrilla groups and right-wing paramilitary units. Clergy who 
simply offer safe haven to those fleeing from the intensifying 
war can be interpreted as taking sides in the conflict, 
observers say.

The situation is especially tense in Arauca, an oil-rich region 
in the north bordering Venezuela that is the home province of 
Gonzalez and Gomez. Leftist forces--most prominently the 
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which has been 
labeled terrorist by Washington--have for years been attacking a 
500-mile pipeline in Arauca used for US-bound oil. In recent 
months, FARC has stepped up its military campaign with periods 
of daily bombing. At the same time, as part of a 
"counter-terrorism" effort, 70 US Army Special Forces have been 
training Colombian military personnel to protect the pipeline, 
which is used by Occidental Petroleum, a US firm.

The militarization has crippled the region, Gomez and Gonzalez 
said, paralyzing Arauca's economy and forcing people from their 
homes. "We have two options: either wait for death or leave," 
Gomez said. The activists called for a renewal of peace 
negotiations to end the nearly 40-year conflict and a 
redirection of military funding to assist with education in the 
region.

African refugees face severe food shortages 

(ENS) Over one million African refugees risk severe malnutrition 
and increased mortality if the international donor community 
fails to respond in full to the UN urgent appeal for $84 
million, according to the International Rescue Committee, Jesuit 
Refugee Service, Refugees International and US Committee for 
Refugees. The four humanitarian agencies are alarmed by recent 
donor statements acknowledging that refugee food assistance is 
being cut to meet other emergencies. With war pending in Iraq, 
and the potential for massive humanitarian needs there, 
humanitarian agencies are concerned that donors will fail to 
fund urgent food needs in Africa. 

Drought in Africa has created life-threatening food shortages 
for 38 million people. Refugees are among the most vulnerable in 
this group because their displacement has weakened their 
capacity to deal with food shortages. The latest joint appeal 
for refugee food assistance by the World Food Program (WFP) and 
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) totals $84 
million to cover shortages over the next six months.

Approximately 3 million, or nearly one-fifth of the world's 
refugees, are in Africa. In addition to the immediate impact on 
malnutrition rates, food shortages in refugee camps have other 
grave consequences. 

Richard Parkins, executive director of Episcopal Migration 
Ministries, noted the shortfall in refugee admissions this year 
and stated that "a second year of low refugee arrivals has put 
the US resettlement program in a crisis mode. What is more 
tragic is that an international humanitarian crisis is being 
compounded as refugees remain in wretched camps or ghettos 
overseas. Their terror doesn't end." 

Parkins also commented that "when refugees do not arrive to 
receive the hospitality which our parishes have to offer, we 
lose valuable opportunities to rescue desperate people and deny 
congregations the richness of this incredible ministry. One of 
my greatest concerns," he said, "is that the reservoir of 
support which we have developed for refugees will be eroded 
because refugees are not coming. If refugees do not come to our 
communities, this ministry of hospitality will wither."

At a February 25 Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing on 
world hunger, James T. Morris, the WFP's executive director, 
spoke clearly about how food shortages contribute to the 
exploitation of refugees in camps, including demands to trade 
sex for food. "These are people that are already in very 
difficult circumstances, and food shortages lead to serious 
hostility and conflicts and make the camps almost impossible to 
manage. Also, particularly vulnerable are young girls, young 
girls who are forced to turn to things we don't find acceptable 
to find resources in order to be fed."

Morris said that international donors are to be commended for 
their initial response to the larger emergency food needs 
throughout Africa, but due to specific vulnerabilities of 
refugees and their absence of coping mechanisms, it is 
imperative that refugee food needs not be sidelined, diverted or 
ignored. Already, food rations in many camps have been slashed 
up to 50%, with a threat in some camps of a complete break in 
the food pipeline. Donor governments must recognize, he argued, 
that food needs in Africa are so critical that a failure to 
fully respond to this urgent UN appeal in a timely fashion or 
any further diversion will directly result in massive 
malnutrition and severely increased mortality.

Dominican Episcopalians promote national conversation on 
values

(ALC) The Episcopal Church of the Dominican Republic is urging 
civic, business and church leaders to draft a National Plan to 
Defend Family Values in an effort to confront the violence, 
crime, corruption and other problems that rack the nation.

Last year more than 120 women died as a result of violence and 
so far this year two women have been murdered each week. The 
church also expressed concern about an increase in child abuse, 
frequently as victims of a family member, and an increase in 
kidnapping. A pastoral letter urged Dominicans to join efforts 
to reestablish human, social, cultural, moral and family 
values--accompanied by a search for God.

The pastoral also called on people to abandon the "gods" created 
by a hunger for power, by deeply rooted courruption and a lack 
of respect for the national constitution. Bishop Julio Cesar 
Holguin said that society is embroiled in a spiral of violence 
that touches the intimate fiber of one of the country's most 
fundamental values--families. He said that "we are faced with a 
situation where values are becoming inverted and the very 
foundation of society begins to crumble, when the harmony and 
emotional and spiritual balance of the family begin to 
disappear."

The bishop said that "those who perpetuate this violence 
continue to enjoy impunity. We exhort authorities to seriously 
seek a solution that will get to the root of this problem." He 
warned that, despite efforts to slow the constant devaluation of 
the local currency, "the poor are losing hope and the middle 
class is vanishing in the face of the ongoing economic in 
justice that affects the family budget." He called for a 
national development plan that would "sacrifice a partisan 
political quota that surrounds the national treasury and 
includes an austerity law as a symbol of reconciliation and 
Lenten penitence."

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