wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Live chats on Iraq go monthly

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #7679 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Live chats on Iraq go monthly
03223
May 6, 2003

Live chats on Iraq go monthly

Peacemaking conversations on PresbyNet now are every second Thursday

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - "International Voices on Iraq" - a series of electronic
conversations between Presbyterians and Presbyterian Church (USA) partners
around the world - have proven so popular that the Presbyterian Peacemaking
Program (PPP) and PresbyNet, the denomination's computer communication
network, have announced they will continue indefinitely on a monthly basis.
	
The next "live chat" will be this Thursday, May 8, at Noon (EDT).
	
"For me, the chats have something to do with mind expansion," said Mary Pace
of the PC(USA)'s Office of Communication in Louisville, who has participated
in the first two chats. "Here is a group of people who are shattering
stereotypes and learning lessons from these conversations that they're taking
back into their daily lives."
	
The chats bring together a wide spectrum of participants - from a Muslim
newspaper editor in Egypt who is struggling with his own perceptions of
Americans as Christians to a farmer in Kansas who doesn't trust American
media coverage and wants to "get the whole picture." 
	
Each chat, moderated by Barry Creech, coordiator for information and planning
in the Office of Communication, features PC(USA) partners overseas who bring
their own unique perspectives and then engage in dialogue with conversation
participants from all over the U.S.
	
The first chat, on March 13, included Ms. Kyocha Kang, a Presbyterian who
recently retired as general secretary of the South Korean YWCA and who is a
much sought-after international speaker; the Rev. Pablo Jose Noguera Guevaca,
a school chaplain and church leader in Bogota, Colombia; Hadil Ghoneim, a
Muslim newspaper editor in Egypt, who was part of last fall's Interfaith
Listening Project; the Rev. Philip Woods, secretary for international
relations for the United Reformed Church in England; Ismat Mehdi, a Muslim
teacher from India, who also participated in the Interfaith Listening
Project; and the Rev. Mitri Raheb, a Lutheran pastor in Bethlehem who is
currently missionary-in-residence at the Presbyterian Center here.
	
The second chat, on April 10, included Woods and Ghoneim; Claudio Carvhalaes,
a PPP-sponsored "international peacemaker" from Brazil who is studying at
Union Theological Seminary in New York; Bernard Adeney-Risakotta, a PC(USA)
missionary who serves as professor of social ethics and philosophy at three
universities in Indonesia (which has the largest Muslim population in the
world); the Rev. Hunter Farrell, PC(USA) missionary in Peru; and Christopher
Doyle, who facilitates the Presbyterian Hunger Program's "Joining Hands
Against Hunger" program in Egypt and Jordan.
	
This Thursday's chat will focus on the issues of "full spectrum dominance"
and "preventive war," two capstones of current U.S. foreign policy.
	
To join "International Voices on Iraq," go to www.pcusa.org, click on
"PresbyNet," and follow the simple instructions, or call PresbyTel at
1-800-872-3283.

*** For instructions on using this system (including how to UNJOIN this
meeting), send e-mail to mailrequests@ecunet.org
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