wfn.org | Episcopalians: News Briefs

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May 28, 2003

2003-119

Episcopalians: News Briefs

Christians urge Palestinian Authority not to make Islam official 
religion

(ENI) Christian leaders in the Holy Land have called on the 
Palestinian Authority not to make Islam the official religion of 
a future independent Palestinian state. The leaders oppose 
Article Six of a draft constitution prepared by the Constitution 
Committee of the Palestinian Authority which states: "Islam 
shall be the official religion of the state. The monotheistic 
religions shall be respected." 

The Anglican bishop in Jerusalem, Riah Abu Al-Assal, said he has 
already taken the matter up with Palestinian President Yasser 
Arafat. "I want to assure you that we have written already to 
the Palestinian Authority. I have already met with President 
Arafat," he said. 

The bishop said he would also be discussing the issue with 
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath, who headed the 
committee that produced the draft constitution. "There is a way 
out of this. I know that the majority are Muslims in Palestine 
but it did not mean that Islam [should] be the religion of 
Palestine. Palestine needs to be the most democratic state in 
the Middle East, I hope and pray." 

Al-Assal said he also wanted the Palestinian Authority to adopt 
a model that would allow political representation for Christians 
as well as Muslims at the highest levels of office, citing 
Lebanon as an example. "You can copy the example. In Lebanon, 
the president is Maronite [Christian] and the prime minister is 
Sunni [Muslim], if we need to address the issue from a religious 
point of view," he said. 

The bishop was responding to questions on the issue from the 
Rev. Petra Heldt, the executive secretary of the Ecumenical 
Theological Research Fraternity in Israel, at a recent 
conference in Jerusalem on Christians in the Holy Land. Heldt 
had asked for the bishop's opinion on plans to make a future 
Palestinian state an Islamic one, ruled by Islamic laws. 

Following the conference, she described the plans by the 
Palestinian Authority to impose Islam on a future Palestinian 
state as "utterly disturbing." "The proposed constitution is for 
the dominance of Islam," she told ENI. She said that her 
organization had put forward a paper advocating that the 
constitution not go ahead in its current form. "We are for an 
open, democratic society, not determined by religious law," she 
said. 

Heldt said the draft versions of the constitution in Arabic 
differed greatly from those in English, and those in Arabic made 
it clearer that Islam would be dominant in a future Palestinian 
state. Christians make up only a tiny percent of the 3.5 million 
Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and their 
numbers are dwindling. It is estimated that thousands of 
Christians have left since the start of the current 
Israeli-Palestinian violence in September 2000. 

Catholic clerics pan possible separation of Hebrew and Arabic 
speakers 

(ENI) Roman Catholic clerics and academics have come out 
strongly against reported plans to divide the Latin Patriarchate 
in Jerusalem and to establish a new church jurisdiction of 
Hebrew-speaking Catholics distinct from Arabic-speaking 
dioceses. 

Under the proposed change, the new jurisdiction in the Holy Land 
would answer directly to Rome and be independent of the local 
Latin Patriarch, Michel Sabbah. Archbishop Sabbah is a Christian 
Arab who supports the Palestinian national cause. Supporters of 
Sabbah have denounced any move that could isolate him from a 
portion of the Catholic community. 

"I am a strong supporter of Michel Sabbah and [the plan] is an 
attempt to undermine the authority of the Latin Patriarch," the 
Rev. Don Moore of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem 
told ENI. 

Moore was reacting to an article published earlier in May in the 
weekly Jesuit journal America by Drew Christiansen, who is 
counselor for international affairs to the United States' 
Conference of Catholic Bishops, with special responsibility for 
the Middle East. 

It was, said Moore, unfair to target the Latin Patriarch. 
"Sabbah has been a great advocate of peace, reconciliation, of 
love between the peoples in the land," he contended. "He has 
been a voice of peace, understanding and I think that it is the 
type of voice the church needs." 

Moore noted that few Christians in the Holy Land were 
Hebrew-speakers, and maintained that therefore any change was 
unjustified. "As I understand it, this is a proposal for another 
Patriarch," he said. 

In Moore's view, the Latin Patriarch expressed a balanced view 
of the current conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. "He 
[Sabbah] is not anti-Israel," Moore said. "He has met with 
Jewish groups, with rabbis." 

Dr. Bernard Sabella of Bethlehem University, a Catholic and an 
expert on the local Christian community, suggested that the 
proposal might be politically motivated: "It could be the fact 
that some people are sensitive to having an Arab head of 
church," he said, but stressed the importance of having a single 
umbrella jurisdiction under which Catholics from both sides of 
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict might meet, in the interest of 
promoting peace. 

"It could provide the ground for possible prospects of working 
together, of talking together, reflecting together, rather than 
living in two separate worlds," said Sabella. "And if they do it 
[create a new jurisdiction], it's a disaster, it will go against 
reconciliation." 

Ransacked, penniless Anglican church in Baghdad struggles on

(Church Times/Agence France-Presse)  Hanna Tuma, caretaker of 
the Anglican church of St. George the Martyr, Baghdad, is back 
with his family after being abducted by armed looters in the 
aftermath of the war. 

A handful of broken, dust-covered communion wafers is "all the 
looters left behind," said Tuma. The church was built at the end 
of the First World War in memory of British troops fallen in 
combat. The safe that had contained the communion chalice was 
opened with a grenade. The stained-glass windows are broken, 
lights stolen and a leftover Christmas tree uprooted next to a 
smashed crib.

It was April 19 when the thieves descended on the compound, the 
eve of Easter and four days before St. George's Day. Tuma was in 
the church hall, which doubles as his home, when 20 armed men 
burst in and threw him to the floor. Hands and feet bound and 
with a revolver stuck to his head, he watched the looting of his 
modest home. After the house, the thieves went for the church. 
It was two days before passers-by heard shouting and came to set 
him free.

Thus far, at least, no sectarian clashes have been reported in 
Iraq, but several Christians in the predominantly Muslim city of 
Basra were shot dead for selling alcohol. "If the influence of 
extremist groups increases in the future," said the Latin-rite 
Archbishop of Baghdad, the Most Rev. Jean Benjamin Sleiman, "I 
don't know what kind of future can be envisioned."

'Kirchentag' draws thousands of Christians to Berlin in sign of 
unity 

(ENI) Tens of thousands of Christians from Germany and beyond 
are gathering in Berlin starting May 28 for what organizers 
believe may be the biggest ecumenical gathering to have taken 
place in Europe.

About 200,000 people are expected for the five-day event, called 
the Ecumenical Kirchentag, or church congress, sponsored by 
Germany's Protestant and Roman Catholic denominations, which 
claim the loyalty of roughly 26 million members each.

"We had never anticipated participation on such a huge scale," 
the Kirchentag's Protestant co-president, Elisabeth Raiser, told 
journalists in Berlin. "This is a sign of just how much 
Christians are looking for what unites them. People are 
obviously fascinated by the idea of helping to shape ecumenism 
and not simply leaving it to theologians and church leaders."

The gathering culminates with an ecumenical service on Sunday in 
front of the Reichstag, the seat of Germany's parliament. In 
between, more than 3000 events are planned, including Bible 
study, debates on issues such as religion and violence, and 
cultural events.

Invited speakers include Germany's president, Johannes Rau; 
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder; Nobel Peace Prize laureate Bishop 
Carlos Belo of East Timor; the Rev. Konrad Raiser, general 
secretary of the World Council of Churches; Cardinal Walter 
Kasper, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for 
Promoting Christian Unity; and leaders of other faiths.

A laser beam will link the city's Protestant and Catholic 
cathedrals. A huge halo-shaped helium-filled balloon--the symbol 
of the Kirchentag--is floating in front of the Brandenburg Gate, 
one of Berlin's most well-known monuments.

It is the first time that Germany's Protestants and Roman 
Catholics have jointly organized an event on this scale. Still, 
preparations for this demonstration of Christian unity have been 
dogged by continuing divisions on sharing the Eucharist, or Holy 
Communion, which organizers had hoped would be possible at the 
event.	Roman Catholic doctrine states that Catholics should not 
share in the Eucharist in Protestant churches, and Catholic 
priests should not offer the Eucharist to non-Catholics.

One Protestant parish in the German capital has announced that 
Roman Catholics and Protestants will be sharing Holy Communion 
during the Kirchentag--against Vatican rules, with participating 
Roman Catholic priests running the risk of sanctions.

"Of course people are impatient and disappointed" about the 
strictures on shared Eucharist, Hans Joachim Meyer, the Roman 
Catholic co-president of the Kirchentag, told journalists. But 
"conflict--still less hurtful provocation--does not bring about 
unity, but on the contrary endangers it." 

Sydney to invite Anglican bishops to respond to plans for lay 
presidency

(Anglican Media Sydney) News stories that have appeared with 
suggestions that the Diocese of Sydney is about to commence the 
practice of lay and diaconal presidency are incorrect.

A committee report will be debated at the June meeting of the 
diocesan Standing Committee. The report contains the suggestion 
that a process of consultation with the bishops of the Anglican 
Communion be set in train later this year before the matter is 
fully debated by the Sydney Synod in October 2004.

The committee was set up by an October 2001 Synod resolution 
that requested an investigation as to whether there was a legal 
option for commencing the practice of lay and diaconal 
presidency in the Diocese of Sydney.

The Sydney Synod has been debating lay presidency (called in 
Sydney 'lay administration') since 1977, and there is now a 
strong commitment based on biblical and theological reasoning 
for the practice to be introduced into the ministry of the 
diocese. Yet it is also realized that this would become a matter 
of strong debate within the Anglican Communion, and the Synod 
committee has appropriately recommended this process of careful 
consultation.

The recommendations of the committee are that the report and 
draft legislation be sent to the 2003 Synod and also that the 
Synod should request Archbishop Peter Jensen "to write to the 
bishops of the Anglican Communion explaining the intention of 
the Synod to consider the bill at its 2004 session, and inviting 
comments to be forwarded to him by 1 June 2004."

The suggestion is also that Jensen arrange for a report to be 
prepared on the responses that are received for the Synod 
session in October 2004.

"Clearly a firm intention to consult with the episcopal 
leadership of the entire Anglican Communion is central to the 
planned process for the Sydney Synod," said Bishop Glenn Davies 
of North Sydney, the committee chairman.

Two Sydney Doctrine Commission Reports on Lay Administration may 
be found at 
http://www.anglicanmedia.com.au/old/doc/layanddiaconal_1998.html 
and 
http://www.anglicanmedia.com.au/old/doc/layanddiaconal_1995.html.

Liberian churches plead for American help as peace talks 
approach

(CWS)  Liberia's churches are pleading with American Christians 
to help them as they seek to bring emergency assistance, peace 
and hope in a nation battered by more than 13 years of civil 
war.

Church leaders report a proliferation of armed groups, forced 
recruitment of children aged 12 to 18 years and amputations of 
men, women and children by the belligerent forces. The fighting 
has uprooted hundreds of thousands from their homes, driving 
them into overcrowded camps where the fragile shelters provide 
inadequate protection in the rainy season, which now has 
commenced. Fighting has rendered 80 percent of the country 
inaccessible to relief agencies, according to United Nations 
sources.

Because there are no safe corridors, relief supplies are unable 
to reach the affected, said Benjamin D. Lartey, General 
Secretary of the Liberian Council of Churches, in a May 23 
situation report. The World Food Program has stopped 
distributing food to an estimated 200,000 displaced people in 
camps around Liberia because the rations were being seized 
systematically by armed raiders as soon as they were handed out, 
according to the United Nations. As a result, Lartey said, 
people are dying from starvation and diseases. 

The global humanitarian agency Church World Service is striving 
to enlist U.S. churches and government leaders to take an active 
interest on behalf of Liberia's people. CWS is funding the 
participation of five Liberian church leaders in peace talks 
scheduled for June 4 in Ghana, and has sent food, blankets and 
personal hygiene supplies for displaced Liberians.   Concerned 
Christian Community, a CWS partner agency in Liberia, said the 
latest aid shipment helped nearly 3,600 pregnant and nursing 
mothers, children and elderly in six internally displaced 
persons (IDP) camps near Liberia's capital city of Monrovia.

"We are talking with our Liberian partners about how we can keep 
Liberia in the forefront of people's minds," said Donna Derr, 
Associate Director of the CWS Emergency Response Program. "We 
continue to be incredibly concerned that the desperate situation 
there and that the tremendous needs haven't generated the funds 
to support the basic needs of all these displaced people."

Civil war broke out in Liberia in 1989. The war officially ended 
with the 1997 elections and inauguration of President Charles 
Taylor. But in 1999, fighting broke out again, this time between 
government forces and rebels calling themselves Liberians United 
for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD). In April of this year, 
a new fighting group emerged in southeastern Liberia--the 
Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL). On May 20, MODEL 
rebels took control of the Harper seaport and airport in 
southeastern Liberia.

Now a third force, the Grebo Defense Force (GDF) has emerged in 
the southeast and is fighting MODEL in River Gee County. "This 
group has been organized to protect their county from rebel 
incursion," said Lartey. "This is a serious development, for if 
peace does not come soon, this could be the new trend for many 
armed groups to emerge."

Peter Kamei, a United Methodist who is general secretary of the 
YMCA of Liberia, said that if nothing is done, a bloodbath like 
that in Rwanda or Burundi could result.

"Whether Americans accept it or not, they are looked to as 
Liberia's most precious ally," Kamei said. "Liberia was founded 
by freed U.S. slaves, fought alongside U.S. troops in both world 
wars, supplied Firestone with rubber and--until the end of the 
Cold War--was the site of a strategic communications center. 
There is a need for America's voice to be heard."

Talks between government and rebel leaders are now scheduled for 
June 4 in Ghana after several postponements.

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