wfn.org | Episcopalians: Convention will wrestle with many global issues

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

June 13, 2003

2003-137

Episcopalians: Convention will wrestle with many global issues

by Sandra Moyle

(ENS) The war with Iraq is not the only international issue 
awaiting delegates to the 74th General Convention.  The Standing 
Commission on Anglican and International Peace with Justice 
Concerns is bringing a number of concerns to Minneapolis, 
ranging from AIDS, poverty and injustice in African nations to 
criticism of American policy statements about North Korea.

The commission's Blue Book report is especially critical the 
Bush administration. "The Cold War has not ended." declares the 
commission report. "The damage done by President Bush's 'axis of 
evil' rhetoric is extensive and regrettable. Diplomacy is the 
way to handle ongoing tensions and concerns in North-East Asia. 
Confrontation, patronizing and demonizing do not solve any 
existing problems but rather exacerbate them."

Members of the commission acknowledge that the language is very 
strong but "you couldn't have been with the people we were with 
and not seen this," says Louie Crew who was a member of the 
subcommittee that visited Japan and Korea's demilitarized zone.  
The experience of "standing there and looking into the DMZ" gave 
them a "sense of what a flashpoint that part of the world is," 
observes The Rev. Canon Brian Grieves, director of the church's 
Peace and Justice Ministries.  The subcommittee met with church, 
government and lay leaders and repeated heard them express 
concerns that "axis of evil" is not helpful terminology when 
trying to keep the peace.

Resolution A036 urges the "end of political demonization and 
militaristic rhetoric toward the Democratic Peoples Republic of 
Korea and its leaders" in order to create climate more conducive 
to peace. 

Churches can make a difference

"U.S. Policy," says the Blue Book report, "too often interrupts 
and destabilizes regional relationships and aspirations.  The 
churches can make a difference in fostering people-to-people 
diplomacy, in supporting non-violent peace activism, and in 
urging citizen action with our own elected leadership in the 
United States." It also supports the Anglican Church of Korea in 
its advocacy for the peaceful reunification of the Korean 
peninsula. It urges the US government to provide for relief of 
humanitarian needs such as food aid, energy development, 
transportation, education and protection of human rights and the 
environment.

Resolution A037 asks the U.S. to insure the legal rights of 
Korean citizens and provide adequate compensation to those 
negatively affected by the US military presence, such as victims 
of weapons practice and testing; pollution of the environment 
and victims of personal abuse, especially of a "violent or 
sexual nature." It also urges that the eventual goal be the 
phasing out of U.S. military bases in Korea.

However, growing tensions between the U.S. and North Korea over 
nuclear arms could mean changes in the resolutions.  Grieves 
says he wouldn't "be surprised to see some work done by the 
oversight committee to reflect this reflecting current 
situation" particularly on the resolution urging the phasing out 
of U.S. military bases in Korea.

Although relations among the countries of North-East Asia are 
delicate the committee finds signs of hope that doors can open 
which have long been assumed locked forever." In particular 
committee member Mary Miller was impressed with the time her 
subcommittee spent at Sung Kong Hoe University, an Anglican 
school that specializes in non-governmental organizations 
studies with the specific purpose of encouraging peace and 
justice in the world." 

The committee is offering a resolution (A038) urging Episcopal 
colleges to also include a curriculum of peace and justice 
studies and training for non-governmental organization careers. 
"None of our Episcopal colleges in the United States are doing 
much in peace studies," says Miller, "and we wanted to lift  up  
the idea and encourage Episcopal colleges to construct own peace 
programs."

UN millennium development goals

Commission members visited Uganda, Kenya, Sudanese bishops, 
Japan, Korea, Colombia and Brazil in the last three years. The 
commission's convention report concludes that "much of humankind 
continues to labor under the seemingly intractable problems 
related to poverty, a dearth of educational opportunities, 
grossly excessive rates of malnutrition and disease, the 
continuing oppression of women and the scandalously abusive 
squandering of the gift of millions of children."

The commission warmly embraces the United Nations' Millennium 
Development Goals as a relevant framework for the church to 
live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ through and with our Church 
partnersglobally." General Convention Resolution A034 urges an 
active participation by the United States in the U.N. effort by 
providing leadership and resources. 

The first two UN millennium goals seek to reduce poverty and 
hunger in the world by half and ensure universal primary and 
secondary education for all girls and boys. Globally, education, 
"especially for girls," is one of the "most effective ways to 
increase productivity and decrease poverty," Tom Hart, former 
director of the Office of Government Relations in Washington 
told the commission in January, 2001. 

Maureen Shea, appointed director of the office recently, concurs 
because "we have found when women are educated they tend to be 
the ones who start small micro businesses and they are very 
effective." Mary Miller add that "when women, particularly in 
developing countries, are given access to education things 
change fast and deep." 

Joining international efforts

The other UN millennium goals are to reduce world child and 
maternal mortality rates by 2/3rds, reverse loss of 
environmental resources such as safe drinking water and 
significantly improve the lives of at least 100 million slum 
dwellers by 2020.  Finally, the UN intents to develop a global 
partnership for meeting the needs of least developed and 
developing countries including debt relief and trade policies. 

Grieves points out  that the church is already working towards 
the UN millennium goals, citing the church's successful lobbying 
efforts on behalf of the $15 billion dollar international 
HIV/AIDS relief bill recently approved by Congress and the $90 
billion dollar debt relief initiative passed two years ago. 

The Episcopal Church is also a member of the Anglican 
Environmental Network and participates in the international 
ecumenical Bread for the World ministry.  However, officially 
partnering with the United Nations will "give us more clout," 
says Crew, "because we are not inventing something on the fly" 
but joining in an established international effort. 

"Africa desperately needs the continuous attention of our 
churches, while Americans need to be challenged to act out of 
our abundance to generate much larger financial contributions," 
according to the International Peace and Justice Convention 
Report. 

The commission commended Anglican churches in Congo, Uganda, 
Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda for being very effective 
instruments in combating AIDS, poverty and injustice in the 
Great Lakes Africa region.  Resolution A035 calls on the 
Episcopal Church at all levels to partner with the Anglican 
Churches in Africa and other agencies and to commit financial 
resources through the Partnership Office for Africa to support a 
churchwide campaign to implement humanitarian development goals 
in Africa. One of those goals is to not only halt but reverse 
the spread of HIV/AIDS that has already left 10 million children 
orphaned.

While offering no new resolutions the commission continues to 
urge the church to give the highest priority to advancing a just 
peace in Sudan which has the longest uninterrupted civil war in 
the world.  Bishop Daniel Deng Bull told commission members, "I 
was born in the war, and I am getting old in the war. Many of 
our children for generations have had no schooling. We are 
losing our language, our culture, because we have been at war 
for almost half a century. When is the world going to come and 
rescue us?"

Seeking an end to persecution 

The Commission's Blue Book report indicates without further 
comment or resolution that in each site visited "the commission 
witnessed examples of the worldwide persecution of gay and 
lesbian Christians" and the need for the conversations called 
for by the resolutions passed at the 1998 Lambeth Conference."

Crew, who was on two of the site visits to Uganda, Kenya, Japan 
and Korea, says, "We saw it in Colombia, in Japan, and in Korea. 
 It is a societal and governmental attitude."  It is not the 
first time this issue has come before the General Convention.  
In 2000 the convention approved a resolution supporting the 
Cambridge Accord in which Anglican Bishops affirmed that no 
homosexual persons should ever be the object of persecution or 
violence or deprived of civil rights because of his or her 
sexual orientation.

Other international peace and justice resolutions are call for 
an awareness campaign for the domestic and international problem 
of trafficking in women, girls and boys, and support for 
Palestinian and Afghan women and children by earmarking 
contributions to Jerusalem 2000 or Episcopal Relief and 
Development. Resolution A020 urges development of generic HIV 
medications for thousands who desperately need them in 
developing countries but cannot afford the high costs.

The Diocese of California has submitted a resolution calling for 
an end to the cycle of violence in the Middle East.  It strongly 
urges encouragement of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to 
end their disputes, bring all acts of violence to an end, the 
work together to live in peace and that the Presiding Bishop to 
lead the dialogue among the Anglican Communion to support peace 
initiatives that include recognition of both Israel and 
Palestine as independent nation states

International Peace and Justice issues are on the agenda for 
five simultaneous conversations on five different topics taking 
place at the convention site on Wednesday July 30 from 7pm to 
9pm. One of the topics is "Muslims, Jews, and Christians. How 
can these three widely diverse communities speak and work 
creatively together in the world as it is now? What do we have 
to say to one another?"

Another will focus on the theme of the Convention, "Receive, 
Repent, Reconcile, and Restore" with discussions on what new 
models Christians need to become agents of forgiveness and 
healing.

------

Office of Government 
Relations:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/eppn/index.asp

Global HIV/AIDS 
legislation:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/ens/workshop/2003-112.html

Episcopal Peace and Justice 
Ministries:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/peace-justice/index.asp

Standing Committee on Anglican and International Peace with 
Justice 
Concerns:
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/scaai.html

Standing Committee on Anglican and International Peace with 
Justice Concerns Blue Book Report: 

http://www.churchpublishing.org/general_convention/pdf_blue_2003/03-SCAIPJC.p
df

Resolution # 2000-C043: 

http://www.episcopalarchives.org/cgi-bin/acts_new/acts_resolution.pl?resoluti
on=2000-C043

--The Rev. Sandra Moyle is rector of St. Mark's in Jacksonville, 
Florida, a former televion news reporter, and a member of the 
electronic news team at the 74th General Convention in 
Minneapolis.