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[PCUSANEWS] Correction - of note 8350


From PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>
Date Tue, 29 Jun 2004 20:58:24 -0500

Note #8357 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Panel urges mission initiative in Iraq
GA04058
June 29, 2004

Panel urges mission initiative in Iraq

Condemns U.S. torture of prisoners 'in strongest possible terms'

by Alexa Smith

RICHMOND, June 29 - After hours of wrangling and rewriting, the Committee on
Peacemaking overwhelmingly approved a paper outlining the moral
responsibility of the United States toward Iraq, and recommended that the
Assembly instruct the General Assembly Council to develop a plan to send
missionaries and money to Presbyterian churches there.

The Rev. Younan Shiba, a pastor in central Baghdad, had challenged the
committee to "send an army of missionaries" to help the Iraqi church grow,
pointing out, "We are a product of your mission." The churches were planted
by missionaries in the 1920s.

The paper urges Presbyterians of differing opinions about the war to treat
each other with respect, and adds: "We deplore those actions of those who
regard persons with positions different from their own as being unpatriotic
or unChristian."

The commissioners added language that condemns in "the strongest possible
terms" torture and abuse of prisoners "held in any place in the world" in
U.S. military or civilian custody; and supports the long-term rebuilding of
Iraq "without any prejudice to any ethnic and religious group." It further
urges the U.S. government to aid those efforts and to work for the relief of
Iraq's foreign debt.

Other sections express regret over the Bush administration's "failure" to
meet with U.S. religious leaders before resorting to military action, and its
subsequent unwillingness to meet with them to discuss the role of churches in
creating a "free and prosperous future for Iraq."

The committee also approved a sister-paper to the Iraq measure, "A Resolution
on Violence, Religion and Terrorism," which had been recommended by the
Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP). It was passed in its
entirety, including a section that encourages monitoring of the USA Patriot
Act, and another acknowledging "our complicity in contributing to the
circumstances" that prompt some people to engage in terrorism.

Ed Long, the Presbyterian ethicist who is that document's primary author,
told the committee that Iraq and terrorism are necessarily two separate
subjects.

The committee will also recommend that the Assembly:

*Instruct the PC(USA) stated clerk to send a pastoral letter to PC(USA)
congregations outlining the political ideology of Christian Zionism, and to
advise U.S. government officials that that ideology is not that of a majority
of American Christians;

*Ask the Worldwide Ministries Division to study the feasibility of beginning
economic-development work in Palestine and to put a "concrete, measurable
action plan" in place by 2005.

*Commend the 4,723 PC(USA) sessions and presbyteries that have adopted the
"Commitment to Peacemaking," a pledge to work for peace.

The panel voted down a resolution demanding that Stated Clerk Clifton
Kirkpatrick justify his support of a World Council of Churches (WCC)
statement calling for a United Nations investigation and prosecution of the
leaders of the war on Iraq, which it termed "immoral" and "illegal."

This story and many others may have photos, media, video clips that can be
found at http://www.pcusa.org/ga216/.

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