Note #9268 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
06240 April 27, 2006
Moderator urges GAC to seek task force on Middle East issues
Ufford-Chase proposes 'effort to listen to one another and seek a solid consensus'
by Alexa Smith
LOUISVILLE - A document proposing that the 217th General Assembly create a task force to listen to Jews, Christians and Muslims and to monitor the politics of the Middle East for the next two years is under consideration by the General Assembly Council (GAC).
The task force, proposed by Rick Ufford-Chase, the moderator of the 216th GA, would "develop guidance" to honor each groups' concerns while the denomination "considers how to move forward on these issues," Ufford-Chase said.
In February, the moderator asked council members to help him develop advice for commissioners to the Assembly in June, who are facing a mountain of overtures related to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s 2004 decision to consider using shareholder pressure to change corporate practices it says contribute to violence in Israel/Palestine.
Most of the targeted companies either help the Israeli military or support the infrastructure of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories.
The task force would not hamper the work of the denomination's Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) Committee, which already is initiating dialogue with several corporations, including Caterpillar Inc., whose bulldozers have been used by the Israeli army to demolish the homes of civilians in the West Bank and in Gaza.
MRTI has not asked the Assembly to divest stock in any corporation. No divestment recommendations will be ready before 2008. The Assembly must vote to put any corporation on a divestment list.
"Our rationale is simple. ... We believe that MRTI is doing very good work - and we should make a coordinated response," Ufford-Chase told the GAC.
In addition to creating the task force, the moderator also recommends:
That any overtures affecting the investment policy of the PC(USA) be referred to MRTI for its recommendation to a future Assembly
That the Board of Pensions, the Presbyterian Foundation and MRTI be encouraged to explore "new or existing alternative investment possibilities that promote peace and strengthen the economies of both Israel and the occupied territories"
The task force's report and information from the church's fiduciary agencies would be reported to the 218th General Assembly (2008).
A positive investment strategy was approved by the 2004 General Assembly; a task force is now developing recommendations to support the area's tourist industry and craftspeople and to promote housing on the West Bank, whose economy is suffering. The positive strategy is being developed under the auspices of the PC(USA)'s Worldwide Ministries Division.
The GAC will act on the moderator's suggestion on Friday (April 28).
The document says that the political situation in Israel and Palestine is "changing extremely quickly, and we believe it would be helpful to have a group that is tasked with working to follow, interpret and understand the potential impact of those changes."
It also says that the church will benefit from a "serious effort to listen to one another and seek a solid consensus for our actions in the delicate task of peacemaking in this troubled area of the world."
Former Princeton Seminary President Tom Gillespie developed the theological prelude to the document, which argues that faithful obedience to "Christ's call is ever necessary, never easy and always risky. For it is not only God that we now see 'in a mirror dimly,' but God's world as well. Yet the vagaries, complexities and uncertainties of the human scene do not excuse us from seeking to discern through the Spirit what God would have us do and say in regard to pressing issues of the times."
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