Title: ELCA Presiding Bishop Meets Secretary of State on Middle East Peace ELCA NEWS SERVICE
January 30, 2007
ELCA Presiding Bishop Meets Secretary of State on Middle East Peace 07-013-AL
WASHINGTON, D.C. (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), joined five other Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders in a meeting Jan. 29 with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Representing the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East (NILI), the faith leaders met with Rice to express their strong commitment to a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to strong U.S. leadership toward lasting and just peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
During the meeting, members of NILI were invited into regular conversations with the State Department, according to Hanson. "This will allow us to hold each other accountable for taking steps toward achieving lasting and just peace between Israelis and Palestinians," he said.
NILI consists of 35 religious leaders affiliated with 25 Jewish, Christian and Muslim national organizations. It was formed in December 2003. In December 2006 NILI released a joint statement, "Arab-Israeli-Palestinian Peace: From Crisis to Hope," which was sent to Rice along with a letter requesting the meeting.
"What is most needed now is a renewed commitment by the United States to provide active, creative and determined leadership, in coordination with the Quartet, as a top priority of U.S. foreign policy," the leaders wrote in the letter. "While Palestinian and Israeli leaders have essential roles, U.S. leadership is crucial to halting the violence, and restarting and successfully completing Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab negotiations for peace."
The Quartet consists of the United States, European Union, Russia and United Nations.
Rice traveled to the Middle East in recent weeks, meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in an effort to restart talks between the two sides. A meeting of the Quartet is scheduled for Feb. 2.
"We left the meeting confident of and thankful for this administration's commitment to build upon Secretary Rice's efforts in recent weeks," Hanson said in an interview following the meeting.
"All participants acknowledged the immediate need to end the human suffering while pursuing the long-standing, vexing issues that have prohibited peace from being achieved thus far," said Hanson. "I urged Secretary Rice to hold both Israelis and Palestinians accountable for advancing steps toward negotiations immediately."
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Roman Catholic archbishop emeritus of Washington, spoke as the leader of the delegation in a news conference following the meeting.
"This morning we had substantive and excellent discussions with Secretary Rice. But the real measure of our meeting can only be taken in the coming weeks and months as actions and events unfold," he said.
Others at the meeting were:
+ The Most Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop, Episcopal Church + Rabbi Paul Menitoff, executive vice president emeritus, Central Conference of American Rabbis + Rabbi Amy Small, past president, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association + Sayyid Muhammad Syeed, national director, Islamic Society of North America
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The NILI statement, "Arab-Israeli-Palestinian Peace: From Crisis to Hope," is at http://tinyurl.com/3x8fd9 on the Web.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog