wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Israel-Palestine conflict: religious dimensions addressed at international conference

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World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 10/09/2008 17:57:33

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ADDRESSES RELIGIOUS DIMENSIONS OF THE ISRAELI-PALE STINIAN CONFLICT

The need to "re-frame the religious dimensions" of the Israeli-Palestinian  conflict is a key goal of a 4-day international theological conference  starting today in the Swiss capital, Bern. The conference involves some 65  theologians and church leaders from all over the world who are focusing on  the issue of "Promised Land".

The actors involved in the Middle East conflict see their positions as  having "a divine mandate and polarized as wholly good versus wholly evil,"  Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary,  told conference participants at the opening ceremony.

However, Kobia added, Christians "must challenge and dismantle ideological  attempts to attribute specific political projects and systems to God's  will".

The conference is being hosted by the Federation of Swiss Protestant  Churches and by the Reformed Churches in Bern-Jura-Solothurn. The event is  part of the international inter-church advocacy initiative Palestine  Israel Ecumenical Forum of the WCC.

Kobia acknowledged that churches "are seriously divided on this issue".  There are "differences amongst us in our readings of the biblical texts,"  he said. However, "those differences must not be an obstacle for common  action for a just peace."

Recognizing the "crucial importance" of inter-religious dialogue and  cooperation, "especially in regards to this situation," the conference  amounts to an "intra-Christian theological dialogue where we start amongst  ourselves," Kobia said. "We have not spent sufficient time or energy  attending to our own perspective and differences within the [Christian]  family," he added.

"The churches have a key role in the resolution of this long and bloody  tragedy of suffering and struggle," said Kobia, who compared the conflict  to "another apartheid situation." They are called "to heal and to bring  all sides to reconciliation rooted in the ethical and theological  imperative for a just peace."

Also scheduled to speak at the opening ceremony were Rev. Thomas Wipf,  president of the Council of the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches  and chair of the Swiss Council of Religions; Ambassador Jean-Daniel Ruch,  from the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs; Rev. Dr Andreas  Zeller, president of the Synodal Council of the Reformed Churches  Bern-Jura-Solothurn; and Patriarch Emeritus Michel Sabbah, from the Latin  Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

Media contact in Bern:

Michel Nseir + 41-22-791-6052 +41-76-207-2795 (mobile)

More information on the consultation: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1722/an-inte rnational-ecumeni.html

Full text of Samuel Kobia's welcome remarks: http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=6278

WCC Programme "Churches in the Middle East: solidarity and witness for  peace": http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3113

Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches: http://www.sek-feps.ch

Additional information: Juan Michel +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363  media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness  and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of  churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant,  Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million  Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman  Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from  the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.