wfn.org | Presbyterian Women "No Longer Strangers" after Visit to Middle East

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

18-November-1999 
99389 
 
    Presbyterian Women "No Longer Strangers" 
    after Visit to the Middle East 
 
    Global exchange participants will now seek 
    to educate other Presbyterians 
 
    by Susan Jackson Dowd 
    Associate editor, "HORIZONS" magazine 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.-Twenty-four representatives from 15 synods of the 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) returned recently from a five-week 
fact-finding mission to the Middle East. 
 
    Ellen Newbold, chair of  Global Exchange Committee of Presbyterian 
Women (PW), which sponsored the trip, said participants ranged in age from 
38 to 70.  "Each of these women is a leader in her own community," she 
said.   "We were extremely fortunate to have the breadth of experience and 
expertise of these individuals focused on the issues studied. Among our 
group we had lawyers, nurses, homemakers, educators, and a number of 
entrepreneurs involved in different ventures." 
 
    Participants were selected from more than 100 applicants and were 
chosen for their leadership and communication skills, and their ability to 
absorb, analyze, and present the experience.  "A crucial factor in the 
selection process was finding participants willing to commit to two years 
of itineration" interpreting what they witnessed to others, said Ann 
Ferguson, coordinator for Presbyterian Women. 
 
    The group, which included a General Assembly Council representative 
from the Worldwide Ministries Division and two women native to the Middle 
East, was joined by a leadership team of four women -- Ellen Newbold PW 
vice-moderator Ann Beran Jones, former PW moderator Hazel Fuhrmeister, and 
PW/"HORIZONS" staff member Susan Jackson Dowd. 
 
    This Global Exchange marks the fourth such triennial event sponsored by 
PW.  Previous grups traveled to Australia (1990), Eastern Europe (1993), 
and Asia (1996) to study a wide variety of issues related to women and 
children, including health, refugee status, labor, education, indigenous 
peoples and human rights. 
 
    The most recent previous exchange focused primarily on the effects of 
Asia's widespread problem of child prostitution. The event is called an 
"exchange" because women from visited regions are invited to attend the PW 
triennial Churchwide Gathering that follows the trip and then to itinerate 
for the two weeks following in selected synods. 
 
    The mission  began and ended in Detroit, Mich., home to the largest 
Arabic population in the United States. The specific purpose of this 
triennium's exchange, based on Eph. 2:17-22, is for Presbyterian Women to 
be no longer strangers to Middle Eastern sisters and brothers by going to 
the Middle East and Detroit to listen to life and faith stories; explore 
issues related to children at risk, justice for women, and belief systems; 
celebrate Christian faith heritage and gain a new understanding of Judaism 
and Islam. 
 
    "Now begins the most significant portion of our mission," said Newbold. 
"Over the next two years each of the participants will travel throughout 
their region to share their experiences and help their audiences understand 
the complexities of the Middle East as we learned it - person-to-person, 
instead of government to government." 
 
    To complete the exchange, women from the Middle East will be invited to 
participate in the July 2000 Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women in 
Louisville, Ky., and to itinerate in synods to be selected. 
 
    Over the course of five weeks the exchange visited Jordan, Egypt, 
Syria, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine and Detroit. Participants were hosted by a 
variety of organizations including the Middle East Council of Churches 
(MECC) and the Coptic Evangelical Organization of Social Services (CEOSS). 
 
    Some projects visited included the Baqqa Refugee Camp for Palestinians 
near Amman, Jordan; the Telal Zeinhom community and the Association for the 
Protection of the Environment -- a garbage recycling center providing 
employment opportunities, both outside Cairo; the Social-Medical Center of 
the Antiochian Orthodox Bishopric of Mount Lebanon in Beirut; the YWCA 
kindergarten at Jalazone Refugee Camp in Jerusalem and the Boy's Vocational 
Training and Family Health Care Centre in Gaza. 
 
    "As we traveled, we supported many of the projects we visited by 
leaving monetary gifts from Presbyterian Women," said Jones, "It was great 
to meet the leaders of these unique projects and learn how the gifts would 
be used." 
 
    Some of the many speakers to address the group included AbdulKarim 
Abulhaija, director general of the Hashmite Kingdom of Jordan's Department 
of Palestinian Affairs; Viveca Hazboun/Ninos, M.D., director of the 
Guidance and Training Center for the Child and Family in Jerusalem; Soudad 
Bakour, head of (the) Female General Union in Damascus, Syria; Mary 
Mikhael, president of the Near East School of Theology in Hamra, Lebanon. 
 
    Information on booking Global Exchange participants to speak in your 
area or on the July 2000 Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women is 
available by contacting Ann Ferguson by phone at  502-569-5365; by fax at 
502-569-8026; or by e-mail at <aferguso@ctr.pcusa.org>.   

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