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Church leaders travel to Middle East in show of support;
Trip intended as solidarity for 'double minority' Christians

Leanne Larmondin
Website Manager
Anglican Church of Canada

Toronto
In the midst of grim Middle East conflict, the Christian population is an
overlooked but significant minority.

To highlight that fact, a group of Canadian church leaders, including
Anglican Primate Archbishop Michael Peers, will travel to the Middle East
next month to show solidarity with the area's largely-forgotten Christian
population.

About eight per cent of all Palestinians are Christian. Being a Christian
Palestinian in the Middle East - particularly in the occupied territory -
is to be a "double minority" observed Archbishop Peers.

Because the vast majority of Palestinians are Muslim, the minority
Christians are "simply overlooked by the rest of the world," said the
Primate. "The church leaders (in the Middle East) find that frustrating."

The trip is a response to a November, 2000, written appeal from church
leaders in the Middle East to "all Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican and
Protestant churches world-wide, as well as to 'friends of peace' in our
land, in the region and across the whole world to toil together for the
establishment of a comprehensive, just and durable peace between Israelis
and Palestinians."

The Canadian Council of Churches composed a statement of support for the
Middle East churches, and then decided at a January meeting to convey it in
person. Three of the 10 church leaders who signed the statement are able to
go in May: Archbishop Peers, Dr. Marion Pardy, moderator of the United
Church of Canada, and Bishop Telmor Sartison, head of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Canada. They will be joined by Marjorie Ross of the
Presbyterian Church in Canada, who chairs the Middle East working group of
the InterChurch Action coalition.

The church leaders hope that the week-long trip, from May 6-14, can help
influence public opinion in Canada? about the Middle East.

Ms. Pardy sees the visit as putting into practice her church's creed, which
begins: "We are not alone, we live in God's world."

Calling the trip an expression of the Canadian churches' concern and
solidarity, Ms. Pardy said, "My hope is that some of the sense of isolation
that the church leaders in the Middle East are feeling might be lessened by
the visible support."

Both Archbishop Peers and Ms. Pardy expect that their understanding of the
Middle East conflict will increase during their visit. Referring to having
cleared the time to make the trip, Archbishop Peers said: "My policy, even
as a diocesan bishop, has been to say 'I'll empty the time, you fill it. If
your own agenda is not the heavy one, you tend to learn more."

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Links:

Canadian church leaders urge peace in Middle East;
Call for Christians to pray for people of the Holy Land
-- website news story
<http://www.anglican.ca/news/online/news.html?newsItem=2001-01-09_ll.news>

Canadian Christian Leaders' Call for Peace with Justice in the
Middle East
Canadian Council of Churches press release
<http://www.web.net/~ccchurch/mideast(04ja01).htm>

Canadian Council of Churches
<http://www.web.net/~ccchurch/>

United Church of Canada
<http://www.uccan.org>

United Church of Canada: A New Creed
<http://www.uccan.org/ucc/newcreed.htm>

Profile of the Moderator - United Church of Canada
<http://www.uccan.org/ucc/pardy.htm>

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
<http://www.elcic.ca/>

Presbyterian Church in Canada
< http://www.presbyterian.ca/>

Inter-Church Action for Development, Relief and Justice
<http://www.web.net/~icact/>

Leanne Larmondin
Web Manager
Anglican Church of Canada

http://www.anglican.ca
600 Jarvis St.
Toronto ON  L5E 2G1
(416) 924 9199 ext. 307
ll@anglican.ca