wfn.org | Joint statement to the media

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2001-324

Joint statement to the media by the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts 
and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston

     November 7, 2001

     Representatives of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and 
the Jewish Community Relations Council met today at the offices of 
the diocese at 138 Tremont Street, Boston. The meeting followed the 
participation of the Episcopal Bishops M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE, Barbara 
C. Harris, and Roy F. Cederholm, Jr., in a demonstration before the 
Israeli consulate in Boston.

     Attending were Nancy K. Kaufman, executive director of the 
Jewish Community Relations Council; Geoffrey H. Lewis, president 
of the board of the JCRC; Rabbi Michael Menitoff, vice president 
of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis; the Rev. Robert Tobin, Christ 
Episcopal Church, Cambridge; the Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, bishop 
of Massachusetts; and Kenneth Arnold, director of communications 
for the diocese.

     The participants issued the following statement:

      "We had a fruitful discussion that has brought us to a better 
understanding of where each other stands on the issues that deeply 
concern our communities. We heard each other's candidly expressed 
pain and concern about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

      "Both sides affirm in the strongest terms the mutual regard 
each has for the other and the commitment to work together, as we 
have in the past, on issues of social justice and common concern, 
locally and globally.

      "We know that we will have disagreements about important 
issues, but our meeting today showed both the depth of our feelings 
and the urgency of our going forward together. We have lacked a 
venue in which to hold necessary discussions and agree that we must 
create an environment in which we can talk. We are in substantial 
agreement that we live together in this community and need to, indeed 
must, come to a better understanding of our differing perspectives.

      "We intend to move forward to have a more meaningful dialogue 
about the issues that concern our two communities. It is expected that 
we will enter the next stage of this dialogue with a broader meeting 
of representatives from the leadership of the Boston area Jewish and 
Christian religious communities before the end of November, to be 
organized under the auspices of the Massachusetts Council of Churches 
and the Jewish Community Relations Council. The date and location of 
the meeting has yet to be determined.

      "Both parties also agree that the eventual goal of this dialogue 
is to engage not only leaders but lay people in our various communities 
in a constructive educational process. We must know and learn to hear 
each other better.

      "Today's meeting is important in many ways. Most critically, it is 
a statement to the religious community and the Boston community that 
Jews and Christians can and will talk together about the issues that 
matter most to them. We have begun a new dialogue. We look forward to 
continuing it, knowing that the subject is difficult but trusting in 
each other's good faith, as this morning's meeting so clearly 
demonstrated."

     The parties to the morning's discussion agreed not to speak 
separately to the media.