wfn.org | WCC sends pastoral delegation to United States

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Nov. 13, 2001       News media contact: Joretta Purdue7(202)
546-87227Washington     10-21-31-33-71B{531}

By Joretta Purdue*

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Eight people came as "living letters" of faith and hope
from member communions of the World Council of Churches (WCC) to other
Christians in the U.S. capital on Nov. 12.

Bishop Mvume Dandala of the Methodist Church of South Africa, who led the
delegation, stressed that its members were not WCC officers but
representatives of member churches from various parts of the world,
especially those that have experienced uncertainty or violence.

"We come to you as wounded people ... to try to speak to you in your
woundedness," Dandala told about 50 church workers at the United Methodist
Building on Capitol Hill. He spoke of healing and hope as goals that they
might seek together in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on
America.

The delegation included church figures from predominantly Muslim countries
such as Palestine, Pakistan, Indonesia and Lebanon. Others were Russian
Orthodox and French Protestant, and also a WCC executive who described
himself as having been born into a Greek community in Turkey and living the
past 25 years in Switzerland.

The delegation was uncertain how to speak to the American people, and
finding the words to speak to people who are grieving is always difficult,
Dandala said. The group hoped people in the United States would "take
courage when you look into the eyes of those who have gone through what you
are going through," he said. 

The WCC group had already visited ground zero in Manhattan, meeting with
pastors there and in Chicago. They were going on to Oakland, Calif., to
attend the annual General Assembly of the National Council of Churches. In
each place, they joined Americans in prayer and dialogue.

The group has encountered responses ranging from an outpouring of grief to
expressions of anger and hostility, Dandala said. He mentioned hearing
pastors say moving things about their ministry to children who had lost
parents in the events of Sept. 11, but then those ministers searched
themselves with such questions as why they did not feel the same concern for
the children of Iraq, who have been hurt by the international sanctions
against their country. Others asked for help in helping the nation to grieve
"because we are pretending we are not wounded," he said.

"We were amazed when we encountered leaders of religious communities
struggling to understand the implications of Sept. 11," the bishop said.
They were asking if these actions were a sign of how much hatred some people
have for the United States and how pastors can help congregations understand
such topics as foreign policy.

Dandala also expressed amazement about hearing U.S. religious leaders
struggling to relate the suffering following the terrorist activities with
the continuing suffering in Afghanistan due to the bombing. He said one
pastor asked, "How can bombing be the way of Christ?" The delegation members
were not sure they would find people asking such questions because of news
reports that all Americans are united in favoring the bombing, Dandala said.

At the same time, he noted, many churches appeared not to have any deep
feeling about Sept. 11 and the related events. If mentioned at all in some
communities of faith, he said, it was in passing. 

"Important ethical issues that connect us, that should be in the forefront,
were not being raised in some of the churches we visited," he said. "Even
our presence as living letters didn't seem to fit."

The world community had given a voice to the oppressed in apartheid South
Africa when the people could not speak for themselves because of their pain,
the Methodist bishop said. He expressed hope that the delegation could
similarly give voice to the grief of Americans.

"Our experience makes us unsure that militarism can be an effective way to
deal with this even on a short-term basis," Dandala said. That was the
strategy employed in Angola and other African countries before "sense
prevailed," he added. He urged putting forth alternatives to military action
rather than simply staging protests.

The long term requires asking how the church can let the world know that
injustice cannot be allowed to continue, he said. "Global injustice must be
dealt with." 

"I come from a place where the church is also struggling with these issues,"
said Jean Zaru, presiding clerk of the Religious Society of Friends and a
resident of Ramallah, Palestine. 

In such circumstances, the world church asks questions that challenge
Christians to live their faith. Though some visits from outside were
painful, such probing stimulated some Palestinians to commit to living a
life of nonviolence with others, she said. Churches "can't work for peace
and justice as separate tribes. We have to do it together."

She urged the American church workers to find an alternative to making God
subordinate to their patriotism, "as if religion has come only for this part
of the world." 

"Violence is consuming our world, and it is not the answer," she declared.
The Israeli army is the biggest in the area and the best trained in the
world, but the soldiers have not brought peace to their people.

The Rev. Septemmy Lakawa, an Indonesian theologian and a member of the WCC
executive committee, spoke of her own experiences as a teacher and pastor in
the largest Muslim nation of the world. She posed the question, Can church
unity go beyond national disunity?

"We need to recognize there are different voices in the church, and we need
to listen to those voices," she said.

Bishop Samuel Azariah, who serves a diocese of the Church of Pakistan, also
stressed the value of church unity. He recalled when a blasphemy law was
being abused to persecute Christians a few years ago. Church leaders called
for all Christians to participate in a day of prayer and fasting. "We all
got together and tried to build one voice," he said. Both the government and
an international committee listened. 

The one voice of Christians is not coming out in the United States, he
observed, adding that getting together is needed in order to address justice
issues.

"If we cannot talk with a single voice, let us say what the debate is among
us," urged the Rev. Jean Arnold de Clermont, president of the French
Protestant Federation. 

He said he feels strongly the urgency of some questions that Christians
should be preparing to address: Will the United States open a new war in
Iraq? Will the United States let the Israelis invade Palestinian territory
again? Will democratic countries continue supporting totalitarian
governments in Africa? "If the bishops cannot speak, let the prophets
speak," he said.

Nicholas Balashov, secretary of the department of church relations for the
Russian Orthodox Church, said having prayer with local pastors at ground
zero in Manhattan was one of the most unforgettable experiences of his life.
A resident of Moscow, he said he agrees that Sept. 11 is a defining moment.
He encouraged Americans to share their faith. "Time is short."
 
"Sometimes we preach the pain and suffering of others" as if Christians
should not suffer, commented Metropolitan Elias Audi of the Greek Orthodox
Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East. Rather, he said, Christians have
to experience pain to preach to others' pain. "We are people of
resurrection."
# # #
*Purdue is news director of United Methodist News Service's Washington
office.

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United Methodist News Service
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