wfn.org | Ecumenical delegation visits US churches to express solidarity in

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Note #6947 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

wake of terrorist attacks
15-November-2001
01428

Ecumenical delegation visits US churches to express solidarity in wake of
terrorist attacks

by James Solheim
Episcopal News Service

Two months after terrorist attacks in New York and at the Pentagon, a
seven-member ecumenical delegation representing the World Council of
Churches (WCC) visited churches in New York, Chicago, Washington, DC and
Oakland "to express the solidarity and compassion of the worldwide
ecumenical fellowship" and to discuss the implications of September 11 and
the military action in Afghanistan "for the witness of the churches" in
America and the rest of the world.

Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold welcomed the delegation to the Episcopal
Church Center for an ecumenical prayer service in the chapel on November 8.
In a conversation with local church leaders in the afternoon, the delegation
members shared their own experiences and were exposed to a range of
testimonies. "We have come to agonize with you," said Bishop Mvumelwano
Dandala of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, president of the South
African Council of Churches and leader of the delegation. He pointed out
that members of the "Living Letters" delegation came from areas where
violence is commonplace.

Jean Zaru, presiding clerk of the Religious Society of Friends in Ramallah,
Palestine, said that she was in Washington during the attack on the Pentagon
and said that the churches must join the efforts to end the violence that is
consuming the world. Metropolitan Elias Audi, from the Greek Orthodox
Patriarchate of Antioch based in Beirut, Lebanon, added, "We know what it
means to suffer - and to sympathize." He said that he hoped the Americans
would now see more clearly the pain in other parts of the world. "I come
from a tormented area - and may God forgive those who put America in such a
difficult place."

Emotions still raw

"We still smell our loved ones in the rubble," said Bishop Stephen Bouman of
the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA), describing the many funerals he has attended. "The emotions
are still raw," he said, but "the world is ready to talk with its maker."
The churches are packed -with many people who don't regularly attend church,
he noted.
"Maybe we were born and baptized for this moment."
Bouman said that he sensed sadness, rather than anger among people. "Our
soul has been wounded," he said, describing a "paralysis" that prevents many
people from moving on with their lives.

A pastor in his synod anointed firefighters on the forehead before they
rushed back into the World Trade Center in an attempt to rescue people.
People who escaped described the glistening crosses on those foreheads
moving up as they moved down to safety.

"I think of Jacob's ladder," Bouman said. "People going up the tower,
anointed, to their death - others coming down to escape. And God was at both
ends."

Other New York church leaders said that they gave instructions to open all
the churches, light the candles and blast music into the streets - but they
described the haunting realization that the country was facing an "unseen
war, an unseen enemy."

"The United States is no longer an impregnable fortress of safety," added
the Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, ecumenical officer for the Orthodox Church
in America, but a time when many people are "looking to spiritual values and
also reaching out to people of other faiths."

Stunned silence

A chilly breeze blew the acrid smell of the ruins away from members of the
delegation as they huddled on a makeshift wooden platform and stared in
stunned silence at Ground Zero, what was left of the towers. Zaru said that
she was "profoundly grieved by the destruction and devastation at the site"
and found herself thinking of Palestinians who die in equally senseless acts
of violence every day.

In Washington the delegation met with representatives of the US Catholic
Conference of Bishops and with representatives of the American Muslim
Council. In Chicago they met with representatives of local ecumenical
councils and WCC member churches at the ELCA headquarters. The visit
concluded when the group met with the NCC's general assembly in Oakland.

Church leaders in Chicago said that it is not easy to frame a Christian
response in the face of such evil acts. "The terrorists who hijacked
airplanes full of innocent people with the intent of murdering thousands of
innocent people were morally bankrupt," said the Rev. Jon Enslin, interim
ecumenical officer of the ELCA.

For some participants in the conversations - including members of historic
"peace churches" who are usually pacifists - the attacks were so
disproportionately evil that they justify a military response.

Dr. Jean Martensen of the ELCA said that the climate of public opinion in
the United States, and the general ignorance of the nation's policies in the
Middle East, make dialogue difficult. "The contradictions between what we
believe about ourselves and what we do has never been clearer," she said.
Team members who live with terror and violence urged the American churches
to help them find an alternative.

Bishop Samuel Azariah of the Church of Pakistan was in New York September 11
and witnessed the destruction of the towers. He said that at the time he
agreed with President George Bush's call for justice but added, "Today I am
not sure that justice is being implemented." He is worried that the bombing
in Afghanistan is generating popular support for "that small group of people
who bring terror to the world. Terrorism has to go but not in the way that
is going on in Afghanistan." He asked where the churches and the
international community were when the Taliban was killing thousands of
people - and "the conscience of the world was dead."

The language of victims

Several members of the delegation were surprised and moved by the depth of
pain expressed by the American church leaders. The language most often heard
by the rest of the world is one of "victory, prosperity, power," said
Septemmy Lakawa of Indonesia. "They never hear the language of victims"
coming from Americans.

Dr. Bernice Jackson Powell of the United Church of Christ took courage from
the testimonies of delegation members. "This can be a kairos moment," she
said. "We can face the pain we cause - or not.
What we're facing now in this country is pivotal and our choice has got to
be from the word of God, the Sermon on the Mount. If we miss this
opportunity, I believe this nation will never face another peaceful day."

George Lemopoulos, acting general secretary of the WCC, said that the
conversations reflected the spirit of the WCC's Decade to Overcome Violence,
an emphasis adopted at the Eighth Assembly in Zimbabwe in 1998.

"We are not bringing answers," said Dandala. "We are bringing love. We
wanted to touch you and we wanted you to touch us."

In reporting on the visit to the staff at the Church Center, Griswold
expressed similar sentiments. The response to the terrorist attacks had
helped Americans to "accept our fragility as human beings, revealing our
vulnerabilities," he said. It also created bonds that would be important
sources of mutual support in the future.
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