wfn.org | NCC Announces April 16-27 Visit to Middle East

["Carol Fouke" <carolf@ncccusa.org>]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.SA.
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2252/2227
E-mail: news@ncccusa.org; Web: www.ncccusa.org
NCC4/3/02 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NCC ANNOUNCES APRIL 16-27 ECUMENICAL DELEGATION VISIT TO MIDDLE EAST
In the Works for Several Months, the Visit is
All the More Urgent in Light of Current Crisis

	April 3, 2002, NEW YORK CITY - Following an interfaith service of prayer
for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, held here Tuesday morning
(April 2), the National Council of Churches confirmed plans for an
ecumenical delegation visit to the Middle East.

The April 16-27 visit, already in the works for several months, is all the
more urgent in light of the deepening crisis, said Dr. Bob Edgar, NCC
General Secretary.

	We go at the invitation of the Middle East Council of Churches, he said,
to offer pastoral support for Christians in the Holy Land; seek ways
churches in the United States and the Holy Land can collaborate to promote a
just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians; encourage
Christians, Jews and Muslims working for peace, and bring our ecumenical
witness for peace and justice to U.S., Israeli and Palestinian political
leaders in the region.

	The traveling groups agenda is to take in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan
and Israel/Palestine.  Dr. Edgar and NCC President Elenie Huszagh (Greek
Orthodox) of Nehalem, Ore., will lead the 15-member delegation from the NCC
s Protestant and Orthodox member communions.

	Two members of the delegation participated in this mornings interfaith
prayer service - Dr. Edgar and the Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr., Senior
Minister, The Riverside Church, New York City.

	At the service -- hosted by the National Council of Churches -- Christian,
Jewish and Muslim prayers for Middle East peace were accompanied by calls on
the U.S. government to bring its full moral force to bear for a solution to
the worsening Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

	Several religious leaders, including Dr. Edgar and special guest Jesse L.
Jackson, Sr., Rainbow PUSH Coalition President, urged President Bush to send
his senior diplomat, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, to the region.

	Its crucial that Powell be sent to press for an immediate cessation of
the violence and for commencement of face-to-face negotiations for peace,
Dr. Edgar said.  Agreed the Rev. Jackson, We must intervene with the
highest level of leadership.  The stakes warrant it.  We cannot do it with
low-level envoys.

	The recent historic, unanimous United Nations Security Council resolution
calling on Israel to withdraw its troops; the Saudi proposal for a full
Arab-Israeli peace, and the plan for negotiations proposed by former Senator
George Mitchell all offer a way forward, Dr. Edgar and others said.

	The Interchurch Center Chapel filled for the half-hour service, during
which seven Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders led prayers.  At a news
conference following the prayer service, they and others offered their
comment and counsel on what Dr. Edgar characterized as an increasingly
dangerous cycle of violence and aggression.

	Participants in todays prayer service and news conference also included
the Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr., Senior Minister, The Riverside Church,
New York; Mr. Naeem Baig, Secretary General, Islamic Circle of North
America; Rabbi Marcelo R. Bronstein, Congregation BNai Jesurun, New York;
the Rev. Jean Stromberg, Executive Director, U.S. Conference, World Council
of Churches; the Rev. John L. McCullough, Executive Director, Church World
Service, a ministry of the National Council of Churches 36 Protestant and
Orthodox member communions; the Rt. Rev. Canon C. Christopher Epting,
Ecumenical Officer for The Episcopal Church (who shared a statement from
that communions Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold III), and
the Rev. Dr. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, General Secretary of the Reformed
Church in America.

-end-