wfn.org | Lutherans Are Part of "Ecumenical Convoy" in the Middle East

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

April 30, 2002

LUTHERANS ARE PART OF "ECUMENICAL CONVOY" IN THE MIDDLE EAST
02-103-MR

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Lutherans took part in an "ecumenical convoy"
April 25 that brought food, medical supplies and support to residents
of Jenin, a town in the West Bank.
     Six thousand people are left homeless as a result of a "fierce
10-day battle earlier this month" between Israelis and Palestinians
in Jenin, reported Jonathan C. Frerichs, communication director for
Lutheran World Relief (LWR), Baltimore, the overseas relief and
development agency of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA) and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
     "About 15 bodies have been recovered from the battlefield so
far.  Local residents said about 1,500 people are still unaccounted
for as of [April 25], either under the rubble or among the thousands
held in Israeli detention," Frerichs said.
     The convoy, made up of four trucks and 17 cars, delivered
"1,500 food parcels, blankets, quilts, health kits, layettes for
babies, school kits and medical supplies," said Frerichs.  The convoy
was the fourth to "besiege Palestinian centers in the two weeks since
intense violence abated," he said.
     Beginning in Jerusalem, some 150 international pastors,
priests, bishops and church aid workers escorted the convoy through
military checkpoints and then lined up with local volunteers to
unload tons of ration boxes, Frerichs said.
     "The church aid teams visited residents in Jenin, a once-
crowded refugee neighborhood that is now reminiscent of the scene at
'Ground Zero' in New York City," he said.  "People gather on rubble
that was once their home.  Individuals pick through broken concrete
for personal belongings.  Ringing the devastation, families in living
rooms stare out through walls torn off by military bulldozers.  An
old woman sitting on the ruins of her home was crying," Frerichs
said.
     The absence of organized recovery work "was striking evidence
of the limited public services functioning in Palestinian areas after
months of conflict and of the international impasse over how to
determine what happened in Jenin," he said.
     The convoy was organized by six church organizations in
Jerusalem, including the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), a global
communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition.  Founded
in 1947, the LWF now has 133 member churches in 73 countries
representing 60.2 million of the world's nearly 64 million Lutherans.
     The LWF, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is a member of ACT -- a
worldwide network of churches and related agencies meeting human need
through coordinated emergency response.  The ACT Coordinating Office
is based with the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the LWF.  The
ELCA is a member of the LWF and WCC.
       Frerichs is in the Middle East working as an information
officer for ACT.

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES DELEGATION VISITS JENIN
      Fourteen church leaders from the United States traveled with
humanitarian aid shipments to Jenin and to Bethlehem on April 26.
The U.S. delegation is sponsored by the National Council of Churches
of Christ in the U.S.A. (NCC).  It traveled to the region at the
invitation and request of the Middle East Council of Churches.  The
group had previously visited with political and religious leaders in
Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan before arriving in Jerusalem on
April 23.  The ELCA is a member of the NCC.
      As members of the delegation walked throughout the Old City in
Jerusalem, some described how the streets were "normally buzzing with
tourists and commerce," according to an April 24 news release issued
from the NCC.
      The Rev. Mark B. Brown, a member of the delegation, said,
"This, too, is the destruction of the Palestinian people.  You can
destroy people and societal infrastructure with tanks and missiles
and heavy weapons and bulldozers.  You can destroy those same people
and that same infrastructure by wrecking the people's economy.
Merchants and restaurant owners are going days, even weeks, without
selling one item or one meal."
      Brown is assistant director for international public policy
advocacy ministry, Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs (LOGA),
Washington, D.C.  LOGA is the federal public policy advocacy office
of the ELCA.
      The delegation's schedule included meetings with Christian,
Muslim and Jewish religious leaders and a visit to Augusta Victoria
Hospital, operated by the LWF.  The hospital, located near the Mount
of Olives, Jerusalem, is open to all people but most of its patients
are Palestinians.
      The delegation's "peace and pastoral mission" began April 16.
Its members returned to the United States on April 27.

ELCA NEW ENGLAND SYNOD DELEGATION VISITS THE MIDDLE EAST
      A three-member delegation from the ELCA New England Synod is
visiting with members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan
(and Palestine) (ELCJ) April 24-May 6.
      "The purpose of the trip is to be in solidarity with our
brothers and sisters of the ELCJ during a particularly difficult
time, and to honor our companion synod relationship with the ELCJ.
Many people have been cancelling their trips.  One of the results is
that people in that country, particularly Palestinian Christians,
feel forgotten," said the Rev. Hans R. Arnesen, assistant to the
bishop, ELCA New England Synod, and member of the delegation.
      The synod's central office is located in Worcester, Mass.  The
ELCJ has six congregations   five located in Israel and Palestine,
clustered around Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and one in Amman, the
capital of Jordan.
- - -
      Daily accounts of the ELCA New England Synod delegation's visit
to the Middle East is maintained at http://www.nesynod.org on the
Internet.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html