wfn.org | Episcopalians: Alexandria Declaration meeting offers plan for promoting peace in the Middle

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

October 31, 2002

2002-251

Episcopalians: Alexandria Declaration meeting offers plan for 
promoting peace in the Middle East

by James Solheim

(ENS) A high-level consultation of Christian, Muslim and Jewish 
religious leaders hosted by Archbishop of Canterbury George 
Carey at Lambeth Palace in London has issued a 10-point plan to 
deal with the continuing conflict in the Middle East.

The two-day consultation was a follow-up to a historic 
meeting last January that produced the Alexandria Declaration, a 
breakthrough agreement signed by the religious leaders. The new 
plan, announced October 25, takes a sober look at the daunting 
task of peace and reconciliation in one of the most troubling 
confrontations in the world.

Among the provisions of the plan is a commitment to "maintain 
the relationship and channels of communication" developed since 
the Alexandria Declaration, to "establish an inter-religious 
council for Jerusalem and the Holy sites," and to "sustain the 
existing close working relationships with the political 
leadership of both the Government of Israel and the Palestinian 
National Authority."

On the issue of violence, the plan seeks "to engage with 
those religious leaders who are seen to be instruments in the 
perpetuation of violence" and establish a program of education 
that "will foster and encourage an environment of tolerance and 
eventual reconciliation."

Frank exchanges

"We have built much on that first meeting," said Carey in a 
statement. "We have had frank exchanges and there is no 
shrinking from the difficult issues that confront us all in this 
conflict. It is painful sometimes to have to confront the 
hostility and the anger caused by a situation in which there is 
right on many sides and in which the opposite of a profound 
truth can be another profound truth."

The Alexandria Declaration celebrates the respect for the 
three major religions of the area, according to Carey, 
"underscoring its rejection of violence, incitement to hatred 
and misrepresentation, cherishing its call for a just, secure 
and durable solution for the Holy Land, support for a 
religiously sanctioned cease-fire and promoting its ambition to 
create an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect."

Carey said that participants recognized "the significant 
obstacles presented by the continuing occupation and the 
on-going violence. We acknowledge the fear of communities that 
there will never be open acceptance by the other of their right 
to be present in the Holy Land and believe that all have a duty 
to combat the mistrust that this generates."

It is very important, Carey added, to recognize "the 
fundamental importance of ensuring that what we say of one 
another is free from invective and rhetoric and is not cast in 
stereotypes or generalizations. We need also to ensure that what 
is passed on to the next generation is not wrapped in fear and 
mistrust."

The three principal organizers of the Alexandria 
meeting--Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, Sheikh Tlala Seder and 
Rabbi Michael Melchior--were given a Peace Prize before the 
consultation began in recognition of their contributions.

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The text of the plan is available on the Anglican Communion web 
site at www.anglicancommunion.org/acns.

--James Solheim is director of Episcopal News Service.