wfn.org | [ENS] Daybook from Episcopal News Service Sept 10 2004

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Daybook, from Episcopal News Service

September 10, 2004 - Friday Forum: Voices on Topics in the News

Conflict can be transformed, Anglican Peace and Justice Network will 
declare in Jerusalem

Ways forward sought from violence of 9/11, casualties in Iraq, genocide in 
Sudan, escalating Palestinian-Israeli conflict

[ENS] - Seeking to bridge divisions created by violent conflict around the 
world, the Anglican Peace and Justice Network will meet September 14-23 in 
Jerusalem for international dialogue emphasizing "conflict 
transformation."

Anglicans from more than 20 nations will be represented in the meeting, 
convened at St. George's College in Jerusalem, where Anglican Bishop Riah 
Abu El-Assal will welcome network participants, including leaders from the 
Episcopal Church in the United States. The Anglican Observer to the United 
Nations, Archdeacon Taimalelagi F. Tuatagaloa-Matalavea of Samoa, will also 
participate.

"We are meeting at a time of great tension in the world, especially in the 
Middle East," said the Rev. Canon Brian Grieves, director of Peace and 
Justice Ministries at the Episcopal Church Center. "We are bringing varying 
perspectives with considerable passion and perhaps disagreement, and we'll 
try to forge a consensus."

Grieves said the network -- which is a recognized arm of the worldwide 
Anglican Communion -- "selected Jerusalem as our meeting place in order to 
give support to the peace process of Israelis and Palestinians."

Also of concern is the crisis and genocide in Sudan, a further topic for 
discussion at the Network meeting. From the wider African context, 
participants from the Anglican Provinces of Burundi, Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, 
Tanzania, Southern Africa and Uganda are scheduled to attend.

Participants will come from nations hard hit by violence and terrorism -- 
the effects of which are recalled especially in the United States this 
weekend with the third anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror 
attacks in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.

Loss of life in Iraq is also expected to figure into Network dialogue. 
Grieves said this week's report that 1,000 U.S. military personnel have 
died in Iraq "brings a sobering perspective to this meeting, and we have to 
remember that thousands of Iraqis, most of them civilians, have also died."

Grieves said the meeting will unite "people coming from places where there 
is conflict and loss of life, so our focus on conflict transformation -- or 
moving beyond conflict to healing, reconciliation and justice - could not 
be more pertinent."