wfn.org | US, Canadian Church Panels plan biotech conference

["NCC News" <pjenks@ncccusa.org>]

Panels of Canadian and U.S. councils of churches
begin planning a 2007 biotechnologies conference
 
New York, January 26, 2006 -- Committees of the Canadian Council of Churches
and the National Council of Churches USA met in Niagara, Ont., earlier this
month to lay plans for an international biotechnology conference in Fall
2007.
 
A communique issued today by the Canadian Council's Biotechnology Reference
Group and the NCC's Human Biotechnologies Policy Development Committee termed
their joint meeting, "History in the making."
 
The groups met to lay the groundwork for a conference "that will bring
together church delegates with expertise in the area of biotechnology from
the various . . . regions of the world."
 
In May 2006, biotechnology professionals from the Latin America Council of
Churches and the Middle East Council of Churches will join the U.S. and
Canadian panels in Toronto to continue planning the biotechnology conference.
A venue for the 2007 conference will be decided later.
 
The planners have a special calling to examine the issues of biotechnology,
the joint communiqué said. "Their awareness of their particular global
contexts, their awareness of the growing complexities and advances in current
scientific practices and research, their awareness of God as the Creator,
lead them to the recognition that the human, ethical consequences of
biotechnology must be addressed."
 
The planners represent Anglican, Protestant, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox
and Oriental Orthodox traditions, the statement said.
 
Last November, the U.S. NCC General Assembly received a policy on
biotechnologies from the policy development committee, "Fearfully and
Wonderfully Made." The policy, intended to guide practitioners and pastors
through the maze of moral decision-making in the rapidly developing field of
biotechnology, was approved as a first reading and will be studied by the
Council's member communions for a year.
 
The full test of the joint communique follows:

History in the Making!

On January 17th and 18th in Niagara, Ontario, an historic meeting took place.
The members of the BioTechnology Reference Group of the Canadian Council of
Churches and the members of the Human Biotechnologies Policy Development
Committee of the National Council of Churches USA met together to begin to
plan for a 2007 international biotechnology conference.

The two groups met together to exchange context; to talk with one another
about the most urgent questions in biotechnology in their two countries. They
met to lay the initial groundwork for an international biotechnology
conference that will bring together church delegates with expertise in the
area of biotechnology from the various and varied regions of the world. The
Canadians and Americans meeting in Niagara and the international
representatives from Latin America and the Middle East who will be
participatign in a major planning meeting in Toronto in May 2006 for the 2007
international conference feel called to this work. Their awareness of their
particular global contexts, their awareness of the growing complexities and
advances in current scientific practices and research, their awareness of God
as the Creator, lead them to the recognition that the human, ethical
consequences of biotechnology must be addressed.

The representatives of the church councils of the globe, representing a wide
diversity of church traditions and denominations -- Anglican, Protestant,
Roman Catholic and Eastern and Oriental Orthodox -- will be a "stained glass
voice," exploring the realities of science, exploring the realities of
theology and speaking to the world of the faithful relationship between the
two.

As the words of the hymn writer James Russell Lowell declare, "New occasions
teach new duties."

For more information contact:

The Rev. Dr. Eileen Lindner, Deputy General Secretary for Research and
Planning, National Council of Churches USA, 212-870-2333

The Rev. Dr. Karen Hamilton, General Secretary, The Canadian Council of
Churches, 416-972-9494, ext. 22.

Contact NCC News: Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2252, pjenks@ncccusa.org; or
Leslie Tune, 202-544-2350, ltune@ncccusa.org