Title: Lutheran Holy Land Bishop, Other Faith Leaders Make Peace Commitments ELCA NEWS SERVICE
November 8, 2007
Lutheran Holy Land Bishop, Other Faith Leaders Make Peace Commitments 07-188-AL
WASHINGTON (ELCA) -- The Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land, a group of senior Israeli and Palestinian religious leaders from Christian, Jewish and Muslim faith organizations, announced Nov. 7 new efforts toward limiting violence, protecting holy sites and opening dialogue for peace in the Holy Land. The Rev. Munib A. Younan, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) and member of the council, is participating in meetings here Nov. 5-8.
"I am very convinced that the only way to combat extremism is by prophetic interfaith dialogue and by education," said Younan, who is also vice president of the Lutheran World Federation for the Asian region. The LWF is a global communion of 140 Lutheran churches in 78 countries, with nearly 66.7 million members.
On Nov. 5 the council released a communique in which its members committed to specific actions to work toward peace in the Holy Land, including:
+ establishing procedures of rapid communication among themselves for quick response to issues of protection and access to holy sites;
+ monitoring media for derogatory representations of any religion and issuing group statements in response;
+ protecting holy sites and working to secure open access to the Old City of Jerusalem for all communities;
+ promoting education for mutual respect and acceptance in schools and in the media; and
+ providing ongoing consultation to government leaders.
"Religion is now part of the solution and not part of the problem," Younan said in response to the communique, of which he is a signatory.
The council grew out of the Alexandria Declaration of Jan. 21, 2002, in which the religious leaders of the region made a "commitment to ending the violence and bloodshed that denies the right to life and dignity" in the Holy Land. The council is one of the first bodies of its kind in the region representing the three faiths of the Abrahamic tradition and bridging the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.
Members of the council are meeting with members of Congress and the Bush Administration to discuss support for their peace initiatives. They met Nov. 6 with Sen. Joseph Liebermann (I- Conn.), Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.). The council met Nov. 7 with more than a dozen members of the U.S. House of Representatives, and it is scheduled to meet Nov. 8 with David Welch, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. Younan is also scheduled to meet Nov. 8 with Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.), Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) and Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.).
"As a U.S. religious leader, I welcome as a sign of hope the creation of the Council of Religious Institutions in the Holy Land and their visit to the United States," said the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and president of the LWF. Hanson participated in the council's meetings on Nov. 5. "I think as they engage U.S. elected leaders both in Congress and this administration, it will strengthen the resolve of the U.S. government to play a helpful role in convening Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that would also include a broader representation of Middle Eastern governments," he said.
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Audio of comments by Bishop Younan is at
http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/071107a.mp3 and of Bishop Hanson is at http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/071107b.mp3 and http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/071107c.mp3 on the Web.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog