wfn.org | FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

["Lesley Crosson" <lcrosson@churchworldservice.org>]

>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>Church World Service
>475 Riverside Drive
>New York, NY 10027
>(212) 870-2676

Prayer Service, Advocacy Mark CWS Recognition of World Week for Peace
in Palestine and Israel

NEW YORK, June 5, 2008--Australia is focusing on Gaza; Brazil has
seminary students debating conflict over the term “holy”  land. Canadians, Scots, Norwegians, British and French are contacting
lawmakers; and on the high Wall that hems in Bethlehem, Palestinians are
“showing” prayers at night.

Here in the United States, humanitarian agency Church World Service is
co-sponsoring a noon prayer service on June 8 at the Interchurch Center
in New York City and continuing its advocacy in support of a just peace
in the Holy Land.

The events all are part of the June 4-10 celebration of World Week for
Peace in Palestine and Israel, a week of advocacy, education and prayer
led by the World Council of Churches in Geneva and recognized by
countries throughout the world.

While “World Week” prayers ask for help from heaven,  church
advocates also seek changes on earth.

Church World Service, long an advocate for peace with justice in the
Holy Land, regularly calls people to action
(www.churchworldservice.org/speakout) around legislation and other
issues related to peace and justice in the Middle East, along with other
social concerns.

Following President Obama's speech this week in Cairo, the Rev. John
McCullough, executive director and CEO of Church World Service, joined
major Christian leaders from Catholic, Evangelical, Protestant, Orthodox
and historic African American traditions to declare support for bold
U.S. action and to call for meaningful progress toward a just and
lasting peace in the Holy Land.

The agency now is urging other concerned people to sign on to the June
4 letter to President Obama
(http://www.churchworldservice.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7347) ,
which thanked him for administration efforts to reach out to the Muslim
world and efforts to make Israeli-Palestinian peace an administration
priority.

An ecumenical service sponsored by the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem
has anchored World Week for each of its four years.  This year, the East
Jerusalem event is Sunday, June 7th.   A prayer from the Jerusalem
church leaders is available on the web at
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/events-sections/wwppi/pray.html.

Media Contact

Lesley Crosson, (212) 870-2676, media@churchworldservice.org