UCC Committee recommends adoption of resolution opposing hostility to Islam

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

UCC Committee recommends adoption of resolution opposing hostility to Islam

> Written by Eric Anderson
> July 3, 2011

Working in a consensus model, Committee 12 recommended that General 
Synod 28 adopt the resolution "On Actions of Hostility Against Islam 
and the Muslim Community" submitted by Wider Church Ministries.

Committee members universally supported the direction of the 
resolution and its call to the church to declare its "clear support 
for neighbors in the Muslim community," in response to highly visible 
anti-Muslim statements and actions in the United States over the last year.

Delegates and visitors to the committee deliberations told story 
after story, both about anti-Muslim activities in their home regions 
and actions taken by UCC churches in response. Matt Davis of La 
Crosse, Wisc., said the resolution is very timely for his community. 
A local Muslim congregation has been growing, and looks now to 
purchase land to build a mosque.

"We can already feel stirrings against it," he said. With Davis' 
encouragement, the committee added language to the resolution calling 
for documentation and publicity of actions taken "in support of 
Muslims and people of other faiths."

Margaret Johnston, a laywoman from the Gainesville, Fla. area, 
offered a sign of hope from the very center of the Quran burning 
controversy. After the desecration, UCC pastors the Revs. Lawrence 
and Sandra Reimer joined with clergy of several confessions in the 
Gainesville Interfaith Forum to speak against hateful acts with one 
clear voice. They have chosen to act together as well, and the group 
will undertake a Habitat for Humanity building project together.

Minnie Montgomery, who works in the public schools in Bethesda, Md., 
may have said it best. "In my seventy-some years," she told the 
delegates, "I am finding we are more alike than we are different."

Wider Church Ministries brought the measure to Synod, said Executive 
Minister the Rev. Cally Rogers-Witte, because of concerns raised by 
ecumenical partners around the world, who experienced some severe 
backlash from the Quran burning and Cordoba House controversies in 
the summer of 2010.

The committee began and ended its deliberations with prayer, lifting 
up their concerns not just for their Muslim neighbors and friends, 
but also at the invitation of chairperson John Ramos of Watertown, 
Conn., remembering the cares and concerns they brought with them to 
General Synod.

General Synod delegates will vote on this and other resolutions on 
Monday and Tuesday.