Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 16:18:04 -0500
Sender: ELCA Mid-East Networking List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: Ann Hafften <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Peace Not Walls is launched 050829
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
August 29, 2005
>From the ELCA Middle East Networking List...
The ELCA's campaign "Peace Not Walls - Stand for Justice in the Holy Land"
has been launched and received a good boost at the ELCA's Global Mission
Event in Baltimore last weekend.
A number of items in this bulletin relate to Peace Not Walls and to the ELCA
Churchwide Assembly Aug. 8-14 in Orlando.
1. The front page of the Peace Not Walls web site is up and running -
www.elca.org/peacenotwalls - Pages will be added with resources for
advocacy, awareness and accompaniment. This is just the beginning!
2. The corrected (amended) wording for the Churchwide Assembly action,
"Churchwide Strategy for Engagement in Israel and Palestine" is at this web
link: http://wwwprod.elca.org/assembly/05/0813/IsraelPalestine.pdf
3. The link to the text of the Strategy itself is
http://www.elca.org/middleeast/reports/strategyfull.pdf
4. News reporters covered the story from Orlando. Here are several examples
of media coverage. Here's the link to the "Chicago Sun Times,"
http://www.suntimes.com/output/religion/cst-nws-lutheran14.html
And the Reuters story,
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N13687578.htm
And AlJazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A8B31654-754C-4343-A818-243857E86793.
htm
There were many others. Try a Google News search on Bishop Younan's name and
you will that find many news sources quoted him. The full text of the
bishop's greeting was distributed in an earlier e-mail bulletin.
5. Here is the text of the presentation of the Strategy made to the assembly
(we will try to put the powerpoint presentation on the web for you in the
days to come):
Introduction to 2005 Churchwide Assembly
Action on Engagement in Israel and Palestine
The people of Palestine and Israel live, work, and worship in the land that
Christians, as well as Jews and Muslims, call "Holy".
They are brothers and sisters who have called on our church to take bold
action that will contribute to the building peace with justice in the Holy L
and.
They are the reason the ELCA Church Council adopted the "Strategy for
Churchwide Engagement in Israel and Palestine" and invited this assembly to
join them in launching the "Peace Not Walls" campaign in the ELCA.
The strategy, which is in your bulletin of reports, expresses a sense of
great urgency that has given rise to the Peace Not Walls campaign. This
campaign calls on the ELCA to speak out boldly for peace with justice in
this time when hope for a negotiated settlement between Israel and Palestine
remains so fragile.
The campaign encourages members of the ELCA to act in solidarity with our
companion church the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land
(ELCJHL). The social, educational, and spiritual ministries are rays of
hope in a desperate situation. Yet the continuing survival of the church
and its ministries is threatened.
The number of Christians in the Holy Land has declined markedly -from 10
percent of the population in 1931 to less than two percent today.
Church leaders like Munib Younan, bishop of the 2,000-member Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, warn that the living church in
the Holy Land is in danger of becoming a church of "holy shrines" rather
than a church of God's "holy people."
Now a new obstacle to peace is under construction. Our companions in the
Holy Land report that the construction of what is called a wall, a fence, or
a barrier-depending on one's perspective- on Palestinian land facilitates
the confiscation of land, homes and businesses, and an expanding network of
Israeli settlements, roads, and checkpoints on Palestinian land causes
hardship and anger in Palestinian communities.
Many members of our companion church, like others in their community, cannot
get to worship or to their jobs. They cannot visit their extended families,
just a few miles away. Doctors and nurses spend hours trying to get through
checkpoints on what would otherwise be a 15-minute drive to their work at
The Lutheran World Federation's Augusta Victoria Hospital, located on the
Mount of Olives. Palestinian patients often can't get to Augusta Victoria,
one of the few hospitals offering medical services like kidney dialysis to
those still in refugee camps or who live in West Bank communities.
Children sometimes can't get to their schools -a key outreach ministry of
the Lutheran church in the Holy Land. As the Wall continues to be built in
and around Bethlehem, it threatens Talitha Kumi Lutheran School and its
students.
Palestinian land, including farmland with its valuable, often ancient olive
trees, is being confiscated along the Wall's path. The wall, scheduled to
be completed by September in Jerusalem, will cut off 55,000 Palestinian
residents of East Jerusalem from the rest of the city.
Students are being cut off from their schools, and their parents' ability to
earn a living is being damaged.
In the midst of occupation, even as the Wall is extended, the Lutheran
church in the Holy Land continues to teach peace to students, both Muslim
and Christian, and work with all - both Palestinians and Israelis, who seek
peace with justice.
The action before you builds upon the long history of ELCA companionship
with the churches and people in the Holy Land. It does not break new policy
ground. However, the Peace Not Walls campaign would give new energy and
direction to ELCA engagement.
This campaign would be shaped within the context of the ELCA's ecumenical
partnerships and give _expression_ to its commitment to deepen dialogue with
both Jews and Muslims and articulate a Lutheran perspective vis-a-vis the
claims of "Christian Zionism". Peace Not Walls responds to our companions'
request for intensified prayer, learning, relationship-building, sharing,
and ELCA advocacy with our own government. Special attention will be
focused on halting the further construction of the separation wall and
barrier and enabling Augusta Victoria Hospital to continue its healing work.
Throughout this campaign, the ELCA will say:
"No" to violence and terrorism of any kind by individuals, groups, and
governments that undermine the possibility of a just peace . . .
"No" to continuing Israeli occupation and seizure of Palestinian homes,
land, and resources outside internationally recognized borders . . .
"No" to walls of hostility - that divide and make even more difficult the
quest for a lasting peace in the region.
This campaign will say:
"Yes" to cooperation with any and all who seek peace: Palestinians and
Israelis . . . Christians, Muslims, and Jews.
"Yes" to deepening relationships and support for our companion church as it
lives out its mission in extraordinary circumstances.
"Yes" to a negotiated solution that allows Israelis and Palestinians to
co-exist in justice and peace, as citizens of viable and secure Israeli and
Palestinian states - where the witness and service of the indigenous
Christian church in the Holy Land can continue.
When you put lip to cup during the worship services of this assembly, you
were one touch away from Bethlehem where artisans crafted that chalice and
other works of art under this sign: "Destruction May Be. Creativity Shall
Be!" - a sign that hangs in the workshop of the International Center, a
ministry of Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem. In the resolution before
you, you will have the opportunity to send this communion ware into the ELCA
and invite ELCA congregations be part of its journey in the coming year(s).
As these chalices and patens bear bread and wine, Christ's body and blood,
in a different congregation each week, those who commune will be reminded
that, in Christ's body, they are connected with members of the church in
Jerusalem and Palestine. Made in Bethlehem where the Word became incarnate,
this communion ware will remind them that they are Christ's hands and voice
in the world as they pray - and act - for peace with justice in the Holy
Land. They will also remind all of us that despair is not an option for
those who believe in Jesus Christ - the One who has "broken down the
dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us" and empowers us to build
peace with energy, urgency, and confidence.
- End -
7. The day after the assembly ended, Bishop Mark Hanson wrote to Jewish and
Muslim leaders in regard to the Strategy for ELCA Engagement in Israel and
Palestine. Jewish leaders to whom Hanson wrote represented the National
Council of Synagogues, Needham, Mass.; and American Jewish Committee,
Anti-Defamation League, Union for Reform Judaism and United Synagogue of
Conservative Judaism, all in New York City. Muslim leaders to whom he wrote
represented the Islamic Society of North America, Plainfield, Ind.; Council
on American-Islamic Relations, Washington, D.C.; Islamic Circle of North
America, Jamaica, N.Y.; Muslim Public Affairs Council, Washington, D.C., and
Los Angeles; American Sufi Muslim Association, New York City and North
Bergen, N.J.
The full text of that letter is at this web site -
http://www.ELCA.org/bishop/m_0508letter.html
And the news story from ELCA News is at
http://www.elca.org/news/releases.asp?a=3188
8. Rabbi Eric Yoffie of the Union for Reform Judaism brought a greeting to
the assembly as the ELCA recognized the 350th anniversary of Jewish
settlement in North America. The text of his speech can be found at this web
site - http://urj.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=7803
--- --- --- ---
If you have received this bulletin directly from us, it is because you
subscribed to the ELCA Middle East Networking List. Please forward this
bulletin to others who are interested in a just peace for Palestine and
Israel.
To Join (or Leave) this List, go to www.elca.org/middleeast
Ann Hafften
Peace Not Walls - Stand for Justice in the Holy Land
Coordinator for Middle East Networking
Division for Global Mission, ELCA
www.elca.org/middleeast
800-638-3522, ext. 6466
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