August 17, 2006

GENEVA – Peace in the Middle East will not be achieved until the core issue of the conflict in the region, namely the coexistence of Palestine and Israel is addressed, said the General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko, when he joined leaders of the Ecumenical Center-based church organizations in welcoming an ecumenical pastoral delegation returning from Beirut, Jerusalem and Ramallah.

As long as this issue is not addressed, more bridges will be destroyed, Noko said at a 16 August press conference in Geneva, during which the delegation reported on its visit. "Any bomb that falls in any part of the Middle East is the seeding of hatred and putting up of walls of enemy images," he remarked.

Three members of an ecumenical delegation entrusted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) jointly with the Conference of European Churches (CEC), the LWF and World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) traveled to the Middle East, 10-15 August, to express solidarity with the people there following the recent armed hostilities in Lebanon and northern Israel. They met with representatives of churches, Muslim and Jewish leaders, civil society and government officials.

At the press conference, the delegation members – CEC President Rev. Jean-Arnold de Clermont, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tours, France, Mgr Bernard Aubertin, and WCC program executive on racism, Ms Marilia Alves-Schueller – said they had returned with the task of transmitting the hopes and expectations of churches in Lebanon, Palestine and Israel to the international ecumenical family.

De Clermont said one question that "was heard over and over again by the delegation" in relation to Israel's attacks on Lebanon was "Why such awful destruction?" The group emphasized that the representatives of the different Lebanese communities with whom they had met "had all agreed that the answer to that question is that the destruction was both deliberate and planned."

The delegation members affirmed the concern of representatives of Lebanese communities about the overriding value of the multi-cultural and multi-confessional nature of their society. For the community leaders, this represents a guarantee for peace. They noted that Lebanese "of all religious faiths – Christians and Muslims, both Sunni and Shi'ia – had remained firmly united despite the enormously divisive pressures of the war."

The WCC General Secretary, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia said the ecumenical delegation's visit was a sign of the WCC's intention to broaden its coordination of ecumenical response to the Middle East crisis. He noted that the situation in the region was changing, and "a new political, economic and moral landscape requires new elements to be brought into the equation for a just peace in the Middle East."

The delegation members spoke of the strong interreligious engagement of Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. The LWF general secretary stressed the urgent need to strengthen such commitment and "to support Younan, his colleagues and counterparts in other religious traditions whether Christian, Jewish or Muslim" in their work within the ecumenical Middle East Council of Churches and the newly established council for religious leaders in the Holy Land.

Noko noted that the LWF has been serving the needs of Palestinian refugees in East Jerusalem and the West Bank for more than 50 years. As a major Christian presence on the Mount of Olives, the LWF Department for World Service Jerusalem (DWS) program provides essential health care, vocational training, scholarships and support for the blind. It promotes justice, peace and reconciliation while engaging and serving the diverse and divided communities of the region. It also operates the Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH) in East Jonds to critical emergency situations that result from the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The AVH provides quality health services to refugees and others who cannot receive such services elsewhere.

A message signed by the CEC, LWF, WARC and WCC general secretaries, and distributed at the press conference concludes, "In light of all that they tell us, we shall during the next weeks reflect prayerfully and urgently together on the contribution which the churches can make in furthering the cause of peace in the Middle East."

The full texts of the most recent LWF statements on the Middle East are available on the LWF Web site at: http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/Welcome.EN.html.

Lutheran World Information