ELCA NEWS SERVICE

April 13, 2005

ELCA Council Affirms Strategy For Engagement In Middle East
05-064-MRC

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) affirmed a strategy for ELCA
engagement in Israel and Palestine and acknowledged an "urgent"
call from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy
Land (ELCJHL) for action regarding the construction of an Israeli
separation wall on Palestinian territories.
     The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and
serves as the legislative authority of the church between
churchwide assemblies.  The council met here April 9-11.
Assemblies are held every other year; the next is Aug. 8-14, in
Orlando, Fla.
     The council asked members, congregations and synods of the
ELCA and its related agencies and institutions to implement
actions outlined in "The Churchwide Strategy for Engagement in
Israel and Palestine" with a "sense of urgency, recognizing the
window of opportunity for peace with justice" in the Middle East.
     The council conveyed the strategy as a report to the 2005
Churchwide Assembly and recommended the assembly adopt a
resolution that calls on all expressions of the church to
participate in an emerging campaign for peace in Israel and
Palestine.  The resolution also asks the 10,657 congregations of
the ELCA to become part of a "chain of action" to link the
assembly with the church's 65 synod assemblies in 2006 through
use of communion ware made in Bethlehem.
     The Strategy for ELCA Engagement in Israel and Palestine
provides a history and lists assets the ELCA brings to
peacebuilding efforts in the Middle East, current ELCA policy and
practice, sets of desired outcomes and action steps to achieve
those outcomes.
     Outcomes include achieving coexistence for Israelis and
Palestinians in justice and peace, a reduction in poverty and
unemployment among Palestinians, and a negotiated, final status
agreement that includes a "shared Jerusalem."  Action steps to
achieve those outcomes include an ELCA churchwide campaign that
involves building awareness, accompaniment and advocacy.
     Last year the council asked the ELCA Division for Global
Mission and Division for Church in Society to develop a strategy
that would enable the ELCA, in relationship with its "ecumenical
and interfaith partners," to contribute to the wider movement for
peace with justice in the Middle East.  The strategy highlights a
campaign, "Peace not Walls:  Stand for Justice in the Holy Land,"
designed to "energize" members of the church to build
relationships with companions in the Middle East -- particularly
with the ELCJHL -- and help the ELCA live out is commitment and
call to be a "public church."
     Ghassan "Gus" Khoury, council member, Mount Prospect, Ill.,
expressed his appreciation for the strategy, citing that "there
is just peace" for Palestinians and Israelis.  Khoury told
members of the council that peacebuilding efforts in the Middle
East are "about justice and equality."
     In his report to the council Carlos Pena, vice president of
the ELCA and chair of the Church Council, Galveston, Texas, said,
"I spent a week in Palestine back in September and got to see
firsthand the plight of our brothers and sisters in that part of
the world." Pena said he "came back with a difference of opinion
as to what needs to be done" and that the trip "has had a big
influence on me supporting these strategies."
     "There is a sense of urgency" to implement these strategies
"because of conditions in that region of the world" and "because
of the hope that we feel with new leadership in the Palestinian
government," he said.  "We feel there is hope for a viable two-
state [solution] in that part of the world and for just peace."
     In a separate action, the council approved a designation of
$100,000 to support the implementation of the strategy.  The
money is part of a $4.5 million designation plan -- proposed by
the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA -- intended
to strengthen the church's ministry commitments.
     In another action the council encouraged the ELCA's five
million members to become aware of the threat to the future of
the ELCJHL and hope for peace in the Middle East posed by the
construction of an Israeli separation wall on Palestinian
territories.
     The council called for an immediate cessation of the
construction and removal of all existing portions of the
separation wall, requested that the Division for Church in
Society intensify its advocacy efforts in accordance with the
Churchwide Strategy for ELCA Engagement in Israel and Palestine,
and directed appropriate staff of the churchwide organization to
provide information about the separation wall for use in
congregations and synods of the ELCA.
-- -- --
     Information about the ELCA's engagement in the Middle East
is available at http://www.ELCA.org/middleeast/ on the Internet.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news