US denomination helps churches promote peace in Middle East
-15/06/06
In an effort to
US denomination helps churches promote peace in Middle East
-15/06/06
In an effort to encourage practical peacemaking in the Middle East, the United Church of Christ in the USA has come up with an ëOpportunities for Positive Contributionsí online guide to enable local churches to take action.
Some of the suggestions include buying olive oil direct from Jerusalem, supporting a school in East Jerusalem, helping a soccer association for Israeli Arabs and Jews ñ or contributing to the interfaith Hands of Peace, the YMCA or the YWCA of Palestine.
All these proactive steps and more are seen as tangible ways to help church members implement their resolution about using economic leverage in promoting peace in the Middle East, first passed in July 2005 by delegates to the UCC’s 25th General Synod in Atlanta, Georgia.
The new catalogue is aimed to help identify groups and partners committed to the nonviolent resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, explains the UCC. It lists organizations, projects, churches, and church-related groups to support or sponsor, as well as organizations that sell goods produced by people who have no other outlet for sales than the global market.
“This resource is a tool to help pastors and lay leaders engage their congregations,” said Peter Makari, Middle East and Europe executive. “The positive contributions we make are a kind of investment: the return is the strengthening of the work and presence of people who are working to end violence and promote peace.”
“An end of the conflict is essential to real possibilities for economic growth for both Israelis and Palestinians,” Makari added.
The online guide includes partners of the United Church of Christ and the Common Global Ministries of the UCC and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), as well as other interfaith and ecumenical groups working toward improving the living conditions of Israelis and Palestinians who have suffered as a result of the conflict.
Among these groups are the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, Al-Ahli Hospital of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, and the Ramallah Society of Friends.
Other programmes and opportunities include housing projects and several human rights advocacy and research groups.
The Global Ministries website also contains additional background papers about the conflict, videos for older youth and adult church classes, and news from partners.
The General Synod resolution on economic leverage calls upon different settings of the UCC to advocate “the reallocation of US foreign aid so that the militarization of the Middle East is constrained.”
The UCC is in the process of research and study related to the implementation of other aspects of the resolution that include “challenging the practices of corporations that gain from the continuation of the conflict; and divesting [not from Israel itself, but] from those companies that refuse to change their practices of gain from the perpetuation of violence.”
The 1.3-million-member United Church of Christ was formed by the 1957 union of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church.
[Also on Ekklesia: US churches in joint call for Middle East peace; Evangelicals are urged to oppose Middle East peace plan; Six point alternative to war; Church investment body snubs Synod over Caterpillar; Israel releases Palestinian prisoners; US support seen as ëdisasterí for Christian minority in Iraq; Parishes to boycott C of E over continued investment in Caterpillar; TV producer defends claims about God, Bush and Iraq]
US denomination helps churches promote peace in Middle East
-15/06/06
In an effort to encourage practical peacemaking in the Middle East, the United Church of Christ in the USA has come up with an ëOpportunities for Positive Contributionsí online guide to enable local churches to take action.
Some of the suggestions include buying olive oil direct from Jerusalem, supporting a school in East Jerusalem, helping a soccer association for Israeli Arabs and Jews ñ or contributing to the interfaith Hands of Peace, the YMCA or the YWCA of Palestine.
All these proactive steps and more are seen as tangible ways to help church members implement their resolution about using economic leverage in promoting peace in the Middle East, first passed in July 2005 by delegates to the UCC’s 25th General Synod in Atlanta, Georgia.
The new catalogue is aimed to help identify groups and partners committed to the nonviolent resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, explains the UCC. It lists organizations, projects, churches, and church-related groups to support or sponsor, as well as organizations that sell goods produced by people who have no other outlet for sales than the global market.
“This resource is a tool to help pastors and lay leaders engage their congregations,” said Peter Makari, Middle East and Europe executive. “The positive contributions we make are a kind of investment: the return is the strengthening of the work and presence of people who are working to end violence and promote peace.”
“An end of the conflict is essential to real possibilities for economic growth for both Israelis and Palestinians,” Makari added.
The online guide includes partners of the United Church of Christ and the Common Global Ministries of the UCC and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), as well as other interfaith and ecumenical groups working toward improving the living conditions of Israelis and Palestinians who have suffered as a result of the conflict.
Among these groups are the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, Al-Ahli Hospital of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, and the Ramallah Society of Friends.
Other programmes and opportunities include housing projects and several human rights advocacy and research groups.
The Global Ministries website also contains additional background papers about the conflict, videos for older youth and adult church classes, and news from partners.
The General Synod resolution on economic leverage calls upon different settings of the UCC to advocate “the reallocation of US foreign aid so that the militarization of the Middle East is constrained.”
The UCC is in the process of research and study related to the implementation of other aspects of the resolution that include “challenging the practices of corporations that gain from the continuation of the conflict; and divesting [not from Israel itself, but] from those companies that refuse to change their practices of gain from the perpetuation of violence.”
The 1.3-million-member United Church of Christ was formed by the 1957 union of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church.
[Also on Ekklesia: US churches in joint call for Middle East peace; Evangelicals are urged to oppose Middle East peace plan; Six point alternative to war; Church investment body snubs Synod over Caterpillar; Israel releases Palestinian prisoners; US support seen as ëdisasterí for Christian minority in Iraq; Parishes to boycott C of E over continued investment in Caterpillar; TV producer defends claims about God, Bush and Iraq]