Conflict Can Be Transformed, Anglican Peace and Justice Network Will Declare in Jerusalem
Episcopal News Service. September 10, 2004 [091004-2-A]
Seeking to bridge divisions created by violent conflict around the world, the Anglican Peace and Justice Network will meet September 14-23 in Jerusalem for international dialogue emphasizing "conflict transformation."
Anglicans from more than 20 nations will be represented in the meeting, convened at St. George's College in Jerusalem, where Anglican Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal will welcome network participants, including leaders from the Episcopal Church in the United States. The Anglican Observer to the United Nations, Archdeacon Taimalelagi F. Tuatagaloa-Matalavea of Samoa, will also participate.
"We are meeting at a time of great tension in the world, especially in the Middle East," said the Rev. Canon Brian Grieves, director of Peace and Justice Ministries at the Episcopal Church Center. "We are bringing varying perspectives with considerable passion and perhaps disagreement, and we'll try to forge a consensus."
Grieves said the network -- which is a recognized arm of the worldwide Anglican Communion -- "selected Jerusalem as our meeting place in order to give support to the peace process of Israelis and Palestinians."
Also of concern is the crisis and genocide in Sudan, a further topic for discussion at the Network meeting. From the wider African context, participants from the Anglican Provinces of Burundi, Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Southern Africa and Uganda are scheduled to attend.
Participants will come from nations hard hit by violence and terrorism -- the effects of which are recalled especially in the United States this weekend with the third anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.
Loss of life in Iraq is also expected to figure into Network dialogue. Grieves said this week's report that 1,000 U.S. military personnel have died in Iraq "brings a sobering perspective to this meeting, and we have to remember that thousands of Iraqis, most of them civilians, have also died."
Grieves said the meeting will unite "people coming from places where there is conflict and loss of life, so our focus on conflict transformation -- or moving beyond conflict to healing, reconciliation and justice - could not be more pertinent."