Episcopalians in Ecumenical Delegation Seek Understanding of Mideast Conflict
Episcopal News Service. December 29, 2000 [2000-240]
(ENS) Episcopalians who joined a high-level ecumenical delegation to the Middle East in mid-December returned sobered by increased violence in the wake of the collapse of the peace process.
"It was the most discouraging trip that I can remember," said Bishop Edmond Browning, who, with his wife Patti, was asked by Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold to represent the Episcopal Church on the delegation. In an interview Browning said he was "haunted by the sense of hopelessness in every face and in every place." Yet he was also struck, he said, by the deep sense of gratitude mixed with sadness among those who met with the delegation. "People were genuinely glad and grateful for our reaching out, especially in places like Bethlehem," where, Browning noted, city streets were empty at a time when they are usually filled with tourists.
In conversation with a group of rabbis and Israeli peace activists on the last day of the visit, Browning expressed the frustrations of all who have supported peace efforts in the area-including members of the delegation.
"This is the most troubled I have ever been in my visits here," he said, adding that it was "the most pastoral-and the most discouraging. My fear is that Jews cannot hear the fear of the Palestinians and vice versa. They compete in suffering rather than share in compassion." He said that it was obvious that Jews in Israel suffer under "an occupation of terror" and that it was crucial that each side "get in touch with the suffering of the other" to create links of "mutual awareness." In a meeting with Sheikh Muhammed Hussein in his offices near the Dome of the Rock, Browning explained that one purpose of the visit was "to build solidarity between us," one that includes all who are working for peace. He said that the churches represented in the delegation were committed to the peace process and to concern for the victims of suffering, mentioning the Prayer Vigil for Middle East Peace that began December 3 in many churches around the world. "It is our intention to continue the vigil until violent acts cease and peace is achieved," he said.
Violence erupted in the wake of a September 28 visit by Likud leader Ariel Sharon to what the Israelis call the Temple Mount and the Muslims call Noble Sanctuary, the site of two of Islam's holiest sites. This new intifada (Arabic for "shaking off"), unlike the one that emerged from the Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza in 1987, exploded largely because of deep-seated frustration by Palestinians, according to conversations with Palestinian religious and political leaders.
The Episcopal Church has long and deep involvement in the area, according to the Rev. Brian Grieves, director of the office of Peace and Justice Ministries, who helped put together the delegation and served as staff during the visit.
"Since the first intifada in 1987, we have been led to look more deeply into the issues. We began with a series of General Convention resolutions dealing with human rights abuses by the Israelis and the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza that have been an obstacle to peace efforts," he said. "And we looked at linkages with our foreign aid, and a companion resolution asking Israel to account for all foreign aid and seeking a reduction of military arms in the region."
Grieves said that the Episcopal Church has been "consistent in its support for a two-state solution and an open status for Jerusalem. In 1997, for example, a resolution called for the city to be the capital of two sovereign and independent states, Israel and Palestine," he said. "And last summer's General Convention addressed the issue of the right of return for Palestinian refugees."
In expressing its strong support for the peace process, Grieves explained, the church has "addressed almost every major area related to the peace process. Also, from the outset, we have supported the right of Israel to live in peace. That support has never been in doubt, it has always been our position. At the same time we have sought to make sure that Palestinians get a fair shake in the peace process-including efforts to address their grievances going back to the creation of Israel in 1948 and the 1967 war when Israel seized the West Bank, including east Jerusalem."
He added, "We are talking about a real balance-overwhelming support for a solution that respects the rights of both sides, holding them both accountable. When we try to hold Israel accountable, however, some see that as anti-Israel and sometimes even anti-Semitic. But we have long distinguished between our deep concern about anti-Semitism and our criticism of Israeli policy. The two are not the same."
The Brownings have been deeply involved in the Mideast since they first visited in the early 1960s on their way to missionary service in Okinawa. Staying near the border that divided Jerusalem, they heard for the first time stories of the suffering of Palestinians. "Why haven't we heard these stories before?" wondered Patti Browning. Her encounters "stuck in my heart," and it was the beginning of her passionate concern for the people in the region.
During his tenure as presiding bishop, the Brownings visited the area again and concluded that the church had a role to play in the search for peace. "We realized it had to be a grassroots understanding, so we went to the provinces and asked them to get involved," said Patti Browning.
Shortly after his investiture, Frank and Phoebe Griswold made a pastoral visit to the area to underscore the church's continuing commitment to peace efforts. (ENS, May 8, 1998) "At this point of transition in leadership, it is important to remind them of our consistent concern as a church," he said at the beginning of his visit. While the visit placed the issues in "sharper relief," he expressed dismay with the "hopelessness expressed over the stymied peace process-and the growing fear that, if the process doesn't move in a positive direction, there will be violence and destructive rage, further polarizing the population."
Griswold said that he was encouraged that there are Jewish leaders, both in the United States and the Middle East, who strongly support the peace process. "There are some heroic efforts to bridge the gap and make Israel a place of justice," he said in an interview at the end of his visit.
Bishop Riah Abu el-Assal of the diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle East warmly welcomed members of the delegation to services at St. George's Cathedral December 10. Earlier he described the current impasse as "very, very serious" but quickly added, "The church continues to share hope in this hopeless time." In his sermon at the cathedral, Bishop Vincent Warner of the diocese of Olympia said that "everyone we have met asks us to tell the truth and stop the suffering." He described encounters with an Orthodox Christian grandmother whose family home had been destroyed by Israeli rockets. "She told the truth for me, the reality that bombs or bullets wouldn't be able to destroy what she has-her faith in Jesus," Warner said.
The bishop and his wife Janice, the other Episcopal members of the delegation appointed by Griswold, have also been very active in supporting the peace process. Olympia shares a companion relationship with Jerusalem and the Middle East.
The Warners also noted the estrangement among the different sides of the conflict. During one conversation the bishop said, "We yearn for peace and justice but we seem cut off from each other. It is difficult to maintain direct communication, so the distortions, fears, stereotypes just increase. We have seen suffering but we need a balanced understanding."
The Warners said that their encounter with a nine-year-old girl in the area south of Gaza City where the Israelis had bulldozed an orchard and some homes put a "human face on the suffering." And that is why, he said, the delegation's final statement is "passionate and urgent."
The December 13 statement said that the delegation had "heard the voices of people…seen the impact of Israeli settlements that strangulate and isolate the Palestinian people from one another…heard the terror in the voices of Israeli Jews and Palestinian Christians and Muslims alike…We believe that our faith calls us to tell the truth of what we have seen and that, unless we share with the world what we have seen, the stones will cry out. We are persuaded that the peace which must come for all-Israeli and Palestinian alike-can only be achieved on a firm foundation of justice."
During a stop at the diocesan-supported Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, Bishop Warner prayed for the hospital "where brokenness is made whole. Heal Palestine, heal Israel and heal us.
What we have seen here is breaking our hearts and all we can do is turn to God."
Warner issued a letter to his diocese on his return in which he said that the situation in the area is "almost indescribably horrible," with persecution of Christians, Muslims "and others in the Arab community. What currently exists is a state of war." He asked all parishes in the diocese "to maintain a vigil for peace until this war in the Holy Land ceases, as a part of a nationwide and worldwide Vigil for Peace in the Middle East."
He specifically asked parishes to remember companion parishes and institutions "in your weekly cycle of public intercessory prayer," and that prayers also be offered "for the leaders of Palestine, Israel, the United States, and the United Nations for a just and lasting resolution to this conflict."
He also urged the diocese's congregations "to engage in conversation with leadership of your nearby synagogues about the need for a united effort to come to a just resolution of this conflict in the Holy Land, which includes a sharing of religious freedom in Jerusalem." He also asked them to light a candle that would be "prominently present during worship services until peace is achieved to symbolize our ongoing prayer for peace with justice in the Holy Land."
Warner also invited congregations to consider financing projects in the area through Episcopal Relief and Development (formerly the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief).
Members of the delegation agreed that peace would continue to elude the best efforts of everyone unless people backed away from their stereotypes and moved beyond the anger to what one participant called "a different vision," such as the one articulated by one of the Christian patriarchs in a conversation with the delegation.
"What we need is not people who take sides but those who can see both sides-and will help seek and work for justice," Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah told his visitors.
"We are near an abyss of further catastrophe," warned Rabbi Ron Kronish during a meeting with the delegation. "We need a good settlement for all. We must end occupation, not necessarily through force, but we must get out of this together."
His sentiments were echoed by Bishop Munib Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and Palestine, who said, "We must see God in the other. Our children are learning to fear and to hate. We must go for the deep reality, dealing with real problems with honest talk. We must act out of our faith to reach the hearts of each other, offering a different message than either bullets or mass media." And, he concluded, "We must pray unceasingly until the end of this travail."