MECC Plans 1994 Conference on Regional Development

By the Reverend L. Humphrey Walz

Economic deterioration in the Middle East and the lack of regional economic cooperation complicate the efforts of the churches to meet the needs of the poor, to overcome injustices and to enhance the prospects for peace. The Middle East Council of Churches is, therefore, inviting churches and related agencies to send economists, sociologists, theologians, social workers and "interdisciplinary professionals in the field of humanitarian service and development" to a Jan. 24-28 consultation in Limassol, Cyprus, to "help the churches exchange experiences, formulate a common vision in the fields of service and economic justice and establish common guidelines for a more effective and relevant involvement in the moral and material development of the region."

A preparatory work group of eight distinguished leaders from Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank and the U.N. spent two days in discussion to raise questions and highlight problems for the conference to face.

These included the "need for economic development micro-studies to provide solid information on which to base programs; the growing gap between the rich and the poor, an increase in poverty generally, and the shrinking of a middle class; increased spending on military priorities and armaments to the detriment of development; conflict and instability leading to large populations of displaced and refugees; heavy reliance on imports from abroad, mainly the West; lack of democracy in many countries and the related lack of long-term economic planning; lack of understanding of the role of women in an economy and in economic development planning; the harsh socio-economic conditions caused by the Israeli closure of the occupied Palestinian territories; the devastating effect of sanctions on the Iraqi population; heavy external debts of most Middle East countries; brain drain to the West and muscle drain within the Arab world; ethnic and religious nationalism growing to the detriment of regional cooperation; until now, the lagging settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the crippling effects of high population growth in various parts of the region; the particularly high rate of Christian emigration from the region; emphasis on a free market mentality, on pragmatism, even opportunism, at the expense of national income distribution; and general economic decline and diminishing revenue coming to the region."

Inter-Faith Acclaim for Holsts

Editor James M. Wall has brought the Christian Century into the ranks of those who would like to see Norway's foreign minister, Johan Holst, and his wife, Marianne Heilberg, become jointly the next Nobel Peace Prize laureates. Active supporters of Lutheran World Relief and ecumenical peacemaking endeavors, it was they who turned their Oslo home into the most significant site yet for international Christian-Jewish-Muslim discourse. Without such a setting, the first joint public step—however limited or tentative—on the rocky road toward PLO-Israeli peaceful coexistence could never have been taken.

Wall became acquainted with this remarkable couple at a 1988 Aspen Institute seminar in Colorado. It was there that he learned about Heilberg's Norwegian research team on West Bank living conditions under occupation. Three years later he talked with her again in Arab East Jerusalem, where her team's work had led to acquaintance with Yossi Beilin, a young official in the then-out-of-power Israeli Labor Party. The June 1992 defeat of the Likud coalition propelled Beilin into office as deputy foreign minister. Through this and other Israeli and Palestinian connections, the Holsts were able to create what Wall calls "the back channels of communication that 18 months later produced the agreement" symbolized by the Arafat-Rabin handshake on the White House lawn.

The interfaith aspects of the secret preparatory conversations helped spur the U.S. Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East (2920 Holme Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19136) to launch plans for its open-ended National Convocation to Celebrate and Build Peace in the Middle East, from Nov. 7 to 10, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, DC, at which the Holsts will be among those appropriately honored. Signed by President Daoud Assad of the Council of Mosques, General Secretary Rev. Joan B. Campbell of the National Council of Churches and Vice-President Emeritus Albert Vorspan of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the invitation to that event states, "There never has been a more hopeful or a more urgent time than now for Jews, Christians and Muslims to work together. The real work of reconciliatory peace has just begun."

Evangelicals to "Celebrate Christianity in the Middle East"

Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding (EMEU) has held its two most recent annual conventions in the Arab world. These have enabled American Christians to gain on-the-spot familiarity with church leaders in the historical and geographical "cradle of Christianity."

From Feb. 3 to 5, 1994, EMEU and the Middle East Council of Churches will bring a score of Arab Christian leaders to Washington, DC, for a three-day "Celebration of Christianity in the Middle East." This will enable the Middle Easterners to visit widely with church groups in North America both before and after the conference, which will be held at the capital city's First Baptist Church. Those from the Middle East, and Westerners steeped in the life and work of the Bible lands, will address hundreds of evangelicals and lead the convention's search for mutual inspiration and direction to bring reconciliation, peace and justice between all the peoples of the region. Most of these leaders also will stay an extra day for the theological conference on "Land Peace and Prophecy" at Howard University School of Divinity on Feb. 7, 1994.

All too few Western Christians, EMEU believes, are aware of the existence of between 12 and 14 million Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian, Catholic and Protestant Christians in the Middle East whose roots go back to the Arabians, Egyptians, Judeans, Libyans, Mesopotamians and others who were present at the inception of Christianity at Pentecost in Jerusalem (Acts 2: 8-11). In close collaboration with the Middle East Council of Churches and in consultation with Western denominational and ecumenical leaders, EMEU seeks to strengthen the bonds of mutuality between the Eastern and Western Church by such efforts as the February "Celebration."

Dr. Swee Chai Ang and Dr. Jean Zaru begin and end the alphabetical list of overseas participants. Swee, a medical doctor and refugee from China, served as a volunteer physician in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut in 1982 when some 2,000 Palestinians were massacred there by Lebanese militiamen supported and protected by Israeli soldiers. At a subsequent hearing in Jerusalem she gave her eyewitness testimony to this grisly collaboration. She writes and speaks movingly on the need to bring an end to the conflicts that create refugees. She is now on the staff of Birmingham Hospital, Birmingham, England.

As principal of the Friends Girl's School in Ramallah in the West Bank, Jean Zaru resisted, with Quaker nonviolence and fortitude, the efforts of the Israeli military to put her and the school out of business. Her present work is near Swee's, teaching ecumenical studies at the Anglican Selly Oaks College, also in Birmingham, England.

Other speakers will include Melkite Father Elias Chacour, author of Blood Brothers, A Palestinian Struggles for Reconciliation in the Middle East and We Belong to the Land; Colin Chapman, whose book Whose Promised Land? continues to offer AET Book Club readers a guide through confusing politicized misapplications of Scripture; Anglican Bishop Kenneth Cragg, who has just added another book, The Arab Christian, to the impressive array of volumes he has written on religion and life in the modern Middle East and Muslim Asia; Bishop Marcos from Egypt; Father Paul Tarazi, once a refugee from the ancient Palestinian city of Jaffa and now a professor at St. Vladimir's Seminary in Yonkers, NY; and Rev. Dr. Donald Wagner, executive director of EMEU (847 Chicago Ave., #3 C, Evanston, IL 60202) and co-editor with Syrian Protestant Professor Hassan Haddad of the 1986 Amana anthology All in the Name of the Bible. Reverend Wagner's new book, Anxious for Armageddon, a personal and historical odyssey into the complex conflicts of the Middle East, is scheduled for publication in June 1994, by Herald Press. For conference information contact Susanne Donoghue, (708) 733-0901, fax (708) 733-0904.

"Forgiveness, Atonement and Restitution" in the Aftermath of Lebanon's Civil War

Many specialists in conflict resolution have visited Lebanon to study the chaos, confusion and suffering that persist in the wake of the bloody, protracted civil war there. In general, however, administrators of Beirut University College (founded by Presbyterians as Beirut College for Women, but now co-ed and nonsectarian) have perceived most of the resulting remedial proposals as geared to managing rather than truly resolving Lebanon's deep-seated problems.

With this in mind, BUC and Lebanese-American political scientist George E. Irani (609 Paradise Court, Greenwood, IN 46143), author of The Papacy and the Middle East, are working with specialists in the U.S. and abroad to organize a conference and workshop on "Forgiveness, Atonement and Restitution: Alternative Approaches to Conflict Resolution." They hope to secure funds to hold the conference in April.

TWO Books and A Study Guide for Muslim-Christian Dialogue

Islam and War: A Study in Comparative Ethics; The Gulf War and Beyond is the doubly subtitled new book by Florida State University Prof. John Kelsay. Published by the Presbyterian (USA) Westrninister/John Knox Press, it focuses on Saddam Hussain's use of Islamic symbols in his call for jihad during the Gulf crisis of 1990 91. Dr. Abdelaziz Sachedina, who teaches Islamic Studies at the University of Virginia, hails it for its "understanding of the Muslim struggle in the context of the Western hegemony and the emerging New World Order." It goes beyond that, however, and does much toward remedying the dearth of comparative studies on the ethics of war, giving a valuable overview of war and peace in Islamic tradition. It will be especially interesting to readers who have delved into Charles Kimball's two-year old Orbis volume, Striving Together: A Way Forward in Christian-Muslim Relations.

Muslim-Christian dialogue along these lines seems to be increasing. To encourage and facilitate such trends, the Quaker offices in Chicago and Denver have collaborated in devoting the American Friends Service Committee's November Middle East Peace Notes to providing guidelines for discussion of Islamic political movements and of Islam as a faith.

Available at $1 from the AFSC Chicago office (59 East Van Buren, #1400, Chicago, IL 60605), that newsletter includes a bibliography, a fact sheet on Muslims in the U.S. and a glossary of terms.