Conger

The Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem and the Church of Scotland have executed an ecumenical partnership agreement to foster Christian minister in Israel and Palestine. Representatives of the Church of Scotland’s World Mission Council led by the Rev. Colin Renwick met with the Rt. Rev. Suhaeil Dawani from April 4-6 at St. George’s Cathedral in East Jerusalem and St. Andrew’s Scots Memorial Church in West Jerusalem to resurrect the partnership which in recent years had been left fallow.

The agreement committed the Anglican and Presbyterian churches in the Holy Land to “revive and reactivate our partnership in the faith, witness and service of our churches and institutions in the region” and to develop joint congregations in Jaffa and Tiberias as well as promoting the twining of Scottish and Palestinian congregations and pulpit exchanges.

The two churches will also create a “joint institution in Tiberias for interfaith dialogue, peace and reconciliation,” as well as merge the operations of their “pilgrimage tours”.

Bishop Suheil challenged the Presbyterian Church to focus its work in the region on “peace, justice, healing and reconciliation” and called it “to teach and educate all people to accept each other, urging the practice of interfaith fellowship and dialogue.”

“We have created a small joint working group to take our partnership plans forward,” the communiqué said, and are “greatly encouraged by our fellowship together, and delighted to pursue together our shared faith and partnership in Christ’s work and the building up of his Church.”

St. George’s Memorial Church in Baghdad came under rocket fire on Thursday evening, the vicar of Baghdad Canon Andrew White reports.

All of the church’s windows were blown out by the blast and the church, built in the 1930’s to commemorate British war dead in the Mesopotamian Campaign of the First World War, sustained some structural damage in the April 17 attack.

However, Canon White reports there were no injuries from the attack.

“This in itself is a miracle- the church was full at the time, with people attending our Thursday prayer meeting. It is indeed a miracle. It will cost us to get the damage repaired, but we are so grateful that nobody was injured, or worse,” he said in an email from Iraq.

Groundbreaking for Qatar’s second purpose built Christian Church will take place next month, the Anglican chaplain of Doha, the Rev Canon Bill Schwartz reports.

Built on land donated Emir Amir Hamad bin Al Thani, the Church of the Epiphany, will house all of Qatar’s Protestant Christians. On March 15 over 15,000 people attended the first mass at Qatar’s first Roman Catholic Church, Our Lady of the Rosary. Christians account for approximately 10 percent of Qatar’s 800,000 residents—almost all foreign workers from the Philippines and India.

While public Christian worship has been held in the Persian Gulf country for almost 80 years, the two new buildings are the first purpose built Christian Churches in the emirate in the modern era. The Church of the Epiphany, whose construction is being coordinated by the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf will cost of £5 million, has been designed as a “complex” of worshipping spaces rather than as a “single room,” Canon Schwartz explained.

“We do have the main building, but off to the side of that will be a number of other meeting rooms, where different groups will be able to worship simultaneously, without disturbing each other,” he told the Gulf Times.

“The building work has been divided into three stages, with the first set to be completed by summer of next year,” he said. First to be built will be two worship spaces that can accommodate up to 250 people, classrooms, office space and an apartment. When complete the complex will have facilities to allow nine separate worship services to be held at the same time.

Permitting the construction of Christian churches “is a very significant step for Qatar, and a very encouraging one,” Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells said last month in Doha, and is a sign that “Qatar is opening its doors to everyone.”

“It is a very brave decision by the Qatari authorities, and one we are very pleased about,” Dr. Howells told a March 29 press conference while visiting the emirate. Last week the Vatican delivered a diplomatic note from Pope Benedict XVI to the emir, thanking him for his support and for the his work in enhancing Christian - Muslim dialogue.

Friday’s kidnapping of the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul was likely a criminal rather than a political act, the vicar of Baghdad, Canon Andrew White tells The Church of England Newspaper.

“Most of the kidnapping of Christians are economic rather than political,” Canon White said in a March 1 email from Baghdad.  The kidnapping of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho is “distressing,” but has only made headlines in the West because he is an Archbishop.

“The fact that he is a Chaldean Archbishop also makes things worse as it is known that they are linked to the Roman Catholic Church so it is perceived that they should have plenty of money,” he said.

While the security situation has improved in recent months, “the fact is that this is still the most dangerous place in the world.”  However, “the kidnapping of the Archbishop is not in any way a sign that things are getting worse but the continuation of the same saga,” Canon White said.

Gunmen seized the Chaldean Archbishop following a service at the Church of the Holy Spirit the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Friday, killing his driver and two guards.

Pope Benedict XVI called the crime “despicable” and urged the gunmen to free the archbishop.

“The Holy Father asks the universal Church to join in his fervent prayer so that reason and humanity prevails in the kidnappers and Monsignor Rahho is returned to his flock soon,” the Vatican statement said.

Speaking to the congregation following a midday Angelus held at St. Peter’s Square in Rome on March 2, Benedict repeated his call for the “immediate” release of the Archbishop—”who is also in very poor health.”

“May the efforts of those who control the fate of the Iraqi people be multiplied so that, thanks to the commitment and wisdom of all, this people may again find peace and security, and the future to which it has a right not be destroyed,” the Pope said.

“For the moment,” Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, the Chaldean patriarch told L’Osservatore Romano, “we have no news and no claims of responsibility from the captors. We only have a lot of fear.  The people leave and go elsewhere. Prayer is our only consolation.”

“Things are still more than desperate for all Iraqis,” Canon White said.  “From our own Anglican congregation we have had 58 people killed or kidnapped in the past year. There are still bombs, rockets and countless shootings.”

“We need the Anglican world not to forget us and to know that we have one of the largest if not the largest Churches in Iraq. We have to support our people totally with food, medicine healthcare and education,” he said.

The Rt. Rev. Riah Abu al-Assal, Bishop in Jerusalem, retired.  Photo taken Feb 16, 2006 in Porto Allegre, Brazil at the World Council of Churches Assembly.

The former Bishop in Jerusalem has denied accusations of fraud and theft brought by his successor. In a Feb 6 statement the Rt. Rev. Riah Abu al-Assal disputed the financial misconduct charges leveled by the Rt. Rev. Suheil Dawani, hitting back with his own charges of conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy.

In a Jan 29 statement given to The Church of England Newspaper Bishop Dawani alleged that shortly before Bishop Riah’s retirement in 2007, Bishop Riah transfered the assets of the diocesan school to a charitable trust.

“Members of the charity include Bishop Riah’s wife and nephew. Through this charity, Bishop Riah, is collecting the tuition from the students and is not depositing the monies in the school’s official bank account, whilst, all the employees at the school are official Diocesan institution employees and receive their salaries from the Diocese,” he said.

The issue was brought to a head, Bishop Suheil said, when Bishop Riah refused to vacate the diocese’s Nazareth offices, claiming they were his own property.

Bishop Suhiel brought suit and on Jan 22 a Nazareth court issued an injunction against Bishop Riah and his family, ordering them to give an accounting and banning them from the property.

Bishop Riah has denied the charges and told CEN there never was a diocesan office in Nazareth. He further stated the school’s finances were separate from the diocese.

“Supported by the parents of the students and the many friends through out the world, by the grace of God, I managed to raise the necessary funds to build the Campus. I - personally, and not as a Bishop or a priest, often guaranteed the school account when it went in the red by hundreds of thousands of shekels,” he said.

The decision to form the charity was taken at the request of the Israeli Ministry of Education, he said, noting that all funds collected by the charity were under the “direct supervision” of the registrar “as well as the State Comptroller. Not a single penny was used to benefit any except the school children and their teachers.”

“To build takes years. To destroy takes minutes. That is how Bishop Suheil starts his ministry” Bishop Riah charged. “The Court case is still in the beginning. This negative energy will serve neither the Diocese nor our Palestinian people and certainly not the family of the Campus,” he said.

Bishop Suheil was not being entirely straight forward in his account, Bishop Riah said. In Feb 2007 the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams “having become aware of difficulties in relationships, named Bishop Michael Langrish of Exeter as an Honest Broker to bridge the gap” between the two factions”

“I thankfully accepted and made the necessary booking to fly to England while bishop Suheil bluntly declined,” he said. Bishop Suheil’s office declined comment on the latest round of charges.

The former Bishop in Jerusalem has called upon the Anglican Churches of the West not to turn a deaf ear toward the people of Gaza, caught between the government of Israel and the militant group Hamas.

The people of Gaza “continue to be strangled.” They are “being caught in a situation that requires wisdom rather than might; that requires moral courage rather than the power of the gun,” the Rt. Rev. Riah Abu al-Assal wrote in an email to supporters.

The government of Israel has halted fuel shipments to Gaza in retaliation to a campaign of rocket attacks by Hamas upon towns in southern Israel. Egypt also has blockaded its border with Gaza due to the collapse of civil authority under Hamas. However, refugees overwhelmed the border crossing with Egypt at Rafah last week and have streamed into the Sinai to purchase provisions. Israel has responded by reinforcing its border with Egypt as Hamas terrorist cells are reported to have redeployed along the frontier for strikes into the Jewish state.

Bishop Riah, who last week addressed a rally at Damascus’ largest mosque, the Al-Jame’a Al-Akbar, in support of Gaza, implored the West to act. “Must those children of Gaza continue to feel the hunger in their empty bellies, the cold and darkness of their black nights, while we continue to enjoy the fruits of the earth and the warmth of our home? Must the words of Jesus Christ become true of us when he said “They have eyes but do not see, and have ears but do not hear?”

“The situation in Gaza has moved from being difficult to being tragic; and from being tragic to becoming catastrophic,” he said on Jan 23. “It is time for action.”

The charity Christian Aid has also denounced Israel’s response to the Hamas rocket attacks, condemning “in the strongest possible terms Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, which did not begin last week as commonly thought, but has been going on since June 2007″.

“Since Hamas took power last June, Gaza has been subjected to severe restrictions on movement that have allowed in only a drip-feed of aid, preventing a full-scale humanitarian emergency but keeping the population in a perpetual state of economic crisis,” said Janet Symes, Christian Aid’s Head of Middle East Programme.

Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper. 

Arab Anglican leaders have called for the cancellation of a June gathering of Anglicans in Jerusalem, claiming it could exacerbate Christian-Muslim tensions in the Palestinian territories.

On Wednesday, the Anglican bishop in Jerusalem, Suheil Darwani, released a statement saying the presence of hundreds of conservative Anglican bishops in the Holy Land would inject the Anglican Communion’s political disputes into the diocese of Jerusalem, and could also have “serious consequences for our ongoing ministry of reconciliation in this divided land.”

Read it all in The Jerusalem Post.

The battle over homosexuality that has threatened to split the Anglican Communion could be decided at a June meeting in Jerusalem. On December 26, a conservative coalition led by the archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, announced a June 15-22 conference in the Holy Land to chart the church’s future course.

Divided into liberal and conservative factions, the 80-million member Anglican Communion is on the verge of breaking up over the consecration in 2003 of a gay priest as bishop of New Hampshire.

However, Anglicans are as divided over Israel as they over homosexuality. While the meeting will focus on the current crisis facing the church, some Anglican and Jewish supporters of the gathering hope the presence in Jerusalem this June of conservative Anglican bishops from every continent will present an opportunity to broaden Israel’s support in the developing world.

Read it all in The Jerusalem Post.

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt led the Anglican delegation to last week’s meeting of the 9th General Assembly of the Middle East Council of Churches. (MECC)

Gathered in Paphos, Cyprus from Nov 26-30, church leaders from the Coptic, Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican and Evangelical traditions released a statement affirming Christian unity amidst continued political and social upheaval. The MECC is a fellowship of churches in Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq and Cyprus that seeks to foster cooperation among the disparate Christian minorities of the region.

Dr. Anis reported that the plight of Iraq’s Christians was a topic of concern for the Assembly, which “expressed its deep sorrow for the oppression and injustice with which the region’s population is afflicted, of wars and occupation, of destruction and death, of capacity and suppression.”

The delegates expressed their hope that the recently concluded Annapolis summit would break the cycle of violence in the region and urged Western Christians to stand in solidarity with their fellow believers in the Muslim world.

The final communiqué “looked forward to the day when people in the Middle East are liberated from the occupation and the injustice in Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Sudan and Cyprus.”

They also called upon the people of Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon “to be united and to cease being apart and killing each other” such that “the unity that accepts the other with all its differences is strengthened through the honest and free dialogue.”

While united in their opposition to the political and ideological forces facing Middle Eastern Christians, concerns over the “sheep stealing” underlay the deliberations. Evangelical Christian groups have made in roads amongst the younger members of the Orthodox and Coptic communities, creating friction between the regions traditional churches and its newer arrivals.

The Presiding Bishop of Jerusalem and the Middle East, Dr. Mouneer Anis of Egypt.

Taken Feb 18, 2007 in Zanzibar.

The Bishop of Washington and the former secretary general of the Anglican Consultative Council traveled to Iran earlier this month in a bid to support interfaith dialogue between Islam and the West.

The trip has sparked harsh comments in the US, with one right-wing news service calling the freelance diplomacy “ill-advised” and harmful to the Anglican Church in Iran.

A spokesman for Bishop John Chane and Canon John L. Peterson told The Church of England Newspaper that no statement would be issued from Washington about the trip and it remains unclear whether Bishop Azad Marshall of Iran was briefed on their excursion.

However, Iranian news agencies have hailed the meetings as a sign of solidarity against Zionism.  Following a meeting in Qom with Canon Peterson and Bishop Chane,  Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi told the Islamic Students News Agency (ISNA) on Oct 10, that the “Zionist media are waging a negative propaganda campaign” against his country.

“The Zionists spread a negative picture of Islam among the Christians, and a negative picture of Christians among Muslims,” he added saying the visit by US Episcopalians helped counter this view.  “We should have more meetings to neutralize this negative campaign by the Zionists.”

Ayatollah Shirazi told the Mehrs News Agency that “clerics of divine religions should interact and meet with each other and push the world toward peace and security through joint thinking,” and pointed to the visit by the Bishop of Washington as a sign that religious leaders can help foster global peace.

(AP photo)

Religion must not be used to justify violence, the Archbishop of Canterbury said at a meeting of world faith leaders in Naples on Oct 21.

Dr. Williams, the Pope, the Ecumenical Patriarch, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, and Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and Zoroastrian leaders from around the world were in Naples as guests of the Sant’Egidio Community in a meeting desired to foster peace amongst the world’s religious communities.

At the start of an open air mass in the Piazza del Plebiscito Dr. Williams and the Pope embraced, and issued public calls for faith leaders to use their influence to build a better world.

Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper.

Proposals to expel foreign workers from the Persian Gulf states after six years’ residence are discriminatory and economically foolhardy, the Area Bishop of the Persian Gulf said this week.  The Rt. Rev. Azad Marshall, Bishop of Iran and Area Bishop for the Persian Gulf in the Church of Pakistan told The Church of England Newspaper that proposals by the Bahrain Labour Minister Majeed al-Alawi (pictured) for consideration by the Gulf States could effect upwards of 13 million expatriate workers living in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The Gulf States fear that under international law foreign workers might claim government education, health and housing benefits, and be able to apply for citizenship after five year’s residency.  Over one million Filipinos work in Saudi Arabia, while in the UAE over 80 percent of the population consists of expatriate workers of whom almost a third are Christian.

“In some areas of the Gulf, you can’t tell whether you are in an Arab Muslim country or in an Asian district. We can’t call this diversity and no nation on earth could accept the erosion of its culture on its own land,” al-Alawi told the Gulf Daily News.

“The majority of foreign manpower in the region comes from different cultural and social backgrounds that cannot assimilate or adapt to the local cultures,” he said.

Bishop Marshall said Arabs traditionally have been known for their “warm hospitality which has helped create a model of congeniality among Arabs and Asians working together.”

“Many Arabs have created similar pockets of Arabs in some European cities,” he said adding that denying this right to Asian immigrants to the Arab world was unfair.  “In this age of global economy one should move with time towards reciprocity and acceptance.”

Bishop Marshall stated that unlike Europe or the US, guest workers in the Gulf can only live “in these countries for the tenure of their visas. They give their best years and skills to these countries, for jobs and money of course, but without any hope of ever becoming permanent visa holders, residents or citizens.”

The Rev Dr. Naim Ateek, director of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem.

An Anglican priest and former canon of St. George’s Cathedral in Jerusalam, Fr. Ateek led a number of workshops and classes at the WCC on the Palestine question.

These two photos were taken in Porto Alegre, Brazil on Feb 15 & 17, 2006.

The former Bishop in Jerusalem, the Rt. Rev. Riah Abu al-Assal greeting the President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at an Iftar dinner in New York on Sep 25.

The former Bishop in Jerusalem, the Rt. Rev. Riah Abu al-Assal has urged the president of Iran to work toward reconciliation between the Muslim world and the West.

Bishop Riah told The Church of England Newspaper he challenged Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a dinner honoring the Iranian president in New York last month “to open wide the doors of dialogue and to welcome a delegation of religious leaders” to Iran to pursue peace.

“The breaking of bread, especially during the month of Ramadan, must remind us not only of those without bread, but also the urgent need to break down barriers, pull down separation walls; and replace these with bridges of understanding on the way to healing, peace and reconciliation,” Bishop Riah told the Iranian president.

President Ahmadinejad told Bishop Riah he welcomed the overture from the Anglican Communion for dialogue between the West and Islam.

The Iranian president was in New York from Sept 24-26 to address the United Nations and to give a lecture at Columbia University. Plans for the Iranian president to visit the sight of the former World Trade Center towers and the 9/11 memorial were vetoed by the New York police commissioner and caused a brief flurry of outrage from politicians angered by the proposal.

During the “iftar” dinner at the Hilton Hotel in mid-town Manhattan, given by New York’s Iranian community for the president, Ahmadinejad spoke on a variety of topics.

He lambasted as historically inaccurate the movie the “300″, which recounted the Greek victory at Thermopylae over the Persians and then moved on to a discussion of Tehran’s nuclear ambitions saying, “Iranians have never tried to oppress anyone.”

In a television interview recorded upon his return to Tehran, President Ahmadinejad said Iran wanted to form “cordial relations” with the US, but that it first must get over 9/11.

The 9/11 attack on New York was a result of “the inhuman management of the world” he said, according to a translation provided by the MEMRI. He did not want America to “turn this incident, in 20 years’ time, into another false idol like the Holocaust, which they would use as a pretext to kill people, and to prevent anybody from opening this [Pandora's] box and examining what really happened in this incident.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury has denounced suggestions of a preemptive military strike against Iran’s nuclear weapons programme, saying it would upset the region’s security balance and bring misery to its peoples.

Speaking to the BBC after his return from Damascus, Dr. Williams said that “When people talk about further destabilisation of the region - and you read some American political advisers speaking of action against Syria and Iran - I can only say that I regard that as criminal, ignorant and potentially murderous folly.”

“We do hear talk from some quarters of action against Syria and Iran. I can’t understand what planet such persons are living on, when you see the conditions that are already there,” he said.

In a statement released upon his return from Syria, Dr. Williams described as ‘heartbreaking and harrowing’ a meeting he held in Syria with 200 Christian Iraqi refugees. He told the refugees he would share their plight with the West, and upon return to Britain said their situation required urgent attention.

“Security that will enable these people to return to Iraq depends on a settlement for the whole of that country guaranteeing the liberty and dignity of every minority.”

Lambeth Palace has also denied the veracity of accounts printed by the official Syrian news agency, SANA, of Dr. Williams’ trip to Damascus. SANA reported that in talks with the Archbishop, the Grand Mufti of Syria “pointed out the Israeli suppressive practices in the occupied Palestinian territories which violated all religious laws and international norms, reviewing what Iraq is witnessing of ordeals and catastrophes under the occupation.”

Dr. Williams’ office denied this took place, saying his talks with the Grand Mufti “concerned issues internal to Syria and focussed on the secular character of the Syrian constitution.”

The New Orleans statement of the US House of Bishops has “clarified all outstanding questions” posed by the Primates to the American Church, a report prepared by the Primates/ACC joint standing committee (JSC) has found.

However, the 19-page Sept 30 report has been dismissed as dishonest by US conservatives, and its conclusions rejected by the African churches.  Observers note the clumsy attempt of the JSC to usurp the prerogatives of the primates, and to become a de facto fifth “instrument of unity” has served to worsen the already bitter climate within the Communion.

The primates had asked the US Church to clarify the statement of its 2006 General Convention that it would not permit the election of further gay bishops or authorize gay blessings, that an autonomous scheme for pastoral oversight be given traditionalists, and that the lawsuits against breakaway conservative parishes would cease.

At their March meeting the US bishops invited Dr. Williams and the members of the primates standing committee to meet with them face to face to avert a blow up.  Over the summer this invitation was enlarged by the ACC staff to include itself and the ACC standing committee.

In New Orleans the US Bishops pledged “as a body” to “exercise restraint” in electing gay bishops, pledged not to authorize “public rites” of same-sex blessings, and agreed to delegated pastoral oversight for traditionalists under the supervision of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.  It declined to address the issue of lawsuits, and chastised Global South primates for violating their jurisdictions in providing support for traditionalist congregations.

The JSC concluded that this response satisfied the Primates’ requests and added the US was correct in citing the “ancient councils of the Church” in protesting border crossings.  The primates were hypocrites in demanding the US church refrain from implementing gay bishops and blessings while they permitted the border crossings to go on.

“[W]e do not see how certain primates can in good conscience call upon The Episcopal Church to meet the recommendations of the Windsor Report while they find reasons to exempt themselves from paying regard to them. We recommend that the Archbishop remind them of their own words and undertakings,” the report said.

Crafted in a late night session on Sept 24 by Bishop Jefferts Schori and the JSC, the statement was adopted with amendments by the bishops on Sept 25.  Critics of the report charge it is ingenuous of the ACC to give an independent endorsement of a report that it helped write, and question the US Presiding Bishop’s role as defendant, judge and jury in the process.

Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda called the report “severely compromised, and the gross conflicts of interest it represents utterly undermine its credibility.”

He said the primates did not envision the ACC inserting itself in the process while the US was “considering our requests.  Yet, members of the [JSC] met with Presiding Bishop Schori in the course of the preparation of their House of Bishops’ statement in order to suggest certain words, which, if included in the statement, would assure endorsement by the [JSC].  Presiding Bishop Schori’s participation in the evaluation of the response requested of her province is a gross conflict of interest. We wonder why she did not recuse herself.”

Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt, a member of the JSC delegation in New Orleans repudiated the report saying the US had given an inadequate response.  “Instead they used ambiguous language and contradicted themselves within their own response.”

The African archbishops also questioned the integrity of the JSC report, stating on Oct 5 that “on first reading we find it to be unsatisfactory. The assurances made are without credibility and its preparation is severely compromised by numerous conflicts of interest. The report itself appears to be a determined effort to find a way for the full inclusion of The Episcopal Church with no attempt at discipline or change from their prior position.”

The JSC report will be forwarded to all of the members of the Anglican Consultative Council and the primates for consideration.  Archbishop Rowan Williams has asked for their responses by the end of October.

The Archbishop of Canterbury held talks last week in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on the Middle East, Islam and terrorism, and Muslim-Christians relations, the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.

Accompanied by the Primate of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, Dr. Mouneer Anis of Egypt, Dr. Williams’ Sept 27 talks with the Syrian president centered the Arab-Israeli “peace process , and the important position that Syria enjoys geographically, historically, politically and religiously” in the region, SANA said. 

Assad “stressed the necessity to clarify the concept of Islam in the world, to distinguish between Islam and terrorism, and to conduct a dialogue among the various cultures,” the official communiqué stated.  Dr. Williams was said to have praised Syria for fostering peaceful relations between Christians and Moslems.

Following his morning meeting with President Assad, Dr. Williams and the Anglican delegation joined the Grand Mufti of Syria Amad Badruddin Hassoun at a banquet celebrating the end of Ramadan. 

While calling for the necessity of “developing and unifying” interfaith discourse, Dr. Hassoun also attacked Anglo-American policies in Iraq and denounced Israel as an aggressor state.

SANA reported that the Grand Mufti “pointed out the Israeli suppressive practices in the occupied Palestinian territories which violated all religious laws and international norms, reviewing what Iraq is witnessing of ordeals and catastrophes under the occupation.” 

Dr. Williams offered a circumspect response to the Grand Mufti’s speech, agreeing to the necessity of “dialogue among religions” whilst also warning against the “dangers of extremism.” 

Initial statements from the Syrian capital indicate Dr. Williams was able to avoid entanglement in the region’s tortuous political intrigues, escaping the imbroglio that befell Pope John Paul II’s during his 2001 visit to Syria, when President Assad was able to use the frail pontiff’s silence in the face of a fierce anti-Semitic official diatribe as a sign of tacit approval for the regime.

President Assad’s words to Dr. Williams were reported by SANA as measured and cordial.  The official news agency recounted Dr. Williams’ impressions of his visit and said that what he had “touched and seen of traditions in Syria supported the beautiful idea he got that Syrian society takes care of human heart,  mind and soul” and that “Syria is a blessed land that witnessed the radiation of heavenly messages.”

Spokesmen traveling with Dr. Williams were unable to respond to our queries at press time.

Worries that political machinations may erupt are casting a pall of concern over the Archbishop of Canterbury’s trip to Syria and Jerusalem this week.

On Sept 21 the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams flew from the US House of Bishops’ Meeting in New Orleans to Armenia to visit the Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church, His Holiness Karekin II.

Dr. Williams will meet with civic, religious and cultural leaders on his Armenian excursion. Trips to a prison for women and children are planned, as well as a visit to lay a wreath at the Armenian Genocide Memorial, the Tsitsernakaberd, which overlooks the capital of Yerevan.

The Genocide memorial consists of a 44-meter tall stele and a circle of 12 smaller stele, symbolizing the 12 ‘lost’ Armenian provinces of Turkey, surrounding an eternal flame, with a 100 meter wall along the perimeter inscribed with the names of villages where Turkish troops murdered Armenian civilians in 1915. Approximately 600,000 Armenians died from starvation, disease or murder at the hands of Turkish troops.

However, the modern Turkish government has denied that genocide took place. Turkish Ambassador to the US Nabi Şensoy in 2006 argued the Armenian claims of genocide “have never been historically or legally substantiated.” Christians in Turkey have come under increased pressure from Islamist groups and the government in recent years. Too strong a statement by Dr. Williams will inflame Turkish anti-Christian sentiments, while too soft a response could insult his hosts, it is feared.

Dr. Williams will then travel to Damascus and Beirut, returning to Britain for the House of Bishops meeting. While the itinerary of his trip to the Lebanon remanded incomplete as of the time of his departure, Dr. Williams will meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Muslim leaders in Damascus.

Jewish leaders have expressed private concern that Dr. Williams’ meeting with Assad will repeat the errors of Pope John Paul II’s 2001 visit to Syria where he failed to respond to oral attacks on Israel by President Assad; the grand mufti of Syria, Ahmed Kuftaro; and other Syrian officials.

In his welcoming address, Assad said Israelis were murdering and torturing Palestinians and compared Israeli “aggression” against Christian and Muslim holy sites to the betrayal and torture of Christ. During the pope’s visit to the Mosque of the Umayyads the grand mufti called for Christians and Muslims to stand together against the “atrocious aggression” of Jews and Zionists.

The pope’s failure to respond directly to the comments caused outrage in Israel and the US and set back Roman Catholic - Jewish relations for a period. The delicate state of Anglican-Jewish relations, damaged by General Synod’s call for divestment from corporations profiting from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, and currently under repair through a dialogue commission between the Chief Rabbis and Dr. Williams, may be tested by Anglican reticence in the face of Syrian rhetoric.

Comment at Covenant-Communion 

Christians are on track to become the majority population of the United Arab Emirates, reports Avennire, the newspaper of the Italian Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops.

While the Christian population of Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq are fast declining in the face of civil strife and religious persecution, Christians now account for over 35 percent of the UAE’s population.

While almost all of the United Arab Emirates’ citizens are Muslims, 1.25 million non-citizen migrant workers from other Arab countries, South Asia and the Philippines are Christian. Anglicans in the region are served by clergy from the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf, the Church of Pakistan and the Church of South India.

The Aug 19 article stated the UAE’s Christians “are all immigrant workers”. The Gulf’s petro-dollar fueled construction boom has transformed the region. “Immigrants represent 90 percent of the almost two million workers present in the Emirates, and 100 percent in the case of low cost manual labor.

However, “the true status of these workers, even of those who have been living in the Emirates for a number of years, is that of ‘expatriates,’ persons whose presence in the country is strictly connected to the possession of a valid work contract, but who can never become residents or buy houses or property.”

They are the “new poor of Dubai” the paper said, “an army of grunts” who “spend their working lives on construction sites in the Gulf, with brief visits to their loved ones every two or three years,” it said.

The Mothers’ Union has sent a grant of £5,000 to its Iraqi chapter to support the work of St. George’s Memorial Church, Baghdad in providing food, shelter and clothing to refugees and the needy in the strife-torn city.

The Emergency Relief Fund grant was made on Aug 1, the Mothers’ Union announced and will assist the 400-member chapter in its on-going relief work. The Mothers’ Union at St. George’s has been raising funds and producing crafts to purchase food, bedding and school supplies for orphanages in the city, a local home for disabled children, and to support Christian families displaced by violence.

The vicar of Baghad, Canon Andrew White, who is Chair of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle-East (FRRME) said he was impressed with the way the chapter had “co-coordinated and distributed the emergency relief aid. They’ve been fantastic.”

“Aid is not just going to Christians but to Muslims too, and to members who are themselves in need. All receive help equally. We have been so impressed with how these volunteers have coordinated the relief work, that I hope that not just this funding, but humanitarian projects funded by FRRME will be handled by the Mothers’ Union,” he said.

Mothers’ Union chief executive, Reg Bailey said “It is a hallmark of the Mothers’ Union that it is a grassroots membership which volunteers assistance at the local level as and when it is needed.”

However the difficult situation in Iraq cannot be met solely by local voluntary organizations. The Mothers’ Union supports the “call for the international community to do all it can to encourage governments to bring urgent assistance to people of all faiths and none, within Iraq,” he said.

Security concerns have forced the return to Britain of the vicar of Baghdad, Canon Andrew White. Credible evidence that Canon White would be kidnapped by Islamist extremists prompted the British embassy in Baghdad to fly him out of country on Tuesday.

Canon White reported he had been given a hint from an Iraqi al-Qaida leader of forthcoming terror attacks in the UK, now understood to have been the doctors’ bomb plot in London and Glasgow.

Last month Canon White working with the Iraqi government and the US Department of Defense convened the largest Iraqi religious congress held in 40 years. The Baghdad religious congress brought together the country’s leading Shia and Sunni clerics and produced a document calling for reconciliation between the country’s religious factions, disarming of private militias and support for the democratically elected government.

Hints that an al-Qaeda doctors’ plot to attack Britain were being planned were given to the vicar of Baghdad, Canon Andrew White in May.

In an email to supporters from Baghdad dated July 3, Canon White, the executive director for the Foundation for Reconciliation and Relief in the Middle East and vicar of St George’s Memorial Church in Baghdad, stated that “just over
two months ago” he had informed his supporters in the West “that I had the worst meeting of my life. I said I have seen the Devil today.”

He went on: “I met this awful man in Amman,” Jordan, who he called the Devil’. “I even refused to continue the meeting and told the Sheikh who had brought him to me never to let me meet him again,” he wrote.

The ‘Devil’ told Canon White “that they were going to start killing in the UK then the USA. One sentence I remembered but did not understand was ‘those who cure you will kill you’.”

Canon White stated he did not comprehend the meaning of the phrase at that time, but in light of the attacks in Glasgow and arrest of several foreign doctors allegedly behind the plot “those terrible words ‘those who cure you will kill you’
suddenly made sense.”

The ‘Devil’, Canon White subsequently learned was an Iraqi Sunni living in Syria and a senior al-Qaeda leader. Details of the meeting were passed to the Foreign Office, he said.

It remains the worst meeting that I have ever had. I hope I never have one like it again,” Canon White stated.

Delegates to a World Council of Churches conference in Amman Jordan have called for Israel to end its “illegal occupation” of East Jerusalem and other territories occupied by Israel after the Six-Day War.

In a June 21 statement church leaders called for peace in the region and “to end these decades of injustice, humiliation and insecurity, to end the decades of living as refugees and under occupation”.

There could be “no military solution” to the Middle East conflict they argued and resolved that “violence in all its forms cannot be justified, whether perpetrated by Israelis or Palestinians,” they stated

The meeting also saw the launch of the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum. In his closing remarks to the conference WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia said the forum will be a “participatory group of churches and organizations meeting, interacting and cooperating in order to further a common cause”.

“We expect churches worldwide to speak out with a clear voice and to stand by us in active solidarity in face of a tragic conflict that keeps Palestinians suffering and Israelis living with fear and that can only be solved with a just peace,” Lutheran Bishop Munib Younan said.

In a June 24 statement given to The Church of England Newspaper, the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, Riah Abu al-Assal lamented the collapse of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue as well as the Palestinian civil war in Gaza.

“As peace in Palestine and specifically in Gaza, lies at its death bed with tens of coffins raised on shoulders, the world is once again called upon to become a living instrument for peace,” he said.

Bishop Riah called upon Anglicans to pay for the peace of Israel and Palestine and for justice for the oppressed. “One can no more mistake oppression for peace, occupation for independence; walls of separation for security; just as much as one cannot mistake darkness for light, humiliation for dignity, and death for life,” he said.

The Bishop in Jerusalem, Riah Abu al-Assal joined Palestinian leaders, peace activists, trade unionists and members of Parliament at a rally Saturday marking the 40^th anniversary of the Six Day War.

On June 9 demonstrators organized by the Enough! Coalition, a group of 50 NGOs, political, faith and other activists groups, marched to Trafalgar Square calling for an Israeli withdrawal from East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

In Jerusalem, the leaders of the Christian Churches also released a statement saying, “it is totally unacceptable for the situation to continue where the Palestinians endure daily hardships and humiliations with deprivations of international human rights, allegedly to ensure the safety and security of the Israelis, whereas we believe the security of Israel is dependent on the freedom and justice of the Palestinians.”

Mustafa Barghouti, the Palestinian Authority’s Minister of Information, asked the London rally to back the Hamas government and compared Israel to the apartheid regime in South Africa. “Israel cannot be changed from within, there needs to be pressure from outside,” he said, calling for a boycott of Israel.

Bishop Riah urged the crowd to hold politicians accountable and not allow them to be “peace talkers” but peace makers. Bringing peace to Jerusalem would bring peace to the world, he told the rally.

Joining Bishop Riah on the platform were MP’s George Galloway, Jeremy Corbyn, Richard Burden and Emily Thornberry, as well as Liberal-Democrat peer Baroness Jenny Tonge.

TUC president Alison Shepherd told the rally the Trade Union Congress had renewed its support for the Palestinian cause last year and had added its voice to those calling for an end to “occupation”.

Organizers report over 20,000 present at the rally, while press reports estimated the numbers at 5000.

The Rt. Rev. Riah Abu al-Assal, Bishop in Jerusalem at the WCC 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Feb 16, 2006. This photo was first published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Bishop in Jerusalem Riah Abu al-Assal and the vicar-general of Iran, Bishop Azad Marshall in Teheran meeting with Ministry of Religion and Culture officials

The Bishop in Jerusalem, the Rt. Rev. Riah Abu al-Assal reports tensions between the Anglican Church in Iran and the government appear to be easing.

Writing to supporters following a May 2-8 visit to Teheran, Bishop Riah stated, “I left Iran with a more joyful and hopeful Anglican Christian community. The door that was closed for almost 30 years has been opened.”

Welcomed to Teheran by the Church’s Episcopal vicar, Pakistani Bishop Azad Marshall, Bishop Riah met with representatives of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Ministry for Culture and Religion, holding talks over a rapprochement between the Church and the Iranian government.

Following the 1979 revolution, 30 of the Diocese’s schools, churches and hospitals were seized by the government and the Church was actively persecuted by the regime. With the retirement of the Bishop of Iran Iraj Mottahedeh in November 2004, the country was left without any active clergy.

In 2005 the Church of Pakistan’s suffragan bishop for the Arabian Gulf was appointed Episcopal Vicar for the diocese by Archbishop Clive Handford, Primate of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. Bishop Azad Marshall, who will be consecrated Bishop of Iran on Aug 5, reports the churches in Teheran, Isfahan and Jolfa now have resident clergy, while the parish in Shiraz is served by a lay reader.

Writing in the Provincial newsletter, Bishop Marshall stated the Iranian “authorities see me as someone from a neighbouring Islamic country, who understands Islamic values,” and does not view the Anglican Church as “a foreign body serving foreign purposes and interests.”

During the Danish cartoon controversy Bishop Marshall stated he had an opportunity to speak with former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who subsequently visited Lambeth Palace in 2006, “and during this visit he assured me of his support for the Church,” he noted.

While none of the properties seized by the government has yet been returned to the Church, negotiations are underway, Bishop Marshall reported. “The constitution and list of all the properties have been submitted to the government. Government officials inform me that they are interested in registering the Anglican Church in Iran as well as considering releasing our confiscated properties.”

Bishop Riah noted that he had “truly left Iran with a different impression” than that proffered in the Western media and encouraged continued dialogue between the West and Iran. “The drums of war must be hushed. The voice of peace must ring aloud. Co-Existence is the map; and Peace is the road. It is time for a historical march,” he said.

Al-Qaeda has issued a death threat to Christian converts in Kurdistan the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports.

“We are hunting those who have converted to Christianity or Zoroastrianism as we consider them renegades and God’s punishment must be implemented by killing them,” the Islamist terrorist group said in a statement released on the internet on April 22.

Al-Qaeda urged Kurds to join the “Mujahedin and hoist the jihad flag against the crusaders who are occupying Iraq, instead of supporting them.”

Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper.

Over 100 Episcopal bishops have written to US President George W. Bush and Congress urging a pullout of US troops in Iraq.

In a statement released on May 15, the bishops urged the government to “map out” a clear strategy for pulling the US Army out of Iraq and implementing a “responsible transition to Iraqi governance.”

Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper.

Palestinian Muslims held a rally of support for the Bible Society in the wake of the April 15 terrorist bombing that destroyed its Gaza offices.

Four days after a firebomb destroyed the offices and damaged the Society’s stock of books and Bibles, over 200 Muslims marched in support of the Society and the persecuted Christian minority in the Palestinian Authority. The marchers “represent only a small number of Palestinians served by our community-based programmes in Gaza” said Labib Madanat, the executive secretary of the Palestinian Bible Society.

Islamists have targeted the Society, as well as internet cafes, churches and other targets it views as un-Islamic with a campaign of violence and intimidation. “There are people who do not wish to have the Bible Society in Gaza,” he noted, “but they are outnumbered by people who welcome it. We are staying here and increasing our service to the people of Gaza .’

In a statement released on May 8, the Bible Society(UK) urged Christians to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian Bible Society “to make the Bible’s message available to the people of Gaza and Palestine in such turbulent times.”

The CMJ, the Church’s Ministry among Jewish people has announced that it is reorganizing its presence in Israel through the creation of an international board of trustees.

Following a meeting of 40 delegates in Jerusalem from the CMJ’s sister agencies across the Communion in February, the board voted to revamp its structure and form an international board.

Founded in 1809 as the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, the CMJ has been active in Israel for over 160 years. Christ Church in the Old City of Jerusalem is the oldest protestant congregation in the Middle East and supports congregations speaking five different languages.

CMJ also operates the Anglican International School in Jerusalem as well as guest houses in Jerusalem and in Galilee. During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, the CMJ sheltered over 100 Jewish and Arab refugees at its Jerusalem guest house. “It was both a challenge and a blessing to take care of families who were traumatised by the conflict. We were able to bring all our staff and resources together to meet a real need and minister the love of God to hurting and needy people,” Christ Church rector the Rev. Murray Dixon said.

Robin Aldridge, chair of the Council of CMJ(UK) stated “now is the time for the UK to share the responsibility for the work in Israel with friends from the nations. We see this as a very positive step that will bring new ideas, dynamism and support to the exciting work of CMJ (Israel).’”

The CMJ(UK) will share “the development of the ministry in Israel with international partners from USA, South Africa, Australia and Ireland,” Aldridge told The Church of England Newspaper. “The first task of the interim board will be to appoint a new Rector of Christ Church and a new Israel Director” by November.

The Bishop in Jerusalem, the Rt. Rev. Riah Abu al-Assal, has been accused by a diocesan review panel of financial misconduct in steering diocesan business contracts to his relations.”

There was no doubt that the bishop’s tactics and behavior” displayed a “dramatic combination of nepotism and violation of trust,” concluded the 35-page report prepared by a six-member diocesan review panel.

An internal investigation was initiated in June after rumors began circulating that Bishop Riah had influenced the selection of a Nazareth insurance agency to underwrite coverage for church schools in Jerusalem and Nazareth. Half of the commission for the transaction reportedly was kicked back to the bishop’s son-in-law, Ayoub Kandaleft, who has had financial difficulties.

The panel reported that it had been “fully convinced” the kick-back scheme had “the prior knowledge and approval of the bishop” and that nepotism ran rampant throughout the diocese. However, the report found no intent to defraud or to inflate the cost of the contract to the diocese.

The findings came after a four-month investigation which included 60 hours of public testimony. In his statement to the panel, Bishop Riah defended his actions, saying he was motivated by humanitarian concerns over his son-in-law’s debts.

“My records over many years are full of aid to those in need and what I did for others in need, I did for [my son-in-law] Ayoub,” he testified to the panel.

Bishop Riah told the Telegraph newspaper in England the situation had been “blown out of proportion.” He is scheduled to retire at the end of March.

While the results of the investigation were turned over to the diocese in September, they were released just before the high-profile visit this week by the Archbishop of Canterbury to Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

A spokesman for Archbishop Rowan Williams told The Living Church Archbishop Williams was aware of the controversy, but it would not detract from his visit. Joined by the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster and other British church leaders, Archbishop Williams will visit Israel and Palestine Dec. 20-23 on a “pastoral pilgrimage.”

First published in The Living Church.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has announced that the Chief Rabbis of Israel have been invited to London on Sept. 5 to inaugurate talks between the Anglican Communion and Judaism.In a statement released last week, Lambeth Palace stated Chief Rabbis Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger would meet Archbishop Williams to establish a new joint dialogue process between Judaism and the Anglican Communion.

“I am delighted that we are now able to establish this important dialogue which enables religious leaders to discuss matters of concern,” Archbishop Williams stated. “The more we are able to develop ways of listening to one another’s concerns and interest, the better our understanding will be of one another’s hopes and fears.”

Anglican relations with Judaism have been strained in recent years, reaching a low point following the Feb. 6 vote by the General Synod of the Church of England to “to disinvest from companies profiting” from Israel’s “illegal occupation” of the occupied territories. Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey denounced the divestment decision, telling the Jerusalem Post it made him “ashamed to be an Anglican.” The vote also prompted the postponement of a May meeting between the Chief Rabbis and Archbishop Williams.

Archbishop Williams quickly apologized for the distress caused by General Synod. Writing to the Chief Rabbis on Feb. 10, he said the vote was “emphatically not to commend a boycott, or to question the legitimacy of Israel and its rights to self-defense.”

Theological views of the relationship of Christianity and Judaism vary across the Anglican Communion. In 1992, Lord Carey declined to be named patron of the CMJ, the Church’s Ministry Among the Jews, questioning the propriety of proselytizing Jews.

In April, the Bishop in Jerusalem, the Rt. Rev. Riah Abu al-Assal, told Israel Radio that Christians have replaced Jews in God’s economy of salvation. God’s gift of the Law to Moses at Sinai was “conditional,” Bishop Riah explained to the Israeli audience.

“It was not only given to the Jews. God does not favor one party against another,” Bishop Riah said, citing the Apostle Paul in support of his proposition that Christians “are the new Israel. We are the chosen people. We are fulfilling the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament. And that is a statement of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.”

Archbishop Williams’ new Anglican-Jewish dialogue will entail a process of “careful listening” that “will take note of such common experience and current situations that can form the basis for further discussion and reflection” between the faiths. “The hope is that this dialogue will model ways in which mutual concern for peace, security and respect can be openly demonstrated,” Lambeth Palace stated.

First published in The Living Church.