Phone: 972-2-626-6800 FAX: 972-2-628.5764 ADDRESS: Muristan Rd. P.O. Box 14076 Jerusalem 91140 via Israel
November 5-8, 2007
Top religious leaders from Jerusalem - Muslims, Christians and Jews - were invited to Washington to discuss their peace initiative together called the Council for Religious Institutions in the Holy Land. The group has been working together for more than a year to work together to protect all holy sites, scriptures and symbols. They released a statement this week:
We, believers from three religions, have been placed in this land, Jews, Christians and Muslims. It is our responsibility to find the right way to live together in peace rather than to fight and kill one other. Palestinians yearn for the end to occupation and for what they see as their inalienable rights. Israelis long for the day when they can live in personal and national security. Together we must find ways of reaching these goals.ges and Holy Communion. For the full statement, click here.
During the course of the week, members of the council met with members of Congress and the Bush administration to discuss support for their peace initiatives. The group met Nov. 6 with Sen. Joseph Liebermann (I-CT), Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), and Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), with more than a dozen House members on Nov. 7 and are scheduled to meet Nov. 8 with David Welch, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs. Younan is also scheduled to meet Nov. 8 with Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA), Rep. Tim Walz (D-MN), Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) and Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ).
For information from Religions for Peace, click here.
For ELCA news service bulletin click here.
Christian Science Monitor article on the Council's visit to Washington
In Jerusalem, the heads of local churches, the chief rabbinate and the chief judge of the Islamic court are in the process of forming a Council of Religious Institutions in the Holy Land to dialogue about important issues of faith and life. One of the issues we have been exploring is whether the root cause of our conflict here is terrorism – the Jewish position – or occupation – the Muslim and Christian perspective. We have been examining what our holy writings say about both issues. The goals of this council are to:
For these reasons, I urge governments and religions in the world to commit
themselves to initiate dialogues of life. But these must be deep dialogues
that address the urgency of the injustice in the world. Too often dialogue
becomes an excuse to avoid the tough issues so as not to offend the growing
relationship. I am afraid that in the United States and other countries,
sometimes those who speak out for justice for the Palestinians are subject
to vicious attacks. Thank you to all of those who have had the courage to
speak out for justice and to liberate both Palestinians and Israelis from
the sin of occupation.
This kind of prophetic dialogue will challenge whomever and whatever threatens peace, justice, freedom, tolerance and human rights in all nations and in all cultures, and it will do so with an urgent passion. A world without values is a world of chaos. A world promoting violence, militarization and consumerism is a world without a soul. A world with shared values of justice, peace and reconciliation promotes pluralism, equality, democracy, tolerance and mutual respect for all religions, cultures and traditions. It is the only world worth giving to our children. It is the least they deserve from us.