Anglican Communion News Service - Digest News

Ways forward sought from violence of 9/11, casualties in Iraq, genocide in Sudan, escalating Palestinian-Israeli conflict

Seeking to bridge divisions created by violent conflict around the world, the Anglican Peace and Justice Network will meet 14-23 September in Jerusalem for international dialogue emphasising "conflict transformation."

Anglicans from more than 20 nations will be represented in the meeting, convened at St George's College in Jerusalem, where the Bishop in Jerusalem, the Rt Revd 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 Revd Canon Brian Grieves, director of Peace and Justice Ministries at the Episcopal Church Centre. "We are bringing varying perspectives with considerable passion and perhaps disagreement, and we'll try to forge a consensus."

Canon Grieves said the network - which is a recognised 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 were 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 DC.

Loss of life in Iraq is also expected to figure into Network dialogue. Canon Grieves said this week's report that 1,000 US 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."

Canon Grieves said the meeting would 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."

Article from the Episcopal News Service