Anglican Communion News Service

Cairo

The Standing Committee of the Central Synod of the Episcopal Church in the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East, meeting in Cairo on 24 October 2002, strongly supported the stand of the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, and the Archbishop Designate, Dr Rowan Williams, in relation to the threat of war against Iraq. The statement particularly urges respect for existing United Nations procedures.

In another decision, the Synod expressed unanimously its "deep distress" at the continuing violence and consequent suffering of so many people in the Palestinian Territories and Israel.

Mindful in particular of the daily pressures and stresses that face the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, the Rt Revd Riah Abu El Assal, the clergy, the institutions and all the people of that Diocese, the Synod called on the Anglican Communion for "persistent urgent prayer for the people of the Land of the Holy One," and to take all means available to highlight "the suffering and the service" of the mission and ministry of the Church there.