ELCA Assembly Encourages Negotiated Solution in Holy Land

Milwaukee (ELCA)-DM — The Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Aug. 12 voted overwhelmingly to encourage a negotiated solution in the Holy Land and to endorse a declaration signed last year by religious leaders in the Holy Land that calls for an end to violence there.

The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the ELCA, is meeting here Aug. 11-17 at the Midwest Airlines Center. There are about 2,500 people participating, including 1,031 ELCA voting members. The theme for the biennial assembly is "Making Christ Known: For the Healing of the World."

By a 958 to 18 vote, the assembly acted:

+ To endorse "The First Alexandria Declaration of the Religious Leaders of the Holy Land," a document signed in Alexandria, Egypt, in January 2002 following a summit of Muslim, Christian and Jewish religious leaders in the Middle East.

The Alexandria Declaration says, in part, "According to our faith traditions, killing innocents in the name of God is a desecration of His Holy Name, and defames religion in the world. The violence in the Holy Land is an evil which must be opposed by all people of good faith. We seek to live together as neighbors respecting the integrity of each other's historical and religious inheritance. We call upon all to oppose incitement, hatred and misrepresentation of the other."

+ To "encourage a negotiated solution among the parties in the Holy Land, with the hope that the Quartet's, 'Road Map' will lead to an end to the occupation, terrorist attacks and all other violent forms of conflict, and both a viable, contiguous, independent Palestinian state and a secure Israel." The reference is to the so-called road map to peace issued in May by the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.

+ To "encourage the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to continue its interfaith activities in the United States to promote mutual understanding, cooperation and respect."

The resolution also thanked the ELCA Delaware-Maryland Synod for bringing the issue to the churchwide assembly via a "memorial" adopted by the synod assembly last year.

The Rev. Munib A. Younan, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan (and Palestine), at the churchwide assembly to lead a Bible study, was offered the opportunity to speak before the vote was taken. He commended an amendment that added an end to terrorist attacks and other forms of violence as hopes for the "Road Map."

Younan, a member of the Permanent Committee for the Implementation of the Alexandria Declaration, also said that a two-state solution is the only viable solution to ending conflict in the Middle East. He called for a "viable, contiguous, independent Palestinian state," which led to similar language being added to the resolution.

Brian Rude, Cool Valley, Wis., church council member and co- chairman of the Memorials Committee, brought the "Peace in the Holy Land" memorial before the assembly. Before he did so, he announced that at the request of voting members of the assembly, the committee had removed six memorials from a list to be considered "en bloc" and would instead be considered individually.

The six memorials that will be added to another eight that already had been recommended for individual consideration address pastoral care for gay and lesbian people; working against racism; pension equity; exception to policies on the installation of bishops; composition of the ELCA Church Council; and a proposed amendment to a constitutional provision having to do with relationships of congregations to their synods.