US Conference for the WCC hears from persons taking concrete steps for peace
The United States Conference for the World Council of Churches, meeting in Washington, D.C. in annual session under the theme of "Making peace: Claiming God's promise," is hearing from Christian activists who have dedicated their lives to making peace a reality.
The opening day of the 2-4 December meeting concluded with a presentation by the Rev. Eric Fistler, formerly United States national coordinator of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) and an EAPPI volunteer.
Fistler, who is now pastor of Edwards UCC Church of Northhampton, Mass., spoke of his experiences in Palestine and Israel where he accompanied Palestinians as they passed through Israeli checkpoints to seek medical treatment or access to work or to tend the fields they owned.
Sometimes Palestinians with valid Israeli transit papers would arbitrarily be refused entry by Israeli soldiers, Fistler reported.
But Fistler pointed out that Israeli soldiers are neither devils nor angels. In many cases, the young Israelis are as frightened as the Palestinians who are forced to confront them.
Even so, independent studies of the EAPPI accompaniers show the stress at checkpoints has been significantly reduced by their presence.
Some 83.5 percent of Palestinians say they are less fearful when they are accompanied by EAPPI volunteers. "We don't feel alone anymore," he quoted them. "If the ecumenical accompaniers had not be been here, the situation would have been much worse."
Since the programme was launched in 2002, accompaniers have participated from more than 30 churches and 14 countries, including the United States. EAPPI-US is supported by US churches in partnership with Church World Service.
The current US coordinator for EAPPI is Ann E. Hafften of Weatherford, Tex.
Earlier Tuesday, plenary sessions heard panel presentations on how US churches have responded to the Amman Call for Peace, issued at the "Churches together for peace and justice in the Middle East" conference sponsored by the WCC 18-20 June 2007 in Amman, Jordan; and plans for the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) scheduled for May 2011 in Kingston, Jamaica.
The IEPC is planned as a "harvest festival" of the WCC's Decade to Overcome Violence launched in 2001.
Overcoming Violence
Rev. Phil Jones, director of the Church of the Brethren Witness/Washington Office, said the story of the Decade must be shared as a confession.
"One of the tragic realities of this first decade of the new millennium is the prevalence of violence," Jones said. "The violence of injustice, the violence in our streets, the violence of war, is the story of the first eight years of our Decade to Overcome Violence."
The terror attacks of 11 September 2001, he said, "took our American foreign policy and military strategy to a whole new level. The violence was returned. War in Iraq and Afghanistan came and went as a top priority issue for over 26 presidential candidates and it brought death and injury to thousands and thousands of combatants and innocent civilians."
He added: "Our own hands are not clean. We, the church of Jesus the peacemaker, have been far too silent. In my own tradition, a historical peace church, I am alarmed that more congregations are more concerned with flags and patriotic fervor than turning the cheek. The Church of the Brethren is not alone in marching lockstep with society in this understanding of national security. The nonviolence teachings of Jesus have given away to 'God bless America.' Peace with God and one another - harmony, good order, coexistence - are only in regard to our own community and nation. Our mandate from God is to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly. We in our decade are called to do more."
