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U.S. Churches Send Ecumenical Representatives to Israel, Palestine

March 1, 2005

NEW YORK – Three ecumenical representatives arrived mid-February in Israel and Palestine for three months of volunteer service with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), and have now assumed their volunteer posts. The program involves Christians from around the world as "ecumenical accompaniers" living and working alongside Palestinians and Israelis, and accompanying them in their non-violent actions and advocacy efforts to end the occupation and bring a just peace between the two peoples. Participation by U.S. accompaniers is sponsored in the U.S. by Peaceful Ends through Peaceful Means, an initiative of Church World Service, the National Council of the Churches USA, and other supporting churches and organizations.

David L. Lindberg, Professor Emeritus at Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, is in Bethlehem, helping to monitor the construction of a new Israeli police checkpoint just outside the Palestinian town and working with Bethlehem families whose houses have been demolished by the Israeli military. Lindberg is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and brings with him extensive experience in conflict management.

Max B. Surjadinata, a United Church of Christ pastor from New York City, will spend time in Ramallah with the Palestinian Christian community, and will assist the local pastor in his ministry to and with people in the Jalazon Palestinian refugee camp and nearby villages. Surjadinata is active in Pastors for Peace and brings a deep commitment to peace with justice. He was a UN observer of the 1999 referendum in East Timor.

Robert Traer, an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church USA and teacher of ethics and religion at the Dominican University in San Rafael, CA, is in Jerusalem, working with Israeli peace organizations that support the end of the occupation. Traer was a resident scholar at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute for Theological Studies in Jerusalem and has written extensively on religion and human rights.

Since the program was launched in 2002, accompaniers have worked with Christian congregations in Jerusalem, escorted Palestinian mobile health teams through Israeli military checkpoints, assisted Israeli human rights and peace organizations, and delivered vocational training on non-violence to women’s groups – all with a goal of supporting local churches and organizations in their work to bring peace and raise awareness of the issues facing both Palestinians and Israelis in the ongoing conflict.

In the fall of 2004, Church World Service Executive Director Rev. John McCullough led a delegation to Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine as part of CWS work with its regional partner organization, the Middle East Council of Churches. The statement of the delegation can be found at www.churchworldservice.org/news/MiddleEast/me-delegation-findings.html.

Additional information about Peaceful Ends through Peaceful Means is at www.pepm.org; information about U.S. participation in EAPPI is at www.pepm.org/accompaniment.html.

Contributions to support this work may be sent to:

Church World Service
Attn: Peaceful Ends Through Peaceful Means
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515

Credit card contributions may be made by calling (800) 297-1516, or online at www.churchworldservice.org.

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Church World Service is a cooperative ministry of 35 Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican denominations, providing sustainable self-help and development, disaster relief, and refugee assistance in more than 80 countries. Church World Service serves the most vulnerable people regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or political affiliation.

Contact:
Anna Rhee/ Peaceful Ends through Peaceful Means, (301) 384-3615, pepm@earthlink.net

Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;

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