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September 8, 2004

The training event for new G.P.s last week in Louisville was excellent, and it also provided time to meet some people from our denominational office and discuss the reactions and backlash especially from the Jewish community about recent G.A. actions. So often inaccurate reporting by the media leads to a breakdown in trust and understanding. At our August Council gathering I distributed copies of Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick’s July 20 clarification of such inaccurate Internet information. See also www.pcusa.org/israelandjewishrelations
Representatives from the Presbytery of Boston will meet with several leaders in the Jewish Community September 20. Pray that it would be a time of reassurance to our friends that our basic policies towards Israel are intact, giving context and providing a framework to understand recent G.A. actions, and finding ways that we can support peace, justice, and dignity for all.
Rodney Petersen and I were recently on Newton Cable TV offering some perspective on these very issues. If you have concerned members of your congregation, are getting phone calls, or getting inquiries from others upset about these actions, here are the guidelines we provided.
  1. Practice good active listening; avoid debate and public forums.
  2. Don’t contradict actions of the G.A.
    or suggest we can disregard them or avoid them.
  3. We are studying the issue of divestiture, not because of a top-down priority, but because of a bottom-up request by a Florida Presbytery. No action will be taken until after the study, and no earlier than a G.A. Council vote in March.
  4. Though the wall may have prevented some terrorists from entering Israel, it has also disenfranchised Palestinians, and international court actions consider it a roadblock to peace. Negotiating a just settlement would lead to a more lasting peace. Study recent G.A. Human rights reports.
  5. Funding a Messianic congregation begins with approval and grants from the local level, and is a strategy of reaching out, rather than a renunciation of our 1987 policy of respect, and not proselytizing Jews.
  6. The rejection of Messianism is in the best interest of Jews who are enticed by end-time interpretations of the necessity of the State of Israel, but find practically little genuine support for the welfare of the Jewish people.
In the midst of our rich diversity, these are hard times to be distinctive, decisive, and compassionate to all. Pray for a genuine time of peace and jubilee. Until then,
          
Keep the faith, . . . and let the faith keep you.       
shalom                  
rwp 9/8/04