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cf. WCC Press Release, PR-02-21, of 31 July 2002

When more than 40 church persons from around the world gathered near Washington this week to reflect on the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks, it was clear that most US people are still grieving.

"Fifty-one children from our schools lost parents in the attacks on the World Trade Center," said Bishop Stephen P. Bouman of the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. "The emotions are still raw and it sometimes amazes me how close to the surface it still is."

Yet Bouman and the other US participants in the meeting also expressed a growing concern that the US-led war on terrorism and mutual bloody retaliations between Israelis and Palestinians will only lead to more terrorism and violence.

The meeting, called, "Beyond September 11: Implications for US churches and the world," was called by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in cooperation with the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA and Church World Service.

Bouman, who conducted memorial services for firefighters, the crews of the four hijacked airliners and other victims of the terror attacks, also suggested that the continuing violence denigrates the memory of the victims of September 11.

"At Ground Zero, the victims and people who lost loved ones were not crying out for revenge," Bouman said. "They were saying, we hope our son or daughter died for something. They also showed an impulse to protect the stranger. At one (New York) meeting, people formed a protective cocoon around members of an Arab congregation. And for every window that was broken in an Arab home or center of worship, people sent a thousand flowers. We can't let the better instincts of our congregations get hijacked by vengeance."

Elizabeth Ferris, programme executive in the WCC's International Affairs team in Geneva, said the meeting was convened "as part of an on-going process of discernment among the churches about the way forward in this post-September 11 world".

The meeting reflected "a yearning" by church leaders outside of the US to find out what US church people are thinking about the aftermath of the terror attacks, Ferris said. "Sometimes we get the sense that US churches have turned inward and feel defensive at queries from other parts of the world". About one-fourth of the participants were international visitors from Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Japan, Great Britain, Pakistan, Palestine, the Philippines and Puerto Rico.

Most of the international visitors expressed dismay at the US response to September 11 by military action in Afghanistan, the Philippines and, potentially, in Iraq. Many expressed concern that the United States government is moving unilaterally against its enemies instead of seeking cooperation from other nations.

Bishop Mano Rumalshah, a Pakistani now living in London, said most Pakistanis have "a desperate feeling of American bullishness, bloody-mindedness and arrogance." Rumalshah said the war against Afghanistan is not the answer to terrorism. "Unless the Palestinian issue is faced squarely, you will not have a new mindset in the Islamic world," he said. In the absence of justice for Palestinians, terrorists will seek other opportunities, including attacks to destabilize Kashmir where India and Pakistan remain poised on the verge of nuclear war. "The game has moved on to other territories."

Ms Abla Nasir of the YWCA Palestine in Jerusalem summarized the view of her people. "All of a sudden the legitimate right to resist an illegal occupation is being called terrorism," she said. She believes that the acts of Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon have "increased the number of suicide bombers" in Israel.

Ferris pointed out that the WCC condemns the suicide bombings along with all other acts of violence in the Middle East.

Mrs Carmencita Karagdag of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines said that the US war on terrorism has re-opened her country to US military presence. When US president George W. Bush sent troops to the Philippines to counter activities of Islamic terrorists, "it was the largest movement of US troops outside of Afghanistan and the largest expansion of the US war," she said.

"Cuba has condemned the terror attacks many times," said the Rev. Dora Arce of the Presbyterian Reformed Church in Cuba, "yet now we find ourselves listed as an exporter of terrorism. The political discourse between our countries has worsened since the visit of [former US president Jimmy] Carter to Cuba. It could have been an occasion to close the holes that have developed between our two countries."

The September 11 attacks led many people around the world to hope that the US would lead a world-wide effort to create a more just world," said Dr Walter Altmann of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil. "Those hopes have vanished."

Now ethical questions must be raised, Altmann said. "We must reject a view that since the attack on the World Trade Center was evil, any response to it is justified and good. War is no effective answer to crush down terrorism. On the contrary, it leads to a spiral of violence. It's an addiction; the tendency is to require even greater doses of violence. So we must get out of the spiral."

The Rev. Renta Nishihara of the Anglican Church in Japan reminded the group that it was meeting on the August 6 anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and expressed alarm that the war on terror has prompted his government to abandon its constitutional opposition to war. "We sincerely hope that the Japanese government will live up to its war-renouncing position and make an effort to bring about peace and reconciliation for the various conflicts in the international community," he said. "We will refuse to become victims as well as victimizers of war."

Mary Lord of the American Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia acknowledged that the terrorist attacks have given many Americans a new-found fear and sense of vulnerability that leads them to support military solutions. And Bishop Bouman suggested that the sense of violation most US people feel should not be underestimated when others try to understand their attitudes to the war on terrorism.

"But it doesn't follow that we have to become what we fear, that we must become a people fearful of the 'other'," Bouman said. "We need to speak out of our faith... as a people who believe God is with us."

Impulses to peace are not easy for many, Lord said. "I did not come to pacifism easily... It's something I struggle with. Yet peace-making is not naïve. War is naïve. To believe after all these centuries that war works is naïve. Peace-making is far more practical."

If there is hope for the future, she suggested, it is in "conflict reduction, redemption, recovery, forgiveness and reconciliation."

A statement from the meeting will be available soon.