Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, our partners and missionaries in Palestine and the Middle East,

We write to you with greetings and the most sincere hope for peace in this most difficult Eastertide.  We have been watching with heavy hearts as your land becomes again the center of strife and uncertainty, and as you have come to experience a new level of fear and anxiety.  We have heard your appeals for our help and intervention, shared with us here in Indianapolis, and we heed them.  Each letter and each story relates the reality of people’s pain that we cannot ignore.  The pictures on television of tanks rolling through West Bank cities and even, sadly, churches, are heart-wrenching, but we know these visual images do not convey the extent of the hardship that you face as a result.

The Common Global Ministries Board strives to be an expression of the global church, one that values and upholds its partners in mutual expression of God’s community.  Now, as ever, we want you to be sure we know the deep significance of being in Christian relationship.  As church, we have a responsibility to hold up your cries, and do so with love.  Our calling is to serve justice in the world.  We will continue to be faithful in voicing your concerns to our governments, so that they too may seek justice and act responsibly.  We know that the United States is the only power with the requisite influence to bring an end to the current situation and to bring about a final resolution to the Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  We are encouraged by Secretary Powell’s upcoming mission, but know that the urgency of your pain would have required that this mission take place much sooner.

As part of the worldwide ecumenical community, we are committed to acting in solidarity through the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme, which we hope will contribute to ending the violence of Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.  At our meeting, we have endorsed the initiative.  We offer that support and pledge to work earnestly toward its successful implementation.

Almost seven months ago, you expressed your heartfelt sympathy and solidarity with the American people in the wake of the attacks in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania.  You also reminded us that the feelings of personal loss and insecurity are ones that you have had to live with for a much longer and more sustained time than we.

As Bishop Riah Abu al-Asal wrote in his Easter letter, "It all becomes clear how though we believe in the resurrection, we also believe that the resurrection does not cancel out the crucifixion.... To whom do we turn? We have no one to turn to except to him, who suffers, and dies with us, Jesus Christ our Lord. For he alone can raise us up."  The Reverends John Thomas and Richard Hamm, the General Ministers and Presidents of our two denominations, in their letter to President Bush this week wrote, "The story of the crucifixion on Good Friday is one of true pain and suffering. Christ’s suffering is our human condition of despair.  As Christ felt as if he had been abandoned by God, so too many in the world feel abandoned in their despair.  We have just celebrated Easter, though, and know the triumphant hope that is victorious over death.  We are called to act on that hope.  In Israel and Palestine, let us do what we can to demonstrate the hope of God’s love."  This wonderful, and undeserved, hope and grace is what sustains us, as it does you.

May the peace and justice of God’s providence be with you, now and forever.

The Directors
Common Global Ministries Board
United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)