Dear Mr. President: As leaders of Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant Churches and Christian organizations with millions of members across the country, we encourage you to lead a political process that will end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As you begin your second term, the vision of a two-state solution is coming back into focus after having faded into obscurity. Will Palestinians finally be free? Will Israelis be secure at last? As people of faith and hope, we say yes!

January 21, 2005

 

The Honorable George W. Bush

The White House

Washington, DC

 

Dear Mr. President:


As leaders of Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant Churches and Christian organizations with millions of members across the country, we encourage you to lead a political process that will end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As you begin your second term, the vision of a two-state solution is coming back into focus after having faded into obscurity.  Will Palestinians finally be free? Will Israelis be secure at last? As people of faith and hope, we say yes!

This is the time for you and for the 109th Congress, and for friends of Israel and Palestine, to have the courage to be peacemakers, and to press both Israelis and Palestinians to seize the future; where each recognizes the other’s right to exist and is willing to work together for security and economic well-being.

For the sake of our own country as well, Mr. President, we appeal to you. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become a threat to the people of the United States. Every day the conflict continues, hatred of the United States government is fueled. With each news report of Palestinian suffering — whether the death of an innocent child, the demolition of a family’s home, or the confiscation of farmland for the

separation barrier — popular support in Arab and Muslim countries for terrorism grows and the threat of attacks directed at the United States increases. The continuing conflict has also resulted in suffering and loss of life among Israeli citizens. We want Israelis, too, to live without fear or threat in their own country.

A hallmark of your campaign was the commitment to defeat terror and make our country more secure. We believe that the promise of peace in Jerusalem is the best defense against terrorism. We encourage you to maintain the faith, the courage and the resolve to work with other world leaders toward
negotiations that guarantee two viable states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side and sharing Jerusalem as their capital.


Finally, Mr. President, we urge you to follow the examples of the great prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, who declared that God calls all nations and all people to do justice to one another. We join you in praying for peace in the Holy Land and at home.


Sincerely,

                       


Rev. Dr. Leonard B. Bjorkman

Co-Moderator

Presbyterian Peace Fellowship

Marilyn Borst

Director, Global Ministry
Peachtree Presbyterian Church, Atlanta

Simone Campbell, SSS

National Coordinator

NETWORK, A Catholic Social Justice Lobby

 

continued on page 2

Anthony Campolo

President

Evangelical Association for the Promotion of  

   Education

 

Br. Kevin Cawley

Deputy Province Leader

Eastern American Province

Christian Brothers

 

Sister Ardis Cloutier, OSF

Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, MN

 

page 2, Christian leaders to President Bush

 

Marie Dennis

Director
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns

 

Christopher J. Doyle

President/CEO
American Leprosy Missions

Rev. Robert Edgar

General Secretary

National Council of Churches USA 

 

Beatrice Eichten, OSF

Vice President

Leadership Conference of Women Religious

 

Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson

General Secretary

Reformed Church in America

 

Anne Griffis

Chair, Action/Global Concerns

Church Women United

 

The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold

Presiding Bishop

The Episcopal Church in America

 

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson

Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

 

The Rev. Dr. Stan Hastey

Alliance of Baptists

 

Rev. Wm. Chris Hobgood
General Minister and President
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

 

Rev. Kathryn J. Johnson

Executive Director

Methodist Federation for Social Action

 

The Rev. Phil Jones

Director

Brethren Witness/Washington Office

 

continued on page 3

 

 

 

Mor Cyril Aphrem Karim

Archbishop

Archdiocese of the Syrian Orthodox Church

 

Ted Keating, SM

Executive Director

Conference of Major Superiors of Men

 

Rev. Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick

Stated Clerk
Presbyterian Church (USA)

 

Abbot Jerome Kodell, OSB

Subiaco Abbey

 

Thomas Krosnicki, SVD

Provincial

Society of the Divine Word (Chicago)

 

Donald A. Kruse

Vice-president, Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF)

 

Rev. Michael E. Livingston

Executive Director

International Council of Community Churches

 

Dr. Ronald J.R. Mathies

Executive Director
Mennonite Central Committee

 

Joellen McCarthy, BVM

Peggy Nolan, BVM

Mary Ann Zollmann, BVM

Leadership Team

Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 

Rev. John L. McCullough

Executive Director & CEO

Church World Service

 

Mary Ellen McNish

General Secretary

American Friends Service Committee

 

A. Roy Medley

General Secretary

American Baptist Churches, U.S.A.

page 3, Christian leaders to President Bush

 

Joseph Nangle, OFM

Franciscan Mission Service

 

Ron Nikkel

President

Prison Fellowship International

 

Rateb Y. Rabie, KHS

President, Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF)      

 

Leonard Rodgers

President/Founder

Venture International

 

Andrew Ryskamp

Executive Director, Christian Reformed

World Relief Committee-US

 

Metropolitan Philip Saliba

Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese

 

Rev. Cheryl J. Sanders, Th.D.
Senior Pastor
Third Street Church of God, Washington, D.C.

 

Dr. Robert E. Sawyer
Moravian Church Southern Province

 

Amb. Robert A. Seiple

Founder/Chair

Institute for Global Engagement.

 

Carole Shinnick, SSND

Executive Director

Leadership Conference of Women Religious

 

Ronald J. Sider

President

Evangelicals for Social Action

 

Rev. William G. Sinkford

President

Unitarian Universalist Association of  

   Congregations

 

James W. Skillen
President
Center for Public Justice

 

 

Glen Stassen

Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics

Fuller Theological Seminary

 

Richard E. Stearns

President

World Vision

 

Msgr. Archimandrite Robert L. Stern

Secretary General

Catholic Near East Welfare Association

 

Rev. John H. Thomas

General Minister and President
United Church of Christ

 

The Rev. Canon Richard Toll

Friends of Sabeel—North America

 

Christine Vladimiroff, OSB

President

Leadership Conference of Women Religious

 

Joe Volk

Executive Secretary

Friends Committee on National Legislation

 

Rev. Dr. Donald E. Wagner

Professor
North Park University, Chicago.

 

Jim Wallis

Executive Director
Sojourners

Corinne Whitlatch

Executive Director

Churches for Middle East Peace

 

James Winkler

General Secretary

General Board of Church & Society

United Methodist Church

 

Bishop Gabino Zavala

Bishop President

Pax Christi USA