A group of senior peace and justice journalists visiting Jordan from the US Associated Church Press network narrowly avoided death or injury in the bombings of three hotels in Amman last week. A group of senior peace and justice journalists visiting Jordan from the US Associated Church Press network narrowly avoided death or injury in the bombings of three hotels in Amman last week.
They checked out of accommodation across the street from the Radisson Hotel on 9 November just hours before it was attacked.
The group included Jim Rice, managing editor of Sojourners, Patricia Edwards-Konic, editor of Quaker Life magazine, Everett Thomas, editor of The Mennonite, and Sherri Wood Emmons, managing editor of Disciples World, a magazine of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
Along with publisher Jim Rice, they declared: .
In a statement released before the weekend, they continue: .We not only decry the cowardly strikes against innocent people, but we recognize and are saddened by the connection with the violence that has been brought upon neighbouring Iraq by our own country's military action..
Say the journalists: .The terrorists who attacked Amman & seek to instil fear, not only in their direct victims but also in anyone who would consider a visit to this breathtakingly beautiful land, which has been at the very heart of so many of our religious traditions..
.Those of us who have walked in the footsteps of our biblical forebears and marvelled at the magnificent and ancient wonders of this crossroads of history can testify to the power of this place to reach the deepest part of our humanity..
The group concluded: .We grieve with and pray for our Jordanian sisters and brothers. We pray that people of faith around the world will refuse to allow fear to separate us from the people of Jordan and the Middle East, but will instead reach out and connect ever more deeply as we move forward in hope..
