! PE 11110 New Series Vol. XXXIX No. 10 • Whole Series Vol. LXVIX No. 6 • June 1979

3 Mission Memo 7 Editorials 8 Living Roots: The Churches in the Middle East Kathryn Habib 14 A Missionary in the Muslim World R. Marston Speight 16 Education: A 150-Year Investment Arthur H. Whitman 20 Prospects for Middle East Peace A Necessary First Step George E. Gruen 22 A Peace Treaty Without Peace Naseer H. Aruri 26 Palestinians and Politics Ann M. Lesch 32 Starting Over in Algeria Hugh G. Johnson 34 At Work in Egyptian Villages Photos by B. David Williams 36 Profiles of Middle East Christians Hassan Dehqani-Tafti-An Iranian Bishop Charles E. Brewster 37 Victoria Aziz-An Egyptian Teacher Connie Myer 38 Karekin II-The Head of an Ancient Church in Lebanon Dickinson Miller 40 Women's Church Work Houda Zacca 41 Books 42 Letters 43 Moving Finger Cover View of Jerusalem with the Western Wall, Dome of the Rock, and the Mount of Olives Werner Braun, Camera Press, from Photo Trends

Editor, Arthur J. Moore; Managing Editor, Charles E. Brewster Associate Editor, Ellen Clark; Art Director, Roger C. Sadler Administrative Assistant, Florence J. Mitchell

475 Riverside Drive, New York, New York 10027 Published Monthly (bimonthly, July-August) by the Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, Education and Cultivation Division, in association with the United Presbyterian Church, USA.

Second-class Mail Privileges Authorized at New York, N.Y. Additional Entry at Nashville, Tennessel.. Copyright 1979 by Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church. No part of New World Outlook may be reproduced in any form without written permission from Editors. Printed in U.S.A.

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PHOTO CREDITS P. 8, C. Zachary, Egyptian State Tourist administration; Pp. 10, (bottom). Werner Braun , 12, 14, Russell A. Thompson, 20 (bottom), Neil Libbert, 23, Don McCullen, 24, Alex Levac, 25, J. M. Spiegelman, 27 (top). Brian Aris , 28 Photo Trends; Pp. 10, (top). 34, 35, B. David Williams; Pp. 11, 39, Marc Van-Appelghem, 13, 21 (bottom), John Taylor, 26, World Council of Churches; Pp. 15, 20 (to p). 21 (top). 27, 28, 29, (bottom). Religious News Service; Pp. 16, 36,Charles E. Brewster; P. 17, Peter Harrison Smith; P. 18, Said Ab Hamdeh, American University of Beirut; P. 33, Ellen Clark; Pp. 37, 40, Archie Hamilton, BOGM. , RISSIOMRERO News and Analysis of Developments in Christian Mission

June, 1979

UMCOR. The United Methodist Committee on Relief made grants totaling about $1,600,000 to projects in 42 countries when it met in Cincinnati April 25-27. About 70 percent of the funds went to combat root causes of hunger. Grants included $40,000 to families of political detainees and to alleviate hunger in ZimbatJ../e-Rhodesia and $30,000 to legal defense of African political detainees in South Africa. Some of the money will be used for Servivienda, a new low- cost ($400-700) housing developed by a Jesuit priest and being built in in­ creasing numbers in Colombia and elsewhere in Latin America, as well as in Africa .

Aging. The Division of Health and Welfare Ministries of the Board of Global Ministries has announced 10 projects to receive technical assistance in devel­ oping nonresidential services to the aging . The projects were inspired by the acclaimed Shepherd's Center in Kansas City, Mo. and will be financed in part by the division's Daisy and Harry R. Kendall Funds . The projects are Point Loma Community Presbyterian Church, San Diego; United Methodist Homes and Services, Chicago; Springfield Area Council of Churches, Springfield, Mo.; Myers Park Presbyterian Church, Charlotte, N.C.; Hinton Rural Life Center, Hayesville, N.C.; First United Methodist Church, Philadelphia; Smithfield United Church, Pittsburgh; First United Methodist Church, Pulaski, Va.

Protests. At the Spring Board of Global Ministries meeting, t he Nat ional divi­ sion voted to send a telegram to President Carter protesting the den ial of loan guarantees to underwrite a proposal by t he Ecumenical Coalition of t he Mahoning Valley to reopen the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company plant as a worker-owned and operated concern. The division also called for the removal of the U.S. Naval Base on Vieques, a small island off Puerto Rico, and the return of the territory to the Puerto Rican people. See the full report of the Spring meet­ ing of the Board in the Moving Finger Writes .

Personalia. New staff members of BOGM include the Rev. Albert ~.Q. Aymer, of Antigua, who will be the World Division's new secretary for church develop­ ment, replacing Malcolm McVeigh, who resigned last year . ... The Rev. Lionel P.A. Muthiah, a Malaysian who is a U.S. citizen and is a member of South Dakota Annual Conference, has become associate secretary for cultivation in ECO, succeeding Robert Holstein .... Chiquita Gloria Smith, of Brooklyn, N.Y . will share a position of executive secretary in the Women's Division in a new con­ cept of shared work .... Marilyn Bradley will be the first woman f ield repre- sentative in church extension for the National Division; two other new persons in that position are Rev. James L. Barber, of Denver, and the Rev. Warren C. Hamby, of Birmingham, Alabama .. -: Enid E. Pitter has been promoted to supervisor of cash receipts in the treasury department ... Rev. William L. Weiler, who has headed the office of Christian-Jewish Relations of the National Council of Churches for five years, is leaving to be the Washington Staff Officer of the Episcopal Church ... The Rev. Richard Deats, a former United Methodist missionary in the Philippines, has been named executive secretary of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a peace and civil rights organizations with headquarters in Nyack, New York.

Nuclear Energy Bandwagon. Last Fall, before Three Mile Island, members of the Governing Board of the National Council of Churches muffed a golden opportunity to be prophetic and refused to debate the merits of a policy statement critical of nuclear energy. Instead, they made the statement, which was two years in preparation, into an innocuous Study Document. But in May the Board of the Council met in San Antonio and quickly came out against further reliance on nuclear energy. They called for "serious, immediate moves toward a downturn in dependence on nuclear energy and the ultimate elimination on dependence of nu­ clear power. 11 In a related development, 33 Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist adherents called for a moratorium on the production of both nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors, and they urged support of the anti­ nuclear rally in Washington, which attracted some 65,000 people. United Methodists who signed the nuclear moratorium call included Bishop D. Frederick Wertz, of Charleston, W.Va., who is also president of the Board of Global Ministries, Eugene Stockwell, associate general secretary of the National Council of Churches, and Peggy Billings, assistant general secretary of the Women's Division of BOGM. Meanwhile, the Rev. Bruce Robbins, associate minister of the Montpelier (Vt . ) United Methodist Church (see October NWO, "Debating Nuclear Energy in New England"), remains active in the Clamshell Alliance, the nation's first anti-nuclear group.

Deaths. Frances Eshelman, a former editor with the Education and Cultivation Division of BOGM, died in High Point, N.C. in late April. She had retired in 1973 after working 19 years with the Board ... The Rev . Everett Thompson, who was a missionary in Japan from 1926 to 1941 , and then from 1946 to 1970 was foun­ der and director of the Yokosuka Christian Community Center, died recently at the Otterbein Retirement Home near Lebanon, Ohio. He was 80. Mr . Thompson also worked in Vietnam and later with inner-city youth in Canton, Ohio. His entire life was spent as a bridge between people," said Shiro Abe, a former Crusade Scholar who succeeded Mr. Thompson as director of the Community Center. Mr. Abe travelled from Japan to Ohio to deliver a eulogy. Mr. Thompson's wife, Zara, died last October. His son Lawrence is a UM missionary in Japan, also in social work. One of the telegrams from Japan read at the funeral thanked Mr. Thompson for "big footprints in the work of Christ." . .. Bishop Norris ~ · Curry, of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, died May 7 after suffering a heart attack. He was also a president of the World Methodist Council.

Convocation. Persons attending the National Convocation on Christian Mission in San Antonio September 20-23 will be offered the opportunity for a four-day post-convocation trip to Mexico to see the work of the Methodist Church there ..

as well as touri st sights . Me xican Methodist Bishop Ulises Hernandez will host a short seminar . Information on the extension trip is available in the con­ vocation registration packets which can be obtained from the National Convo­ cation Business Office, 7820 Reading Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45237 .

11 Hope for Life. 11 Can anything about the Middle East be non-controversial? A mini-tempest has been raging around the Middle East film 11 Hope for Life, 11 which was colTlllissioned by the One Great Hour of Sharing Committee and the Commission on Education for Mission of the National Council of Churches and produced by United Methodist Communications. Both the film and its guide have been criti­ cized by the American Jewish Committee and the Ecumenical and Interreligious Concerns Division of BOGM and as a result a section of the guide on 11 The West Bank and Gaza 11 will be revised; it has been decided it is too late to change the film . Rabbi A. James Rudin of the AJC says that 11 overall balance and accuracy have often been sacrificed in the guide to achieve certain political aims. 11 About the film itself, Bishop James M. Ault, of the Philadelphia Area, says 11 it does not deal with the full complexities that exist in the Middle East today ... it does not depict a balanced view of a mul t i-sided issue. 11 Edwin H. Maynard , acting general secretary of United Methodist Communications, has stated that 11 it is not within the purposes of the film to deal with political factors in the Middle East nor with the State of Israel 11 and he believes it is successful in achieving its purpose of showing Christian ministries in that area of the world.

Homosexuality. Reaction was swift to the firing by the Women's Division of staff member and self-avowed lesbian Joan Clark (see story in The Moving Finger Writes). Bishop W. McFerrin Stowe, episcopal leader of the North and CentralTX annual conferences, was elated but deplored the publicity the issue received . The Rev. Ben Oliphant of First UMC in Dallas, Ms. Clark's pastor, said he affirmed her but felt 11 the board had no option but to allow her employment to be terminated. 11 On the other hand, retired Women's Division staff member Thelma Stevens of Nashville deplored the action and expressed the hope the division would make 11 a confession of mistaken judgment 11 and rescind the vote at the division's fall meeting. The Board of Church and Soc i ety executive committee on May 6 called for the appl ication of human rights 11 within the churchas well as within society 11 and said 11 sexual preference should not be a ground for rejection 11 from employment. Both the committee and the Women's Division are calling for the 1980 General Conference to clarify the issue.

Health Care. The new national health insurance proposals announced by Senator Edward ~ennedy have received qualified endorsement by officials for the Health and Welfare Ministries Division of BOGM. Noting they have not had time to study the Kennedy proposals in depth, the Rev. Al Murdock, associate general secretary of the division, and Mr. Lou Blair, a retired hospital administrator and special consultant to the division for health care, say that their initial impression is that the new proposals represent a 11 further improvement 11 over the ones Kennedy presented last year because they would make use of some 11 positive and good factors 11 of the present system, including the private sector. 11 While (the proposals) would need several improvements, along with other pro­ posals they could form the basis of a workable plan, 11 they say. Zaire. A major effort of the Church of Christ of Zaire, of which the United Methodist Church is a part, is with refugees returning from Angola under the current government amnesty. In Lubumbashi and four other centers the United Tl Methodists are an "operational partner" with the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. "This is an added responsibility of considerable weight, but a o~ 11 cc fine opportunity for Christian service, report missionaries Terry and Ward th Williams . The UN has insisted that the program be administered through the ar Church because of its equipment, experience, and reputation for integrity, they th say. n< pi West Bank. Two Arab universities in the occupied West Bank, one of them a gc Vatican-supported institution, were closed May 4 by military government follow­ to ing anti-Israel demonstrations. One is Bethlehem University, which was founded irr on the initiative of Pope Paul VI and was ordered closed for four days. The bE other, Bir Zeit University, near Ramallah, was closed until further notice. At cc both schools, students had raised Palestinian flags on the roofs and thrown gE stones at passing army vehicles, according to Israel authorities. trE SU or Re-assignment. Mel kite Catholic Archbishop Ilarion Capucci, who served time in FL an Israeli prison after being convicted of gun-running for Palestinian guerrillas, m has been appointed visitor of Melkite communities in Western Europe. But last di year, when he was assigned to tour Melkite communities in Latin America, the irr outspoken prelate went to Damascus without Vatican authorization and praised PLO si1 leader Yassir Arafat. In 1974 he was sentenced to 12 years in prison by an cil Israeli court on charges of having smuggled guns and explosives in the trunk of ~ his car from Lebanon to Palestinian guerrillas in the West Bank. He was re­ Eg leased to the Vatican in November, 1977 under conditions which Israel thought would keep Capucci out of the Middle East. ~ I Structure. The executive committee of the General Council on Ministries has is recommended a sweeping restructure of the Board of Global Ministries, including fa separation of the Ecumenical and Interreligious Concerns Division (EICD) from sti trE the board, dissolution of the Health and Welfare Ministries Division and dis­ pr persion of its functions , reduction of the Education and Cultivation Division to ag a commi t tee/office, and combining the National and World Divisions. (At the "E Board meeting in Cincinnati, the Board voted at the request of EICD to petition tic General Conference to permit that division to become a free-standing Commission.) so Responding to the proposal of the GCOM executive committee, BOGM general sec­ to retary Dr. Tracey K. Jones, Jr. told NWO, ''In my judgment the future of the lei missionary movement of the United Methodist Church lies with greater diversi­ ti r fication. This proposal is obviously in the direction of greater centralization. fir I believe that this is the wrong way to go. The outcome would be to weaken both (E1 the world and national mission of the Church, to fragment health and welfare w ministries, and at the same time to seriously undermine the capacity of the n Board to interpret the worldwide ministries of the Church to annual conferences ap 11 be and the local churches. The GCOM executive committee also recorrmended pulling ca together various functions in several agencies to create a ''Board for Congre­ "s gational Development." majority rule. They have sensed that any move, no matter how clever, would result in the deterioration of their powerful pos ition and their eventual capitulation to the Africans who out­ :QEDITORIALSC!J number them 22 to 1. Only one th ing forced the white Rhodesian community The Egyptian-Israeli Treaty . Israeli treaty would build momentum to make a move and that was the United When Napoleon Bonaparte had the for an overall peace have seen little Nations imposed economic sanctions. opportunity in exile on St. Helena to support for their hopes. Moderate Arab When the United States fi nally joined in consider his roller coaster career he states have sided more with the hard­ those sanctions the reality of " zugz­ thought of his invasion of Egypt in 1798 liners than Washington expected. The wang" finally dawned on the white and his subsequent military reverses in suspension of Egypt from the 43-nation community of Zimbabwe. the Middle East. Then the man who had Islamic Conference in Morocco, while Now the question before the United subjugated all the important European falling short of total expulsion from the States is whether or not to continue nations, except for England, and occu­ Islamic movement, further indicates an telling the white Rhodesians to " move" pied Moscow, told his captor, the unexpected degree of isolation­ by maintaining economic sanctions. governor of St. Helena, "The great thing though it is hard to see how long or row Reluctantly-because, after all, a broth­ to remember is that Egypt is the most meaningful can be the isolation from the er United Methodist bishop whom we important country in the world." Islamic movement of the country with greatly admire has been elected prime Napoleon reached this conclusion the most prestigious Islamic university. minister-we must conclude that it because like any good military man he Shortly after the treaty signing Israel would not be wise for the United States could read a map. Few countries are as announced two new settlements on the to drop sanctions at this time. geographically central as is Egypt. Any West Bank. This must have completely . It is true that a few years ago few could treaty which reduces the likelihood that dismayed the White House. It is im­ have contemplated the internal changes such a significant country will embark perative that America continue to make effected in Rhodesia which led to the on war cannot be a totally bad thing. clear to Israel that even as her security remarkable election in April. While Furthermore, if such a treaty enables the and existence are not negotiable her there were some irregularities in the most populous nation in the area to retention of the West Bank and Gaza is election, they were probably not as divert cash from armaments to aid the unacceptable and the settlements there many overall as one used to expect in impoverished fellahin of the country­ must be dismantled. elections held, say, in Mayor Daley's side and the teemi ng masses in the President Carter deserves the admira­ Chicago. In view of the record of most cities, whose own rights have often tion of the American people for the other states in Africa, it seems small been forgotten in the cacophony of patience and mediating ski l ls he indeed to nitpick on the actual election. Middle Eastern complaints, then what brought to the Camp David process that But what is more important is that the Egypt signed with Israel on March 26th led to the treaty between Egypt and election bears no effect on continuing will be worth the alienation she is now Israel. This was no mean feat of white control of such important areas as experiencing from the rest of the Arab diplomacy and on balance there is great the civil service, police and judiciary in world. potential for good. But that potential Rhodesia and that the machinery is set The hope in Washington is that what will scarcely be realized if we succumb up to give whites virtual veto power is good for Egypt will be good eventually to self-satisfaction and fai I to bite the over any significant changes in the for the Palestinians, whose situation is bul let on the real issue of the Middle East cou ntry. Even the proposed name sti II the nub of the problem, treaty or no which remains self-determination for change to Zimbabwe has been modified treaty. Since Henry Kissinger began this the Palestinians. to Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. The ability of process under President Nixon six years As former Under Secretary of State Ian Smith to achieve his aims by many ago the plan has been to tackle first the George Ball has noted, war may be means is well known. Does anyone " easy" problems, such as Israel's rela­ postponed by piecemeal arrangements, doubt that it was Smith's influence tion with Egypt, in the hope that a but peace cannot be achieved without which caused Bishop Muzorewa to solution there would bui ld momentum the ful l participation of Israel's other drop his proferred olive branch to toward solving the more difficult prob­ Arab neighbors. This means we must Robert Mugabe, the guerrilla leader, lems of Israel's relation with the Pales­ somehow bring the Palestine Liberation and embrace instead South Africa's tinians--a sort of Acts 1 :8 in reverse, Organization, so despised by Israel but offer of military aid? first the "uttermost parts of the earth" still the only widely acknowledged All of this is easy for us to say. We do (Egypt), then Judea and Samaria (the voice of the Palestinians, into the not I ive with the terror and danger that West Bank), and finally Jerusalem itself. negotiating process . are Bi shop Muzorewa's daily lot. If his This pragmatic and very American goals for Zimbabwe have not always approach to the problem may have Zugzwang in Zimbabwe been clear and consistent, it is equally been dictated more by American politi­ In the world of chess a player is said to true that he has had to be his own cal realities, and the necessity to show be in " zugzwang" when any move he pathfinder. There are no real models for "successes", than by Middle Eastern makes will result in the deterioration of what he has tried to do. But we fear that realities. In some ways the Israeli-Pa­ his position and his best move would be unless he separates himself more from lestinian problem resembles more a nut to make no move. Unfortunately, the Mr. Smith he will find himsel f in the which must be cracked all at once thpn rules d jctate that a move must be made. same zugzwang of the white minority. an pnion which can be peeled layer by For years now the tiny white minority Until that time we do not fee l that the layer. in Rhodesia has -.yished fervently that it United States should abandon its only So far, those who hoped the Egyptian didn't have to make a move ~oward lever for change in Zimbabwe. 8 [248] New World Outlook• June 1979 Kathryn Habib

mericans these days have The largest single community, and been fascinated by searching the next oldest, historically speaking, A for their roots . Might it not be are the Coptic Orthodox of Egypt of value ~o go on a similar search for numbering about six million. They, our Christian " roots"? Of course, we like the Armenian Orthodox and affirm as Christians that our roots in Syrian Orthodox, did not accept the history are in Jesus Christ. He is our wording of the definition of Christ's beginning and our end, our alpha and nature decided upon by the Council of omega. But might our search not take Chalcedon in 451 A. D. This group of us to Jerusalem where Jesus was churches are known as the " Oriental crucified and resurrected; to those Orthodox." Another group of Ortho­ countries where the Church began; to dox did adopt the Chalcedonian defi­ the area of Antioch where Christians nition (as do the Catholics and Protes­ were first cal led "Christians"; to Egypt tants). Today these churches are where Mary and Joseph fled for safety? known as the " Eastern Orthodox. " And might we not make the happy Those existing in the Middle East are discovery of living roots? Could we not the Church of Antioch, the Church of venture to come to rediscover the Alexandria, the Church of Constantin­ living expression of that body, the ople, and the Church of Cyprus. Very Church to which we all belong, as it recently the theologians of these two lives, witnesses, and celebrates the groups of churches met and agreed faith today (as it has done from its that their division fifteen centuries ago beginnings) in the Middle East? at Chalcedon was essentially in­ fluenced by political, sociological, How Many Christians? and philosophical factors, not theolog­ " Are there sti 11 Christians in the Holy ical ones, so they hope soon to Land or only Christian relics?" This is reestablish communion. not an unfamiliar inquiry. If we expand The Catholic Churches of the Mid­ our definition to include all the Middle dle East count more than two million East one may say that twelve to members. Their historical starting fourteen million Christians live in this point was with the Crusades, although area . They are in the majority Ortho­ the Maronite Church in Lebanon has dox, but also Catholic as well as an earlier beginning. These Churches Protestant. include the Latin-rite (or "Roman") The oldest community is "The Catholics and the Eastern-rite (o r Church of the East," the Assyrians. "Uniate") Catholics. They all recog­ Theologically speaking they are nize the Pope of Rome as their head . sometimes called Nestorians. They The Protestant Churches of the were the first to have missions to Middle East are about two to three China. Today they are a small and percent of the total Christian P,Opula­ poor church, led by a young patriarch tion and are chiefly of the Reformed who resides in Iran and is seeking a and the Anglican traditions. Their wider ecumenical fellowship for his historical beginnings were in the last people. century as a result of the missionary LIVING ROOTS: TltE cltuRcltEs iN TltE MiddlE EAST 9 movement from Europe and the Unit­ q ed States. Isl The Catholic and Protestant m churches are more familiar to Ameri­ fo cans than the Orthodox who comprise pr the majority of the Christian communi­ cc ty in the Middle East. in in Today's Churches w What about the life and activities of til these churches in the contemporary Middle East? One should note here the inauguration in 1974 of the Middle East Council of Churches (M.E.C.C.). The Council includes in its member­ ship the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and the Protestant Churches. The Catho­ tf lics participate in the activities of the c Council, and are open to becoming tf members. The M.E.C.C., which covers N alltheArabworld, Iran, Turkey, Israel, E and Cyprus, is the organizational tool ~ of the churches for cooperation in I( common endeavors and mutual sup­ 0 port in particular concerns. Its struc­ ture includes departments on theologi­ cal concerns, Christian education (with a youth program and a women's program), social development (cover­ ing the various churches' work in . , ' health services and hospitals, rural development, schools, urban-indus­ trial mission, literacy training, etc.), ,, service to refugees, publications, radio and communications. Other areas of work include an information and documentation service, coopera­ tion with expatriate Christian com­ munities, concern for human rights issues, a program for relief and rehabil­ itation in Lebanon and a service to Palestinian refugees. The staff of the . Council is made up of people from the t . 'r ' various member churches who are I ( ',~ elected every three years by the .. -~ General Assembly . ., ~ · As these churches of the Middle East ~ .. share life in their part of the world ..~..,, . today three special and urgent con­ "' cerns emerge. They may be called " presence," "unity" and " wit­ • --!.. ~.. ' ness/renewa I.'' ' . , Presence Christians have been in the Middle East since the time of Christ and have in some periods of history enjoyed a powerful position. Byzantium comes immediately to mind. But since the rise and expansion of Islam, Christians have shared life in the Middle East with Muslims from a minority position. For about 500 years unti I the end of World War I, the Middle East was ruled by the

10 [250] New World Outlook • June 1979 Ottoman Turkish Empire according to religion also plays a role; the question Islamic law, although each religious is posed : " What is the place for minority was allowed its own courts non-Jews in the Jewish state of Israel?" for matters of personal statu s. Christian So Christians in Israel, in the Arab presence was based on the Islamic states, Turkey and Iran, live as minori­ concept of " dthimi" (tolerance), and ties. A tendency of minorities in history in history we see that Islamic rule has has often been emigration, and Chris­ indeed been relatively tolerant to-. tians in the Middle East are emigrating. wards "People of the Book" (Chris­ The Christian population of Jerusalem, tians and Jews). During the colonial for example, has diminished to almost period from the end of the nineteenth half of what it was ten years ago. This is century through World War II, Chris­ primarily due to the occupation situa­ ''How CAN tians and Muslims struggled together tion. Another community very much to gain independence. Many of the affected by emigration has been the WE ltElp OUR leaders of these nationalist struggles Syrian Orthodox living in Iraq, Syria, were Christians. Turkey, and Lebanon . Today most of the constitutions of A second minority tendency arising pEoplE STAY the Middle East states use secular among Christians has been to raise the criteria, although they do recognize possibility of eventually having a iN TltE the religion of the state to be Islam . Christian state, as there are Muslim Most recently Muslims of the Middle states or a Jewish state . Such a MiddlE EAST, East and elsewhere, as they gain proposal has been voiced by certain wealth and power, are asserting their political parties in Lebanon, but histor­ biRTltplACE identity which they feel has been ically and theologically, the church oppressed in recent history by a more has rejected such a unity between powerful West. This legitimate asser­ religion and state . of OUR tion and expression of identity takes a Within this cycle of events, the religious turn in Islam where the churches are asking themselves how fAiTlt ... ?'' concept of state and religion are not can we help our people express the separated, and arises among a people living faith in openness and love who have been overwhelmed by what towards others? How can we help our they view as Western Christian cultur­ people stay in the Middle East-the al , material, and political power. birthplace of our faith-and live the War is another phenomenon that faith in love and service? Two priorities colors the face of the Middle East arise in answer to these questions. Let today. The question of religious iden­ us call them "unity" and "wit­ tity is involved here too. Lebanon has ness/renewal." become the battleground for a variety Unity of political tendencies and parties of the Middle East, some of them adopt­ The call to Christian unity, although ing religious identities. And the strug­ it may be viewed as an historical gle there is intimately related to the necessity, is not primarily that. It is the Palesti ne-lsrael confrontation where prayer of Christ in John 17.

,. -.~ - .

It is clear from the text that such ~I " unity" is not for those who want to live in exclusive circles, in closed groups. It is a unity intimately tied to the whole world. Unity? Rather, division is experi­ enced as more common in the Middle East today. Religious divisions, politi-. cal divisions, wars. Within this setting one finds almost every type of Chris­ tian in the world, from a Coptic · ( Orthodox to the most recent American .,.... •/ fundamentalist Protestant group. In Beirut, Lebanon, there are some 50 to 60 groups among Protestants alone who are only about 2.5 percent of the total Christian population. Now some may find beauty in diversity, but much of this diversity comes from a history of division and is contrary to the spirit of Christ. Therefore, the churches of the Middle East are struggling to go beyond any spirit of proselytism among one another. Historically, this has been a characteristic of Catholic and Protestant missions vis-a-vis the Orthodox faithful ; it still remains a problem among the non- or anti-ecu­ menical fundamentalist sects originat­ ing mainly in the U.S.A. and sending missionaries to the Middle East. At­ tempts are being made to overcome the doctrinal differences separating the various churches. A first major step in this direction are the discussions between the Oriental and Eastern Orthodox regarding the Council of This Russian Orthodox Church is in the Garden of Gethsemane. (Opposite page) Crowds Chalcedon. Another significant step on Christmas eve at the site of the manger in Bethlehem are large. aiding the search for unity has been the material more tied to Middle Eastern many people fled due to severe establishment of the Middle East Christian history and culture; renewal shelling. But he stayed , knowing that Council of Churches. All these efforts of worship and the liturgy. Activities he might be the only doctor around to are intimately related to witness. for youth are a vital aspect of church serve those who remained in their life. In the recent hi story of the Coptic villages. In 1976 he was killed and his Witness/Renewal Orthodox Church and the Orthodox family held the memorial service for One may say that unity itself is a Church of Antioch, the youth move­ him in an Orthodox Church in Beirut. witness, that the more we grow ments were the focus for church That very day fighting was going on in towards Christian unity the truer wit­ renewal. some sections of the city between nesses we become. This perspective, All these activities are of ultimate so-called " Christian" parties and accepted by the Churches in the value in so far as they help the church " Muslim" parties. But in this church Middle East, views the Church, the in the Middle East reflect the face of one could see white veils on the heads community of believers, their life Christ to society at large. Minority of many women, typical Musi im attire, together expressed first of all in wor­ status, numbers of members, are of as well as many people identifiably ship, as the essential dimension of secondary importance. What is essen­ Druze. The church was over ha lf ful l "witness" or "mission." It does not tial is that these communities reflect a with the Muslim friends of the doctor, view mission as primarily an activity or Christian quality of life. who made the trip from the South that profession, but as a description of Faith is very intimately linked to Sunday to attend the entire liturgy in Christian life in community. Such life loving one's neighbor, and for the his memory. Such expressions of life in community requires, on the part of Christian in the Middle East the shared in the Middle East are not the churches, the nurturing of their neighbor is most often a Muslim. uncommon and remain signs of the members in the faith through worship, Perhaps this closeness can be best Spirit. • prayer, education and social life. The illustrated by a true story about a Middle East churches havetoncerns in Christian doctor during the war in Kathryn Habib, a fo rmer Frontier In tern , is all these areas . Some desperately need Lebanon. This doctor lived and a research ass istant w ith the Middle Eas t more trained priests; some are working worked in South Lebanon . He stayed Counc il of Churches of w hich her hus­ on developing Christian educational there all during the war, although band, Gabriel Habib, is general secretary.

New World Outlook• June 1979 (253) 13 s I am writing th ese lines the n ize that, in the eyes of the religious present? In some cases they may be rnir world is be ing either shocked leaders, he or she represents a corrupt riding the wave of political and be Aor inflamed by the whirlw ind and i ntru sive civilization against economic favor that their homeland sio of revolution that has swept the which the peoples of Islam must enjoys, so that they are scarcel y aware an< anci ent Muslim land of Iran . Without protect themselves. Even if the mis­ of their religious and ideological ity going into the pol itical and economic sionary is tolerated and admired for image. But when we listen carefully to abl repercu ss ions that events in Iran have whatever technical skill is being what Muslims are saying about mis­ the cau sed all over the world, we may proughttb the Muslim world, and even sions and the countries that send the note that the revolt of Iranian Islam has if the individual's character is above missionaries, there is no reason why Bu so01ething urgent to say about what it reproach, the disturbing fact must be we cannot agree with some of their the means to be a missi onary in the faced that he or she is considered to judgments concerning Christianity, hat Muslim world today. The Iranians, at have an undesirable influence simply understood as Christian ci vilization. the least a large sector of them , have made because of belonging to a rel igion that Two world wars in half a century and ass it clear that they want to purify their has failed to produce the fruits of institutionalized racism, fought and his land of the debasing aspects of western righteousness in its adherents. practiced by Christian nations, do not Ch modern ity. And they consider that We do not yet know what wi 11 be the speak well for our religion . These th i these undesirable elements come from future of missionaries in Iran . What defects, as well as the ancient injus­ dei Ch ri stian countries. A Christian mis­ about those in other Muslim countries, tices perpetrated in past Christian­ Mt sionary among Muslims should recog- where they are tolerated for the Muslim relations, are fresh in the dei izE of sa1 thi on T AMISSIONARY IN THE MUSLIM WORLD Wi R. Marston Speight Wi

d minds of Islamic peoples. It seems to be appropriate for a Christian mis­ sionary to be ca ndid about all of this, and to accept a measure of responsibil­ ity for it. The individual may not be able to do much to change his image in the eyes of the masses, who identify the person with his culture and origin. But, in relationships with individuals, there is much that can be done to foster harmony and understanding. One of the first steps to take is frankly to assume the burden of one's own history. Just the other day I heard a Christian missionary refuse to assume this burden. When confronted with the deeds of the Crusaders, who killed Muslims in the name of Christ, and the deeds of the imperialists, who colon­ ized Muslim nations with the blessing of the Church, this person objected, saying, " But the people who did such things were not true Christians. They only professed the Christian religion." The implication was that the speaker was different from the rest, because he was a true Christian. This is an inadequate way to deal with our history. It leads to a defensive attitude that only reinforces the barriers that exist between Muslims and Christians. How much more honest it is just to say, Ayatollah Khomeini on his return to Iran. Opposite page, Dome of the Rock " Yes, I belong to the good and to the (Omar Mosque) in Jerusalem. bad of my background. I am linked in religious solidarity with all that has subtle spiritual forms, of new kinds of the essentials of the person's faith happened in the past, and with all that slavery, to materialism, to ideology. experience. From the depths of a is going on now, whether I agree with We are both alarmed at the massive common human predicament the it or not." There is something disarm­ threats to human life that hover like missionary has the privilege of wit­ ing about such an attitude. Islam is not dark clouds over international palav­ nessing among Muslims to the new life our adversary. We do not have to ers . We are mutually appalled by which is the gift of God in Christ, the defend Christianity against it. And we blatant social and economic discrimi­ life of freedom from the burden of are not out to conquer Islam, not even nation. Both of our societies are beset personal in, the life that seeks not to to conquer it in a spiritual sense. Once by crises in family life and in religious save itself, but to give itself for others, a missionary comes to terms with these practice. We see m mutually helpless the life that is centered in God, and so realities, then the Muslim can be in the midst of moral uncertainty, finds its bas ic activity to be prayer. If helped to see that there is at least one institutional instability and , especial­ the missionary lets himself get really Christian against whom one does not ly, international animosity, where close to the followers of Muhammad, have to defend oneself. Then the door national rivalries contradict the broth­ he will find some of them who are is opened for the missionary and the erhood of faith and the brotherhood of totally abandoned to God, whose life's Muslim to walk together into an area of humankind. breath is prayer, and who are just as common ground. The missionary in the Muslim world righteous as any Christian. Again, with When our defenses are down, we can join hearts with friends of another defenses down, the missionary will discover that we have a great deal in religion to face the trials of life, and to neither be vexed nor waver at this common, upon which to base friend­ resist evi I. Faith enables the Christian experience. It will be only one of many ship and constructive effort. We share to explore the implications of the joyful and mysterious surprises that many of the ordinary joys and hopes of common ground with the Muslim. He await the Christian witness who human life, the ordinary but radiantly can probe difficult questions, live with plunges into the dramatic situation of uncommon, gifts of God's grace, such uncertainty on many levels, remain varied interaction between the pro­ as health, family, the discovery of open to change in his way of thinking, claimed Word, the free will of man nature, work and art. We are also and at the same time never lose the and the Spirit of God. • representatives of two communities of vitality of his hope in Jesus Christ. It is faith trying to make a success of living the strong fellowship of the Son of God together in a confusing world. Both that enables the missionary to go R. Marston Speight is a UM missionary, Christians and Muslims face the un­ beyond the age-old rivalry of two most recently in Tunisia , w ho has written precedented pressures of idolatry in religions and yet never compromise widely on Islamics.

New World Outlook • June 1979 [255) 15 Education: a 150-year investment Arthur H. Whitman

Christian church in America waned, finally to collapse in the early revolution, evident in the broad ac­ the I as for over 150 years founded, 1920s, Christians of the ancient ceptance of universal education and and nanced and administered edu­ churches maintained their identity as the rapid advance of women's educa­ seco 'TI scho cational institutions in the Middle East. distinct communities in a predomi­ tion, that rivals even the discovery of Graduates of these schools and col­ nantly Muslim society, while a " mil­ oil or the founding of new states in the 1tud1 leges are the teachers, the business let" or " nation" system of government region as the most important elements Bein leaders, the doctors and engineers, the within the Empire provided a degree of for dynamic change in Middle East high Ministers of State in a host of countries independence and self-rule for minori­ society. 197( throughout the region . Through the ty peoples . It remained for the In the earliest schools most of the ed ir export of education the American churches of the New World in the students were Christian, there being ties ~ people have established deep person­ early 1800s, in a new era of enlight­ government prohibitions against Mus­ and al ties in the Eastern Mediterranean. It enment, to bridge the gulf that re­ lims attending. By the turn of the enga is on this foundation of trust and mained between the Muslim of the century a few Muslim fam ilies seeking scier mutual respect that we must build a East and the Christian of the West. the best education available had Univ new peace in the 1980's. Early missionaries to the Middle East begun to send their sons to American Eng Ii In the 7th century Mohammed judged that education, medical ser­ schools. When a wealthy Muslim Th electrified the people of the Eastern vices and the new sciences were well businessman in Tarsus, Turkey, led the dar ( Mediterranean with his call to the suited to their efforts at reconciliation way he was criticized for sending his the E devout to submit in total obedience to of age-old differences. In the process son to the "foreign" school. He and the one true God, and to recognize no American churches rediscovered the answered his critics by stating that they tradi1 other. This new unity contrasted ancient churches of the East and too would soon be sending their sons of Cc sharply with the doctrinal divisions ultimately that encounter led to a because Tarsus Kolej provided the best with that fractured the Christian church of growing ecumenical fellowship em­ education in the area. His reply was 197i the East, and Islam · spread quickly bracing East and West. prophetic for it was not long before dom i across north Africa and into Spain. When the first Protestant mission­ American schools were flooded with abou Islam and Christianity then con­ aries arrived from America by sailing applications from young Muslim stu­ ish ' fronted one another as crusading ship in the ports of Constantinople and dents. majo armies marched from medieval Eu­ Beirut in the early 1820s, they found Initially, the language of instruction missi rope under the banner of the Church to no educational institutions prepared to was Arabic or Turkish. But as more quali storm the gates of Christian Byzantium teach the new sciences that were advanced studies were added it be­ instil (Istanbul) and Muslim Jerusalem. In rapidly laying foundations for the came evident that translations, espe­ and I time the European princes, underfi­ industrial revolution already under­ cially in the new sciences, could not equa nanced and undersupplied with arms way in Europe and America. The keep pace with new discoveries. Chur and men, were forced to withdraw, schools founded by the American Although medicine, astronomy, math­ true leaving in decay their magnificent Board of Commissioners for Foreign ematics and physics are deeply rooted carry castles which commanded the high­ Missions were to initiate a new and in the East, available vocabulary scho1 ways to the Holy Land . clearly the most remarkable revolution simply did not exist to convey the Sa1

Through centuries of political tur­ the Middle East has experienced since advances taking place in these sub­ terro1 moil that followed, as Ottoman rule the time of Christ. One hundred and jects in the 19th century. By the 1870s extre waxed until 1570 and then slowly fifty years later it is the educational most schools had adopted English as aero 16 [256] New World Outlook • June 1979 ...... ''Through the export of education the American people have established deep personal ties in the Eastern Mediterranean.''

Left, Damavand College in Teheran. Below, American University of Beirut. the principal language of instruction, ...... •...... and a century later English was the ~..,.,.,.,.,..., second language in most national school systems . Ironically, it was the . .. students of the American University of ,·r -:--..:-- Beirut who were to demand, during a highly politicized protest in the mid 1970s, that all instruction be conduct­ ·~ ed in Arabic while national universi­ fi •• ties such as the University of Aleppo G ~ and Pahlavi University in Iran, deeply engaged in the teaching of modern sciences, had emulated the American University of Beirut in the use of English. Three schools in Turkey (the Usku­ dar Girls School on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, the Izmir Girls School and Tarsus Kolej) continue the long tradition begun by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions with 1,774 students enrolled in 1977/78. Students today are pre­ dominantly Muslim with the faculty about equally divided between Turk­ ish and non-Turkish. The church's major contribution to the continuing mission of reconciliation is in the quality of faculty that undergirds these institutions. Funds raised by alumni and friends in the Middle East nearly equals the contribution of the United Church Board for World Ministries in a true partnership, with student fees carrying the major share of modest school budgets. Sadly, in Turkey today political terrorists on the extreme right and extreme left are battling each other across campus mal Is and pub I ic squares. Academic programs have respect so essential to an increasingly Stuc been disrupted and in 1978 alone over interdependent world. wee ''The educational 1,000 deaths were reported . Thirteen Robert College and the American rnar of the country's 67 provinces are University of Beirut, both institutions by revolution rivals administered under martial law, in­ founded by missionaries in the 1860s, con' cluding the major urban centers of and later the American University in The the discovery Ankara and Istanbul. Robert College in Cairo, have become leading educa­ • Sch1 Istanbul and the three schools of the tional beacons, guiding and stimulat­ and United Church Board for World Min­ ing the educational revolution that tr ea of oil or the istries (i n Uskudar, Izmir and Tarsus) now engulfs the Middle East. Both rnec have been relatively isolated from the Robert College and AU B have experi­ Pea' founding of new strife . But inflation, estimated recently enced major changes in this decade. brin between 40 and 60 percent, poses a Robert College, because of financial war states as the danger to privately financed education burdens, divested itself of its upper tuti( even greater than a decade of political divisions, turning over program and stuc most important uncertainty. Tuition fees will have to part of its campus to the Ministry of pre1 be free to rise with inflation if these Education . Thus the Univesity of the c elements for sc hools are to continue to provide Bosphorus (Bogazici Universitisi) was figh what is clearly recognized as quality born, with many Robert College grad­ wer and innovative education in an inter­ uates on its faculty continuing the Uni change in cultural environment. Like American traditions which had made the College Agr institutions throughout the region famous . Ce Middle East these schools are important as one of The civil war in Lebanon in 1975-76 fro the few places where Christian and placed severe strains on the American loot Muslim can work together to bridge society.'' University of Beirut as well as other in differences and establish that mutual American schools in the country. the I co Medical Center at the American University of Beirut. on co

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ti Al is reg va 19 of 18 [258] New World Outlook • June 1979

L Studies were frequently interrupted for weeks at a time, but the University The only institution of higher education in Iran with a connection, managed to graduate a class each yea r however tenuous, to American Christianity is Damavand College, a by eliminating summer sc hool and school for Iranian women which developed out of a finishing school concentrating on essential courses . established about fifty years ago by an American Presbyterian The Medical School and Nursing missionary, Jane Doolittle, who still lives in Iran. In the '77-'78 School continued throughout the war, academic year Damavand had 960 students who came from all over and over 10,000 casualties were the country to study at the college's distinct,ve but incomplete treated at the University's modern campus at the foot of the Alburz mountains above the smog of medical center. By the time Arab Teheran. After the overthrow of the Shah, and especially after the Peace Keeping Forces were able to attack on the American embassy, most of the American faculty have bring a measure of order among the lt?ft Iran. The college had received support from the Shah and warring factions, most American insti­ Empress Farah Diba Pahlevi, especially in the form of land for the tutions were heavily in debt with new campus, but fortunately the college's first president, Frances student enrollment less than half the Gray, resisted the suggestion that the school be named after the prewar level. Empress, choosing instead the neutral name of the country's highest Considering the proximity of the mountain, Damavand, which is visible from the capital on a dear fighting and the heavy weapons that day (which is to say, not very often). The outlook is that Damavand were used, the property damage to the will continue but with a reduced student population, few if any University was not excessive. The foreign teachers, and a lower profile. Agricultural Research and Educational Among secondary schools, the Community School, located in Center in the Bekaa Valley thirty miles downtown Teheran, which at one time had as many as 1500 from Beirut was occupied and partially students in grades 1-12, will naturally have far fewer foreign looted. There were deaths and injuries students. Interestingly, over the last decade, the school, which had in the university community. Never­ been started by Presbyterian missionaries for their children, had theless, and it is a credit to their developed into a standard secular American style private school with commitment, the faculty and staff held little Christian visibility. Several observers suggest the outlook now is on through 18 months and more of for a return to a smaller school, more self-consciously Christian in conflict. Today much of the dynamic orientation. mix of the student body is changed . The revolution, which overthrew the Pahlevi dynasty and ended The prewar enrollment of 5,000 had 2500 years of monarchy, has left a time of considerable uncertainty included students from 72 countries for American sponsored educational institutions in Iran. But while and 20 religious communities. Today the role of these institutions will undoubtedly change, the need for 92 percent of AU B's 4, 100 students them will still exist, if not in the size they once were. In the words are from the Arab world, and fewer of one knowledgeable observer, "nothing will have the flavor it did students from abroad are attracted to have," particularly in the period of the early '70s when American Lebanon . It is difficult to see how, educators were practically everywhere, but the new regime will short of the comprehensive peace continue to have a need for schools. NWO which is high on the agenda of serious Middle East peacemakers, the Univer­ ed with Presbyterian Church support East and the U.S. There is little doubt sity and Lebanon itself can fully suddenly find that they must adjust to that the investment would be well recover. Islamic revolutionary councils. worth it. For over 1 50 years we have Beirut's Jesuit-run St. Joseph Univer­ Strangely, the most serious threat to seen demonstrated the immense val ue sity sustained heavy property damage, American schools and colleges in the such institutions have to the i ntercu 1- located as it was on the dividing line Middle East in the 1980s is not the tu ral exchange that is fundamental to between eastern and western sectors isolation, the ci vi I strife, the changing an effective peace between East and of the city. Hagazian College support­ patterns of student enrol Iment , strident West. Our only regret shou ld be that ed by the Armenian Protestant Church nationalism nor even the breakdown we do not have 150 years of simi lar was also near an area of intense of the civil order. It is, rather, that investment in education in those parts fighting. The Near East School of common, all pervasive disease, infla­ of the world where misunderstanding Theology, jointly supported by the tion. Every single institution is under­ and distrust across cultural and lin­ United Church of Christ and the financed and stretching limited re­ guistic barriers are al l too self-evi­ Presbyterian Church, and the Presby­ sources to the maximum. They have dent. • terian's Beirut University College had been forced to defer maintenance of little property damage but suffered a buildings and laboratories, restrict drop in enrollment that has created library acquisitions, reduce adminis­ Mr. W hitman worked and lived in the financial strains. trative overhead and raise tuition fees Middle Ea st for 23 years, first as a teacher at In Syria and Iran, American educa­ in an effort to keep pace with rising Robert College and then as administrative tional institutions face different issues . costs. Increasingly, new funds have officer for the United Church of Christ Aleppo College in northern Syria, been raised in the Middle East itself, based in Istanbul. In 1966 he became Dirctor of the Office of Development at the isolated and hedged in by government yet as inflation soars to new heights American University of Beirut, a position regulations, has had to abandon inno­ these measures may not be enough. he held until June 1976 as war in Lebanon vative programs developed in the Can these institutions survive the was slowly winding down. He is currently 1950s and early 60s . With the change 1980s? Probably not without major Executive Director of the World Affairs of government in Iran schools operat- financial help from both the Middle Council of Maine based in Portland.

New World Outlook • June 1979 [259] 19 ith the signing of the Egyptian-Is­ raeli Peace Treaty the turbulent and strife torn Middle East has come to a fateful crossroads between war and peace . This sobering fact places a heavy responsibility not only on Egypt and Israel faithfully to imple­ Prospects for ment their commitments to one an­ Middle East other, but also requires others with a direct stake in the outcome-the Arab Peace states, the Palestinians, the United States-<:arefully to weigh their poli­ cies, pronouncements and actions to determine whether they are consistent with the long-range objective of fos­ tering a climate that will bring about a fair and enduring peace for all the peoples of the region. Because deeply held feelings of hostility, injustice and mutual suspi­ cion have poisoned the climate of Arab-Israeli relations for so long, one should note the extraordinary psycho­ logical value of the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty. For the beleaguered people of Israel, formal diplomatic recognition by the largest, most popu­ lous and militarily most powerful Arab Israel ' leg1t1macy as a state and to state becomes all the more significant undermine its existence by unrelent­ when one recalls that the Jewish State ing economic and political warfare in Geor~c E. Gruen had to fight for its independence addition to the constant threat of against the combined military on­ renewed armed conflict. Thus, for the slaught of its Arab neighbors in 1948 Israelis the formal exchange of am­ and continues to this day to be bassadors with Egypt 1s regarded as an subjected to efforts by various Arab immensely significant symbolic act of states-from Libya to Iraq-to deny official acceptance within the region. For the Egyptians, Israel's agree­ ment to restore Egyptian sovereignty over all of S1na1 1s a great matter of national dignity for a country which has struggled to become fully inde­ pendent after centuries of occupation by the Turks, the British and Ru sian " advisers." It was thus psychological­ ly important for Egypt to obtain the formal removal of Israeli air base and c1vd1an settlements from Sinai, e en though eventually in the conte t of normal peaceful relations man time as many individual Israeli civilian a tho e now ettled in Yamit ma be visiting, working and living in Egypt. The overriding value of the e ym­ bolic elements in the Egyptian I raeli Peace Treaty 1s that the h Ip to overcome the accumulated mutual uspicions and negat1 e tereoty~ . They demon trate to keptical I raeli that there are indeed Arab in the M iddle Ea t who are pr pared to reco nize I rael ' n ht to a permanent place in the re ion ; and th h Ip rebut the wid pread Arab 1 w that I rael i irr vocabl intent upon t rrito· rial e pan ion. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, President Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin join hands after signing the peace treaty March 26. Below, a peace demonstration in Tel Aviv two months earlier led to a scuffle. Bottom, Talmudic scholar at the Wailing Wall. Opposite page, Arab meets Jew in Jerusalem.

The message that Americans con­ Similarly, on his way to Washington cerned for peace in the Middle East for the treaty-signing ceremony, Israeli should constantly emphasize is that Prime Minister Menachem Begin once the Egyptian-Israeli Treaty proves that again affirmed that the treaty was only the process of negotiations conducted the " first step toward the comprehen­ in a spirit of compromise and conces­ sive peace for which we yearn" for the sion can produce mutually beneficial benefit of all the peoples of the area . results that seemed absolutely unat­ The Egyptian-Israeli agreement should tainable at the start. thus be viewed not as the end but as Will other Arab states follow Egypt's the beginning of a process. lead toward gradual acceptance of Veteran observers of the M iddle East Israel, or will Egypt become a pariah, scene note that the complexity of the condemned and ostracized by the remaining issues, compounded by other members of the Arab League? deep-seated inter-Arab divisions and Will the Palestine Liberation Organi­ great power rivalries, have doomed all zation continue its threats to wreck the attempts at a simultaneously achieved American-backed peace process or comprehensive so lution. Historically, will moderate Palestinian voices the only relatively successful efforts emerge to seize the opportunities were the bilateral armistice agree­ offered in the Camp David Accords ments concluded in 1949 and the and accept the challenge through hard bilateral disengagement agreements bargaining in good faith to breathe life negotiated after the 1973 Yorn Kippur and substance into the provisions War. The most significant achieve­ regarding Palestinian rights? ment before the current Egyptian-Is­ Much wi 11 depend upon whether the raeli Peace Treaty was the second Egyptian-Israeli agreement is viewed Sinai Disengagement Agreement con­ as a separate peace or as a necessary cluded between Egypt and Israel in first in a series of peace agreements September, 1975. that w i 11 together constitute a cor.1pre­ The United States played a crucial hensive solution of the Arab-Israel role in the success of both the 1975 conflict. After meetings in Riyadh, and the 1979 agreements. As an Amman and Cairo, U.S. National honest broker and " full partner" in the ___ ... Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski peace-making process the United declared, on March 18, that he was States helped bridge differences, fur­ more convinced than ever that the nish crucial economic aid and over­ Egyptian-Israeli treaty would be " both come suspicions by providing impar­ the beginning and the cornerstone of a tial means of verification of compli­ comprehensive peace." ance with the agreements. The mutual

New World Outlook • June 1979 [261] 21 trust that was developed in the three­ and-one-half years of the 1975 Sinai agreement laid the groundwork for the present peace treaty. The fact that the treaty does not provide defi nitive solutions to the most contentious issues-such as ultimate sovereignty over the West Bank Uudea Prospects for Middle East Peace and Samaria) and Gaza, the claims of Arab and Jewish refugees of the Middle East conflict, and arrangements for Jerusalem-is not a defect but a virtue. As currently enunciated the Egyptian and Israel i positions appear irreconcil­ A peace treaty able. But if responsible Palestinians, Jordanians and others are prepared to enter into negotiations to coexist in peace with Israel then imaginative without peace new solutions may be devised for cooperation and shared authority among Israel, Egypt, the Palestinians Naseer H. Aruri and Jordan, drawing upon such di­ verse models as the religious and Co ethnic autonomy provided in the co Ottoman millet system, the close economic cooperation of the Benelux the overwhelming majority of regard to the requisites of a durable countries, the sovereign but politically he Arab people, the second peace. Two elements of these consen­ neutralized status of Austria, and the 11Camp David agreement signed suses are of particular importance: complex municipal arrangements of in Washington, D.C. on March 26, First, the necessity of Israeli withdraw­ the Greater London Council. 1979, is nothing more than a fig-leaf al from occupied Arab territories It may seem paradoxical that a covering a bilateral Egyptian-Israel i including the West Bank, Gaza, major element in the American peace settlement at the expense of Arab and Golan, as well as Sinai. This condition package is military aid to Israel and Palestinian rights. What was achieved has not only characterized general Egypt to counter the billions in ad­ at best, first at Camp David and next at Arab policy, but Egyptian policy under vanced military equipment that the Washington, was a separate peace Sadat as well. In fact, Anwar Sadat opponents of the agreement, led by between Israel and the most populated coined the phrase of "withdrawal from Libya, Syria and Iraq, are marshalling. Arab country-a fulfillment of a long every single inch of Arab territory." With Israel's warning time sharply cherished Zionist dream. Withdrawal is also the principal pro­ lessened by the forthcoming with­ Nineteen-nineteen (the Feisal­ vision of the U. N. Security Council drawal from Sinai , the new American Weizmann agreement) signalled the resolution 242 , which came to be early warning radar, aircraft, missi les beginning of a process by which regarded by the world community as a and other sophisticated equipment Zionists have endeavored to liquidate cornerstone of any Middle East settle­ will play a crucial role in enabling the Palestinian cause through an im­ ment. The second element of the Arab Israel to deter and if necessary to repel portant Arab leader or a combination and global consensuses is the recogni­ attack. If Egypt remains true to its of leaders. Sadat delivered to Zionism tion of Palestinian rights including commitment in the peace treaty with what Feisal failed to do-a license to self-determination, statehood , and re­ Israel, this will serve as a further establish a permanent occupation of turn. These rights are enshrined in deterrent to extremist Arab ambitions. all of historical Palestine. countless international declarations, Steadfast American commitment to Against the Consensus charters and United Nations resolu­ Israel, to a peaceful Egypt and to the tions. principles of Camp David, may finally Thus, the Egyptian-Israeli " Treaty of Time and again, Anwar Sadat reaf­ convince the other Arab states and the Peace" is simple, clear cut: Sadat firmed his commitment to a peace Pa lestinians that war is futile and that granted a peace treaty and got Sinai based on these two principles. But the the only way they can make progress back. The so-called Framework for Camp David accords as well as the toward achievement of their legitimate Peace in the Middle East, however, Treaty of Peace flout these principles. aspirations is through negotiations and which purports to serve as an instru­ By sponsoring this " peace", President compromise . • ment for a comprehensive settlement Carter may have exerted his efforts in of the Arab-Israeli conflict is not as the direction of a wider conflict with Dr. George E. Gruen is D irector of Midd le simple. But amidst vagueness and grave implications for the region and East Affairs fo r the America n Jewish Com­ ambiguity, a general outline which the for the American people. mittee and also an Associate of Columbia settlement envi saged can be dis­ Contrary to resolution 242 , and to U niversity's Seminar on the Middle Ea st. cerned . Perhaps the most important long standing U. S. policy (reaffirmed fc Professor Gruen has taught international n re lations and Midd le Ea st politics at feature of this so-called Framework is by the Carter Administration on June Columbia and the City University of New that it stands at variance and in utter 27, 1977), the United States ac­ \\ York. Th is article represents his personal disagreement with the regional con­ quiesced in territorial aggrandizement ~ views. sensus and the global consensus with by Israel when it accepted the deletion 22 [262) New World Outlook • June 1979 '' ... nothing more than a fig leaf covering a bilateral Eg~ptian-Israeli agreement. ''

Continued Israeli possession and control of territories captured in 1967 and what is meant by autonomy are crucial points of contention. (Below) Israeli soldiers capture Arab civilians in Jerusalem in the 1967 War.

of the inadmissibility clause from the items of Palestinian national rights, the West Bank and in Gaza. agreement. It was not strange, there­ Begin delivered, on the same occasion "Peace" for the Palestinians fore, for Menachem Begin to an­ and from the same rostrum at the nounce on March 20, 1979, that Israel Knesset, two additional "nevers", that What did Carter's "peace" offer the will never return to the 1967 borders. Arab Jerusalem will never revert back Palestinians and other Arabs? Auton- Moreover, assured of Carter's acquies­ to Arab jurisdiction and that an Arab omy or self-rule, a concept which cence in his deletion from negotiable Palestinian state will never emerge on emerged out of a 26-point plan which New World Outlook• June 1979 (263] 23 cor jert cor it' ran de1 cil are

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Begin enunciated in December, 1977 settlements, land, and " security". But to us this is our homeland, and we as Israel 's " contribution" in response Nothing in the treaty or the relevant refuse to discuss this point. Maybe to Sadat's " peace" initiative. The New documents obliges Israel to negotiate when Begin admits that this is occu­ York Times reacted editorially to the the conditions of its withdrawal from pied territory and the Israelis must plan by saying: " It doesn't take an the West Bank and Gaza. Israel merely withdraw, then there would be Arab eye to see I ittle self and much rule agreed to " decide" the question of something to discuss." Emphasizing in it. " We are told that the Carter West Bank sovereignty by the end of a that the peace arrangements fai I to Administration tries to assure Palestin­ five year transitional period . Neither delineate principles governing the ne­ ians and other Arabs opposed to he the " autonomous" Palestinian Coun­ gotiations, the Mayor continued : "If Israeli-Egyptian "peace" that the pro­ cil nor any other Arab party could opt Israel says this is the land of Palestin­ cess of creating autonomy will even­ for an independent Palestinian State at ians then we can discuss security, tually lead to independent statehood. the end of five years . Israel was given a future relations between us, how to On the other hand, Menachem Begin virtual veto over the final disposition of arrive at peace, a hundred times. But enunciated the doctrine that auton­ the West Bank . the aim of the negotiations must be omy applies to the people but not to What this means is that Menachem clear from the start. " the land. The latter is considered by Begin has in fact enlarged Israel's the Begin government as belonging to claims and demands and obtained the Perpetuating the "Status Quo" the Jewish people, while the indige­ approval of Carter and Sadat. The nous Palestinians are merely " users" context of the " peace" agreements, The Palestinians are, therefore, of the land living on sufferance. This is therefore, render imperative the fact confronted with an attempted diktat, the kind of double-think which was that legal sovereignty in the West Bank an arrangement lacking in substance granted a measure of legitimacy in the is at issue, to say the least. Begin's and loaded with procedures, which Camp David " peace". An even more elaborations, however, leave very perpetuate the status-quo, and, at best, concrete definition of autonomy ~a s little room, if any, for negotiation. defer the Palestinian question for five supplied by a semi-official committee Hebron Mayor Fahd Qawasmeh told years . It cl ai ms to tackle the Palestin­ headed by Ben Elissar, a top aide of the Christian Science Monitor (March ian question " in all its aspects, " yet it Menachem Begin , which envisions 29, 1979) in this regard : " Until now, makes no provisions for two million Israeli control of water resources , Begin says that this is the land of Israel. Palestinians living in exile, fails to

24 [264] New World Outlook • June 1979 come to grips with the status of $14 billion over the next three years, Vietnamization will be more success­ Jerusalem, and leaves Israeli forces in most of which will be used for the ful in the Middle East than it was in control of the West Bank and Gaza. Is purchase of sophisticated weaponry. It Vietnam? The forces which combined it any wonder, then , that these ar­ al so contains a guarantee of a 15-year to defeat that strategy in southeast Asia rangements have been universally supply of oil to Israel , an unusual are not totally absent in the Middle denounced by every municipal coun­ pledge given the energy crunch here in East, as the case of Iran so eloquently cil and popular organization in the the United States. illustrates. Creating a military fortress area slated for autonomy? Why should Why should peace cost so much, in Israel and Egypt as though it were a people held in captivity against their and why must two countries, who going to be forever able to withstand will give their consent to a de jure pledged to end all wars, be armed to the core problem, namely the rights of occupation? By what moral or political the teeth? Will they be the firemen the Palestinian people, is not only an standard did Jimmy Carter and his entrusted with American hoses and illusion, but is also self-defeating. Nobel peace winner colleagues de­ water which are needed to obstruct There can be no peace in the Middle cide that the Palestinians are not social change in accordance with the East until the Palestinian society is people entitled to equal rights? And by Nixon-Kissinger Doctrine? permitted to reconstruct itself on Pa­ what principle did they determine that It must be kept in mind thatthe treaty lestinian soil . Peace in the Middle East, a highly literate, urban, cohesive does not rule out United States inter­ in the final analysis, will revolve community, which has managed to vention. The " memorandum of un­ around the question of whether the assert its identity despite its legal and derstanding" between the United Palestinian people will be able to physical fragmentation, is entitled to States and Israel, a corollary to the enjoy those elementary rights which autonomy, which involves sanitation, treaty, carries the seeds of interven­ other people have enjoyed-the right public works and religious affairs but tion. According to that document, the to self-determination, statehood, and not to independence, which includes United States " will be prepared to return to their homes and property. control of foreign and domestic affairs? consider, on an urgent basis, such The so-called treaty of peace of March, Or, to quote an Israeli Professor of measures as the strengthening of the 1979 does not assure that. • comparative literature, " Why should United States presence in the area Palestinians on the West Bank accept . : ." This is a thinly veiled warning to Israeli assurances of 'full rights' when any state or organization that active 'Israeli Arabs' have been living in Israel opposition to the treaty can be done at Born in Jerusa lem, Pales tine, Naseer H . for thirty years without full rights?" the risk of military intervention by the Aruri came to the U nited States in 1954 . Currently Professor of Po litical Science at United States. Southeastern Massachusetts U niversity, he The Price Tag was Chairman of the Po litical Science A Revised Policy of Containment The other dimension of the " peace Department th ere fro m 1969-1 977. treaty" is its price tag, not only in terms The " Treaty of Peace" is a revised A Specialist in International Affairs and of the expenses which U. S. tax-payers version of John Foster Dulles' policy of M iddle Eas t Studies , he has authored several books on the Middle East. Asso­ will bear, but also in terms of the containment. Far from being an in­ ciated w ith the Association of Arab­ commitments which Jimmy Carter has vestment in peace, the Carter enter­ American University Graduates , Inc. since undertaken on behalf of the American prise must be seen in the context of U. its inception ten years ago, he has bee n people. The American dowry includes S. global strategy, for it is fundamen­ treasurer and national pre sident and is a pledge to supply the two reluctant tally shaped by the ethos of the Cold currently a member of its national Boa rd of partners with aid amounting to at least War. What makes Carter believe that Directors.

Settlements in the occupied West Bank are a sore point (left) as are questions of security (opposite page). Prospects for ~fiddle East Peace t1n1an ol1ti Ann M. Lesch

he Palestinian dimension ap­ 1940s--was virtually shattered by the pears to be the most perplexing war of 1948. Known as an-nakba (the T element in the Middle East con­ disaster), the fighting resulted in the flict. Basic questions are continually flight of some 700,000 Arabs from ra ised : Who are the Palestinians? Why their homes in the area that became are they viewed as the " core" of the Israel. Since the total Arab population Arab-Israeli conflict? Who represents was at least 1.2 million, this meant that them and what might Palestinian less than half remained in their own self-determination mean? Most im­ homes; some 150,000 inside Israel , portantly for the immediate future, is another 350,000 on the West Bank, the;e any possibility that a regional and at most 80,000 in the Gaza Strip. peace agreement can be attained that The entire populations of the ancient would accord the Palestinians their towns of Jaffa, Ram la, Lydda, Acre and minimum political needs while at the Tiberias were uprooted. Hundreds of same time ensuring the security of villages on the coastal plain and the Israel and of the neighboring Arab hills of Galilee were deserted. And the states? capital city, Jerusalem, was divided In comprehending the Palestinians' between Jordan and Israel . It was situation, three phenomena should be estimated in 1952 that 465,000 refu­ borne in mind. First, Palestinian so­ gees lived on the East and West banks ciety has undergone extraordinary of Jordan; 101,000 resided in Leba­ change since 1948. It has been trans­ non; 83,000 in Syria; and another formed from a highly stratified com­ 201,000 were packed into the Gaza munity with a landed aristocracy at its Strip, where they far outnumbered the pinnacle into a differentiated, mobile indigenous population. people among whom educational at­ The situation facing the Palestinians tainment and political and military in each country varied considerably, activism rank high as criteria for soc ial and these differences clearly left their standing. Second, the dispersion of the imprint on the character of each Palestinians has made it particularly fragment of the Palestinian communi­ difficult for the political activists to ty. But there were certain common establish an authoritative political denominators in the political realm, in " center," and the movement has their psychological reactions, and in suffered from continual pressures to­ the attitudes of the " host" countries ward fragmentation. Finally, the polit­ toward them . ical aims of the Palestinians have At the political level, the landed and evolved significantly in recent years , professional political elite lost its from a determination to regain all of credibility and legitimacy. Its disunity Palestine from Israeli control to an and ineffectiveness were blamed for acceptance by most of " partition" and an-nakba. Only the village level the establishment of a Palestinian state structure remained relatively intact, alongside Israel. with the clan and other village institu­ tions transferred to the refugee camp Shattered in 1948 environment. Lacking land as the basis The Palestinian Arab community­ for status, however, the village struc­ already weakened in the 1930s and ture was actually distorted in this dominated from outside in the environment and could not evolve

26 (266) New World Outlook • June 1979 The much-publicized meeting of Iran's Ayatoll ah Khomeini with Yassir Arafat of the PLO (above) shows the strong emotional pu ll of the Palestinian cause in the Muslim as well as the Arab world . Attachment to their traditional homes, such as Jerusalem (opposite page, above) and, and lands, such as the Jordan Valley (opposite page, below), remains strong. naturally. In many camps- particular­ suspicion . Although the middle class ly in the isolated Gaza Strip-the Palestinians' commerical and profes­ soc iety remai ned locked into pre- sional skills were welcomed, they 1948 social pattern s. remained aliens. In any case, it would have been virtually impossible for the The Refugees host countries to integrate the dis- Duri ng the decade after 1948 the placed farmers among their own peas- refugees also underwent fundamen- antries. And, since this group consti- tal ly si milar psychological transfor- tuted the bulk of the refugees, they mations w hich later took on an ex- remained unassimilable in the refugee plicitly political cast. At first they felt camps . Moreover, the politically ac- " lost, " disoriented and disrupted from tive Palestinians resisted efforts to thei r fa miliar waysof life. Thehumilia- close the camps and abolish their tion of being refugees and, especially, refugee status, since such efforts were being landless contributed to thei r perceived as attempts to erase the sense of alienation and lack of se lf-re- traces of the conflict and deny their spect. The o lder generation sue- right to reclaim the land of Palestine. cu mbed to a nostalgia for the past and During the mid-and-late-1950s, an ever-lengtheni ng wait fo r " the many Palestinians were attracted to return." the various forms of pan -Arabism The sense of alienation was in- which asserted that only by un iting the creased by the ambivalent attitude that Arab world could Palestine be re- the " host" countries held toward the gained . But the hope for Arab un ity refugees . Many individual Palesti n- received a blow in 1961 when the ians would have welcomed the oppor- union of Egypt and Syria dissolved tun ity to integrate into another society, after only three years. Another illusion but they were treated with reserve and was destroyed in June, 1967, when the New World Outlook• June 1979 [267] 27 "1.,J1c lonf,l-fe, teri ng J>ole. tin ion Effects of the 1967 War The June war of 1967 had a 11rol1lc1n lie, ot tl1e l1co1·t of tJ1c tttnglctl shattering impact on the Middle East in tl1c l~ttst." and , once more, transformed the issues ... llitltllc Pal estin ian situation. First, the war resulted in a major territorial change. Israe li army rapidly defeated the com­ tions, w hich seemed to indicate that By occupying the West Bank and the bined Arab armed forces. self-reliance w as the route to I ibera­ Gaza Strip, Israel gained control over These dis illusionments acce lerated tion. The fedayiin (guerrillas) also almost half of the Palestinians; a processes that were already underway wanted to serve as the catal yst to million in the occupied territories as among the Palestinians. The sense of popular mobilization and to shame the well as the 400,000 inside Israel. discrimination by their fellow Arabs Arab rulers into fighting agai nst Israel. Paradoxically, the occupation en­ and their disappointment w ith the These regimes were already aware abled Arab residents of these three rhetoric of the Arab regimes , com­ of the growing anom ie among the areas to reestablish contact, thereby bined w ith the still inten se animosi ty Palestinians and sought to channel it accelerating the recrystallizing of Pa­ toward Israel , led many Palestinians to through the Arab League. The first lestinian national identity. The occu­ reject their own passivity and depen­ Arab summit conference (1964) au­ pation al so severed ties between the dency. Instead of always being acted thorized Ahmad Shuqayri , the Pales­ Ea st and West banks of Jordan and 4pon by others, they sought to tran s­ tinians' official representative to the abruptly halted the process of "Jor­ form their situation . This drive had League, to lay the foundations for an danization." already shown itself in the demand for organization of the Palestinian people, Second , the war discredited the education . Being stateless and proper­ with the aims of liberation and self-de­ conventional forces of the Arab states. ty less, Palestinians turned to educa­ termination. The fi rst Palestinian con­ When guerrilla warfare escalated in its tion and technical skills as the route to gress, which convened in Jeru salem in wake, th is feda yi " will" was seen to be personal advancement. May, 1964, brought together some defying Israeli military power more four hundred delegates from all the effectively than the Arab states' heavi­ Fatah Established countries in which Palestinians resid­ ly-equipped troops. By 1969 the guer­ ed (except Israel). While middle- and rilla groups, led by Fatah, assumed a The urge to act was also expressed in upper-class in its composition, the dominant role in the PLO, ousting the the formation of underground guerrilla congress provided the first forum since old-guard politicians, while calling for cells. Fatah was established in the 1948 for Palestinians to meet together the establishment of a " democratic early 1960s and undertook its first raid to articulate a common program . secular state" in all of Palestine. into Israel in 1965. Organized by The congress adopted an uncom­ Third , the war set in motion altera­ an young professionals who had lived in promising political charter. Just as the tions in many Palestinians' awareness th the Gaza Strip, studied in Egyptian Palestinians before 1948 had been of-and, in part, their attitudes to­ universities and worked in Kuwait, unable to make allowances for the ward-Israel. Those who lived in the Wi Fatah expressed its opposi tion to presence of the Yis huv, so the Pales­ occupied territories or who visited Pa Israel's existence and its anger at the tinians in 1964 could not acknowl­ relatives there could no longer view w inaction of the Arab regimes by edge the presence of the people and Israel as a specter to which they could s launching commando strikes . Its in­ the state of Israel. The charter tried to close their eyes . Rather, they saw that Ar spiration came, in part, from the rewrite history, calling for a return to it was a living society, having human ha successful Cuban and Algerian revolu- the status quo before 1948. strengths and weaknesses . For some, w fo Palestinian women demonstrate against the signing of the peace treaty. They are outside the Al-Aksa Mosque in East Jerusalem. on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip underwent distinct, but in some re­ spects parallel experiences. They ini­ tially responded to the occupation by attempting boycotts of the courts and schools in protest against changes instituted by the Israeli military ad­ ministration, by issuing petitions against the annexation of East Jerusa­ lem to Israel, by demonstrating in the streets and, occasionally, by helping the clandestine guerrilla groups. Polit­ ical action was curtailed by the Israelis, who deported mayors, reli­ gious leaders and professionals for articulating the residents' grievances and organizing the boycotts and strikes. A Separate State During this time, a few intel lectuals began to articulate the idea of a separate state for the Palestinians on -- - ...... the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They were accused of betraying the heritage of the rest of the Palestinians. But the PLO itself began to revise its goals. The Long residence in refugee camps has helped embitter the Palestinians. January 1973 session of the Palestine National Council-considered their this shock of realization was trans­ the PLO not find a secure base from parliament-in-exile-decided in a se­ muted into a serious examination of which to attack Israel, but its military cret resolution to encourage the for­ Israeli society and political trends, and capacity was too weak to support its mation of an umbrella political organi­ efforts to grapple with the dilemmas maximalist goals or even stand up to zation within the West Bank and the and challenges that it posed for the Arab regimes when their interests Gaza Strip. This Palestine National themselves. clashed with its own. The myth of Front was intended to help the resi­ In the initial years after the 1967 liberation by guerrilla power alone dents overcome their demoralization war, the Arab regimes supported the was shattered in Black September and to demonstrate that the territories Palestinian guerrilla movement, 1970. did not comprise a political vacuum which grew rapidly under the leader­ Nevertheless, the PLO and the which could be filled by Jordan as ship of the new PLO chairman, Yassir feda yiin reemerged in neighboring easily as by the PLO . Arafat. Indeed, the Palestinian cause Lebanon in the early 1970s. A more The Palestine National front, estab­ had a moral authority in the Arab sophisticated organizational structure lished in August, declared that it was world that made it virtually impossible was developed, and the PLO began to "an inseparable part of the Palestinian for the Arab rulers to criticize it. provide medical services in the refu­ national movement represented by the gee camps and to promote handicrafts Black September Palestine Liberation Organization" and light industry. The fedayiin estab­ Not until 1970 did the interests of lished strongholds in the mountains of Terrorist attacks, as on this Israeli the Arab states and the PLO diverge in southern Leba non, from which they bus, have caused revulsion in many a way that made the contradictions could aim bazookas and launch quarters. between them evident. At that time, nighttime raids into northern Israel. In the presence of organized fedayiin addition, terrorist actions were under­ became intolerable to Jordan's King taken outside Israel , as shown in the Hussein, both because of the destruc­ murders of Israeli athletes at the tive retaliatory raids from Israel that Olympic Games in Munich in Sep­ their activities provoked and because tember 1972 and the assassinations of the PLO formed a virtual state-within­ U.S. diplomats in Khartoum in March a-state, seemingly challenging the 1973. Such attacks, coupled with king's own authority. Moreover, the plane hijackings, were bitter chal­ American Rogers Plan offered for the lenges thrown out at the world, first time the possibility of a negotiated asserting that a price would be paid by settlement on terms minimally ac­ all for ignoring and suppressing the ceptable to Jordan and Egypt. Palestinians. But the Palestinians The Jordan civil war of 1970-71 themselves paid a price for the hijack­ revealed the fragility of the PLO's ings, as a result of the revulsion these military structure and the incoherence actions caused . of its political strategy. Not only could Meanwhile. the Palestinians living and called for " independence and bases . As in Jord an before 19 70, the self-determination" and an end to damaging Israe li rai ds made the Pa­ Israeli occupation. lestinian presence appea r to threaten the state's sovereignty and sec urity. The October War Moreover, the fragile communal bal­ ance w ithin Lebanon was increasi ngly The October War ca used further disturbed and was ove rlaid with fe s­ sh ifts in Palestinian attitudes. The tering social and economic problems . 1967 war had altered the territorial The Palestinians formed a natural map, whereas the 19 73 war began to alliance with leftist Muslims and dis­ alter the psychological map. In its affected Druze and Shi ' i Muslims, afte rmath , the Arab states confe rred whose relations were alread y tense exte rnal legitimacy on the PLO at the with the relatively privileged Maronite Rabat Conference of October 19 74 by community. Once the civil war began upholding its claim to be the sole in 1975, the seams of Lebanese society representative of the Palestinian peo­ were torn apart and only the injection ple. Havi ng obtained that inter-Arab of Syrian military power-legitimized support and seen the possibility of ex post fa cto by the Arab states in entering the negotiating process, the October, 19 7 ~nded the blood­ PLO leadership began to revi se its shed . Syrian " peacekeeping" forces strategic conceptions. For the first could not, however, resolve the un­ time, a political option seemed to derlying causes of the war or heal its emerge that challenged the view that scars. only a long-term guerrilla struggle The civil war made a mockery of the could achieve their aims. Moreover, slogan of a democratic secular state the declarations emanating from the but also under! ined the urgency for the National Front in Jerusalem publicly Palestinians to obtain some sort of urged the PLO to attend the Geneva sovereign state, even a " mini-state" on peace conference and to accept " real­ the West Bank and Gaza . In fact, after istic" solutions. the trauma in Lebanon , the PLO In June, 1974, after months of replaced the term " national authority" internal debate, the twelfth session of with the word "state." The resolutions the Palestine National Council advo­ of the thirteenth session of the PNC, cated " the establishment of a national held in March, 1977, referred ex­ authority on any part of Palestinian soil plicitly to the Palestinians' " right to which was liberated." Although this establish an independent state on " national authority" was to be only a national soi I. " And the PNC accorded step toward the ultimate goal of a the PLO Executive Committee the democratic state in all of Palestine, it authority to negotiate on its behalf at was enough of a strategic shift to Geneva. prompt the " rejectionist" groups, led by George Habash's Popular Front, to The West Bank withdraw from the Executive Commit­ tee, accusing it of according de facto Within the West Bank, the forma­ recognition to Israel. The same session tion of the National Front and the of the PNC added four leading West improved morale following the Octo­ Bankers to the Executive Committee. ber war led to a resurgence of political These men had been recently deported activity. Mass demonstrations protest­ by Israel for their a.ctivities in the ed Israe li policies and called for National Front and were known to independence. Although subject to support the idea of a Palestinian state arrest and deportation, the National alongside, rather than replacing, Isra­ Fro nt leaders decided to emerge above el. ground and contest the municipal council elections scheduled for April, 1976. The nationalist politicians were The War in Lebanon swept into office, defeating the con­ The period from 1975 to 1977 servative, generally pro-Jordanian no­ witnessed, on the one hand, the tables who had previously managed strengthening and maturing of Pales­ the townships. tinian society on the West Bank and Moreover, West Bankers began to Gaza, and, on the other hand, the talk openly about the need for a devastating civil war in Lebanon. Even transition period before the establish­ as the PLO acquired greater interna­ 'ment of a state, recognizing that this tional recognition, it suffered severe would be the only way to sec ure Israeli setbacks in Lebanon , where the move­ military withdrawal. O ne such pro­ ment had vital political and military posal , which was presented to U. S.

30 [270] New World Outlook • June 1979 Secretary of State Cyrus Vance in Arab delegation was al so raised . Th is August, 1977, called for a one to three possibil ity was still alive when Sadat's year transition period, during which a spectacular initiative in November " peace promoting force" would su­ altered the diplomatic course and pervise a referendum and the setting polarized the Arab world. up of a " democratic Palestinian state" on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It The Sadat Initiative maintained that " Israelis and Palestin­ The Palestinians have tended to ians should recognize the mutual suffer when the Arab states are divid­ legitimate rights of both peoples to ed . Palestinians feared that Sadat sovereign, national statehood in the would make a separate peace with land wliich both claim as their home­ Israel , which would isolate Syria and land," and that there shou Id be a the PLO. They were al so suspicious of " shared sovereignty" in Jerusalem. American efforts to involve Jordan in the Egyptian-Israeli negotiations, and Resolution 242 of comments from American officials Even as the Palestinians reformulat­ that they had written off the PLO as a ed their objectives, the possibility that potential negotiating partner. Resi­ the PLO would become a full partner dents of the West Bank were vocal in to the negotiations remained remote. their criticism of the " self-rule" plan Resolution 242, which would serve as offered by Israeli Prime Minister Men­ the basis for the Geneva Conference, achem Begin, deriding it as a hoax referred only to the "refugee prob­ which would merely provide a cover lem, " never mentioning the Palestin­ for gradual Israeli absorption of the ians specifically. Moreover, the origi­ occupied territories. Nevertheless, nal participants at Geneva had to Arafat emphasized for the public approve the addition of any new record in January, 1978 that he would organizations, and thus Israel could be " content" with a West Ban k/Gaza veto the PLO's participation. PLO Strip state, and would welcome " pro­ discussions with the United States tection" from UN forces. He reiterated were also precluded : in 1975 the U.S. this policy in May, maintaining that signed a protocol with Israel (as part of "the only possible solution" is for a the Sinai II agreement) in which it Palestinian state and Israel to live pledged to neither recognize nor under the joint guarantee of the U.S. negotiate with the PLO "so long as the and the U.S.S.R. The Camp David PLO does not recognize Israel 's right to talks and the Egypt-Israel treaty, signed exist and does not accept Security by April, 1979, did not assuage Council resolutions 242 and 338." Palestinian fears : the question of what During the summer of 1977 the PLO kind of " self-rule" would be estab­ leadership debated the issue of ac­ lished on the West Bank and the Gaza cepting resolution 242, as a means to Strip was unresolved and the prospect open discussions with the United remained dim that such autonomy States. It decided, by a narrow margin would lead to independent statehood. in late August, that the potential risks The long-festeri ng Palestinian prob­ were greater than the potential bene­ lem lies at the heart of the tangled fits . Acceptance risked disrupting the issues and variable forces in the fragile consensus within the PLO Middle East. ·The Palestinians are a without providing any guarantee that critical factor in the diplomatic equa­ the PLO would be invited to Geneva. tion in the Middle East. But it rema ins Moreover, it required that the PLO unce rtain whether and how the cur­ recognize Israel in advance of nego­ rent negotiations will mesh their ur­ tiations and did not make reciprocal gent need for statehood with Israel 's demands upon Israel. own require.ments and nationalist The majority were willing; howev­ claims. • er, to accept resolution 242 if the Security Council formally amended it to add a r~ference to Palestinian national rights. Furthermore, the PLO welcomed-with reservations-the Dr. Ann M os ely Lesch is Chairman, Middle U.S.-Soviet joint communique of Oc­ East Panel, Ame·rican Friends Service Committee. Th is article is excerpted from tober 1, in which the United States her chapter, " Palestinian Politics and the referred to the "rights" of the Palestin­ Futu re of Arab-Israel Relations," which ians, for the first time. The possibility w ill appea r in World Politics and the of certain Palestinians attending the Arab-Israeli Conflict, edited by Robert 0 . Geneva conference as part of a pan- Freedman, publis hed by Pergamon Pre ss .

New World Outlook • June 1979 [271 ] 31 Starti

n the few months preceding and of others are necessary, since not all following Algerian indepen­ participants feel at home in French, I dence, throngs of Christians fled and some do not speak or understand the country. Those of French origin French . saw no place for themselves in a English-speaking Christians in Al­ a country in which they would no longer giers have followed a more indepen­ d hold the reins . Those of Algerian origin dent course, since they are more II looked with some misgivings upon numerous here than in other cities. 0 their place in a country in which Islam Theirs, too, is an interdenominational, u had been the major catalyst and irtternational community, but the d unifying force in the independence common bond beyond the Christian 0 movement. They left behind a fellowship is that of the English lan­ p seriously diminished but viable Chris­ guage. T tian community, compartmentalized As the Roman Catholic Church has according to the various traditions decreased in numbers, it has become which had been at work in the increasingly aware of its minority Christians, country, and mostly of French or position, along with the Protestants. once about Algerian nationality. Although the This has made possible a limited really massive departures lasted for number of joint activities wherever ten percent only a few months, a slow drain over Protestants and Catholics live in close the next decade or so further dimin­ proximity. In the center of Algiers, the of the ished the ranks of the community, Protestant and Catholic parishes have reminiscent of the Lord's weeding out for three or four years united their Bibie population, process at the Spring of Harod Uudges, study groups and scouting move­ now number chapter 7). Progressively, all institu­ ments. Pulpit exchanges are the rule tions were taken over by the state as rather than the exception. Joint ser­ less than Algeria was increasingly capable of vices are held several times a year, at providing services previously offered Christmas, Easter and during the week one percent.'' by the churches, leading to more of prayer for Christian unity. The departures each time. The Algerian Protestants and Catholics work out government itself eliminated some of together the program of catechism and the missions, at least organizationally, confirmation classes . In some cases, through expulsions in the earlier part Protestant children participate in of this decade. The result of all this is Catholic confirmation classes, and in that Christians, once about ten per­ others the reverse is true. The wife of cent·of the population of the country, the Protestant pastor, having no organ now number less than one percent. at her disposal in her own church, Of these, the ratio of Catholics to plays regularly in Catholic churches Protestants has remained relatively and the Anglican Church . The Protes­ constant: about 19 to 1 . tant pastor himself writes articles for Protestants, the minority within the the Catholic diocesan paper, issued minority, began to work more closely twice a month. The Lenten sacrificial together, and even to contemplate giving program is jointly conceived, closer formal ties as their numbers promoted and administered by Protes­ diminished. It seemed to make sense tants and Catholics, all funds being to move towards combining scattered pooled and distributed among jointly microscopic communities into a more selected service projects. viable minuscule community. Not all In Thenia, thirty miles to the east of theological traditions were willing to Algiers, pastoral care is an entirely take this step, of course, and in 1972, ecumenical project, involving the co­ the Mennonite, Methodist and Re­ operation of the Catholic priests and formed Churches created the Protes­ Protestant pastors in ministry to the tant Church of Algeria. Today, more French- and English-speaking com­ than two dozen national origins and as munities. many denominational traditions make In Tizi-Ouzou, bi-weekly Protestant up the regular worshipping communi­ services are held in the Catholic ty of the Protestant Church of Algeria. Chapel, and joint services are held Although French is the primary lan­ once every two months. Since there is guage used in its activities, a number no pastor in residence, day-to-day

32 [272] New World Outlook • June 1979 Jver in Algeria Hugh G . .Johnson

pastoral care of Protestants is in the hands of the Catholic community, and the pastor is kept infotmed. In Larbaa Nath lrathen, the Catholic and Methodist missions have united their efforts for some time. When there was still a Catholic school, the Meth­ odist missionary taught in the "catch­ up" program in which high school drop-outs were enrolled in two years of intensive courses permitting them to pursue their education normally. Today, the sewing and embroidery school of the White sisters is located in the Methodist Mission, and the sisters live in a Methodist missionary resi­ dence, where a small chapel has been set aside for mass. In the same residence live the Algerian Christian family responsible for Methodist mis­ sion work in the region, and adjacent to the sewing and embroidery school is the Methodist student hostel. In Constantine and Annaba, Protes­ tants and Catholics join in worship on special occasions throughout the year. In Constantine, the Methodist pastor, a German, is responsible for catechism and membership preparation of all German-speaking children, Catholic and Protestant alike. In Annaba, the Protestant women are in charge of church school classes. The Protestant community uses the Catholic chapel, and Catholics regularly participate in worship, even taking communion. In Skikda, another coastal city, ministry to expatriate Christians in company camps is carried on jointly by the pastor and the priest, who visit togeth­ er, share contacts and a place for worship. When the Methodist missionary family returned to Oran a few years ago, they were housed for a year in an apartment belonging to the Catholic diocese, and Protestant services were United Methodist missionary Herta Schreck teaches literacy in Constantine. held in the Catholic chapel. Since then, even though more adequate Christianity had spent itself out, in­ communion is more possible in some quarters in our own facilities have deed was already in its death throes places than in others, due as much to been used, the same level of coopera­ before the arrival of the Muslims from the importance of the personal ities tion among Protestants and Catholics the East in the eighth century. No one involved as to official policies. We are has continued in the Western part of wishes to see that happen a second seeking to grow together, and, togeth­ the country. time. For this reason, the emphasis in er, to grow. We are starting over. • All Christians here are aware that in Algeria is much more on the unity of the early centuries Christianity was a diverse components than it is upon flourishing enterprise in North Africa. uniformity. Differences are consid­ Dr. Hugh C . Johnson is a UM missionary in They are also cognizant of the fact that, ered less as points of division than as Algiers and a pastor of the Protestant largely due to internal dissensions, sources of mutual enrichment. Inter- Church of Algeria.

New World Outlook • June 1979 (273) 33 AT WORK I EGVPTIA VILLAGES

Photos by B. David Williams

In Egypt, the chief social action arm of the United Presbyterian related Coptic Evangelical Church is the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services (CEOSS). The tiny organization is one of the largest producers of Arabic Christian literature in the Middle East, with three magazines and a wealth of printed materials for village service work. CEOSS operates in over 50 villages and towns in literacy, health and nutrition, family planning, medical services, agricultural improvement, consciousness-raising among women, and building projects. The director of CEOSS is Mr. Samuel Habib, a journalist, and ordained minister whose main office is in Minia. The total staff has more than 40 Egyptian nationals, including Mrs. Samuel Habib, the Rev. Harith Keraissa, the Rev. Anwar Zaki, and Amir el-Tawil, who all direct various aspects of the program. Last year and next year CEOSS has been listed by UMCOR for grants totalling $35,000.

At the village of Qalandul, about 40 kilometers south of CEOSS headquarters in Minia, Mrs. Suad Abdul Malik, a family planning worker and home economist (on the right) and a visiting female physician discuss "The Best Way in Marriage" before about 50 women of all ages. The talk involved a range of interests, most of it centered around family planning.

34 [274) New World Outlook • June 1979 Qalandul is typical in its conservatism, with women considered inferior, young marriages, and very large families, with an eagerness for more sons.

The CEOSS staff relationship with the villagers struck recent visitors as impressive. There seemed to be an affection and respect going both ways. The villagers appear to support the work of CEOSS.

New World Outlook • June 1979 [275] 35 Profiles of Middle East Christians HASSAN DEHQANl-TAFTI An Iranian Bishop

Charles E. Brewster

hen the Rev . Hassan Dehqani­ more at home with an episcopal type v Tafti became the Anglican bi sh­ government than with the presbyterian sorr Wop of Iran almost 20 years ago style, a conviction not totally shared ick, some Christians in Iran expected him by members of the Eva ngelical chu to change his first name to something Church. bi sf more " Christian." In the Middle East In Design of My World, his autobi­ bee one's name is usually a fair clue to ography which he wrote for Worl d the one's religion and the name Hassan Christian Books, Bis hop Dehqani de­ leac has a distinctly Muslim sound as it is scribes a life caught between the Thr the name of one of two sons of Ali, the competing attractions of Christianity of Prophet's son in law, honored by the and Islam . He was born in the small ChL Shiite Muslims of Iran . But the bishop village ofTaft (hence his name ofTafti, Easl kept the name with which he was born a person from Taft) outside the city of E rather than switch to one which wou Id Yezd in almost the exact geographical stag be more " Christian" but less familiar center of Iran. His father was a the to Iranians. Muslim, but his mother, who died of yea Since then Bishop Dehqani, or tubercu losis when he was five, was a cou Bishop Hassan as he is generally Christian. It was her dying wish that he ren1 known, has sought to show that his be raised a Christian, a wish to which rev1 religion is just as indigenous to Iran as his father was reluctant to accede. He first his name .- Although his own church, was se nt away to sc hool, first in Yezd, lutil the Anglican Church of Iran, was and then to a Christian academy in thrc founded in the nineteenth century, Isfahan, Iran's most splendid city. At Atal Christianity itself has been in existence the age of ten, inspired by the teach­ age in Iran longer than any other faith, ings of Jesus, Pilgrim's Progress (which Ira except Judaism and Zoroastrianism . he read in Persia n tra nslation), and the mi In a land where poetry and the poet lives of Kagawa of Ja pan and Sadhu lim are universally admired, Bishop Deh­ Sundar Singh, as wel l as by an English Chr qani has established something of a woman missionary in Ira n, he decided bee reputation for poetry and for knowl­ to follow his mother and become a We edge of the Persian poets, such as Christian . hov Hafiz and Sa'adi. Several of his own That evidently was his least difficult Isla translations of the Psalms have be­ them periodically around the centers decision. Over the next decade of his up. come standard works in the hymnbook of Isfahan, Shiraz, Yezd, Kerman, the life, at school in Isfahan, Teheran, and unc used by both the Anglican Church and khuzistan area in the oil fields of Iran, then at Cambridge University in Eng­ whi the Presbyterian-rel~ted Evangelical and the capital city of Teheran. land, he fought doubt, despair and ma Church of Iran. His hymns are genu­ Bishop Dehqani has encouraged loneliness. At Teheran University, inely indigenous Persian poetry with cooperation with other Christian surrounded by sec ularism and indiffer­ p Iranian tunes, rather than translations churches in Iran, and especially with ence, he drifted into agnosticism and that of western hymns which make up the the Evangelical Church of Iran, whose sought out a veteran Presbyterian as f bu lk of the hymnbook. membership is only slightly larger than missionary who gave him straight in [ Under his leadership, the churches the Anglican Church. There has long answers to his questions. At Cam­ Chr of his small diocese, which altogether been joint work in such areas as bridge he more than once questioned but have a membership of only about evangelism programs, youth confer­ the entire missionary movement of h 2000 souls, have come entirely under ences in the summertime, literature which was " the cause of my separa­ an the direction of Iranian pastors . Gen­ projects, and Bible translations. Some tion from my own people" but he arn erally, the pastors have studied at the persons have for years been interested finally affirmed it. He also came to see the1 Theological College in Bangalore, in a possible union of these two small that he needed repentance--"repen­ Cro India. When interviewed two years evangelical churches. Although Bish­ tance from regarding myself as the and ago at his home in Isfahan the bishop op Dehqani himself expresses support center of the world . . .. How people oftl seemed proudest of the dedicated for such a plan, opinions differ as to tolerated me . . . I do not know!" This lovi leadership he has for his struggling how enthusiastic he actually is . He is was followed by a sense of God's an churches. A rotation system moves convinced that the Persian character is forgiveness and love. app 36 (276] New World Outlook • June 1979 d VICTORIA AZIZ

son, 24, has just finished medical An Egyptian school and has to join the Egyptian army for a year. 11 'Don't worry,' I told Teacher my son," she said . " 'God will take care of you and now there is hope of Connie Myer peace.' I wish I were in Cairo today to greet President Carter!" When he returned to Iran he still had Another Aziz son, 21 , who also is something of a reputation as a maver­ studying medicine, also faces com­ ick, but he became a deacon in the pulsory Army service. But their third church, married the daughter of the child, a daughter, 19, unlike Israeli bishop, and to the surprise of some women, will not have to serve . became the first Iranian to be bishop of Mrs. Aziz was interviewed in New the Anglican Church of Iran and a solid York where she lived for the past year, leader for evangelical Christianity. studying for a master of arts in special Three years ago he became President education at Teachers College of of the Central Synod of the Episcopal Columbia University. When she com­ Church in Jerusalem and the Middle pletes the degree this summer she will East. return to her teac hing position at Earlier this year Iran underwent a Ramses College in Cairo, a Presbyteri­ staggering revolution, overthrowing an-founded girls' school from kinder­ the Pahlevi dynasty and ending 2500 garten through junior college . years of monarchy. While coups and Operated by the Coptic Evangelical countercoups are common occur­ Church, the school began courses for rences in the Middle East, the Iranian mentally retarded children seven years revolution appears to have been the ago and now has 45 girls and five first genuine successful people's revo­ teachers in this special program . lution in the Middle East. (The over­ " We are the first private school in throw of the Ottomans by Kemal Egypt to have a special education Ataturk involved only a small percent­ department," Mrs. Aziz said proudly. age of the people, compared to the " The idea of starting it was the Iranian revolution .) As only a tiny church's." minority in an overwhelmingly Mus­ Raised in an American mission lim land, during a Muslim revolution er black eyes alight with an school-at Tanta between Alexandria Christian churches have necessarily expression of longing, Mrs. and Cairo-Mrs. Aziz originally took been pretty much on the sidelines. HVictoria Aziz leaned forward kindergarten training after high Western observers have wondered in her chair. " You don't know the joy school. he taught in the same school how Christians will be affected by the in the hearts of all wives and mothers for three years during which time she Islamic Government which is shaping in Egypt at the thought of peace. met her future husband at a church up. No one doubts that these are I-and all mothers-were down in the conference. After going together for a uncertain times in Iran, times for streets when President Sadat came year, they were married in 1952 and which uncommon leadership is de­ back from his visit to Israel. We are he, a young pastor, was assigned to a manded. tired of sacrificing our sons and church in Upper Egypt. hu sbands to war. " With obvious happy memories in Perhaps it is " for such a time as this" Mrs. Aziz, a special education her voice and manner, Mrs. Aziz that God has raised up Christians such teacher who is active in the Coptic described those 10 years at Balyane as Hassan Dehqan i-Tafti . As he wrote Evangelical (Presbyterian) Church of Church. " I helped to educate the in Design of My World: " The heart of Egypt, reflected the words of President youth in literacy. I taught the girls Christianity is the Cross of Jesus Christ; Carter who, on the same day that she needlework and sewing so they could but this Cross is often hidden in clouds spoke, visited Cairo. In remarks fol­ do handiwork to earn themselves of hatred, suspicion, hardness of heart lowing hi s entry into the city, the some money. I remember we began to and pride, which prevail in the world President cited the hunger for peace he celebrate Mother's Day in the church among the sons of men. To dispel saw in the eyes of women who were in the American way and the ch ildren these clouds, and disclose the real among those lining the streets to watch were so happy to be able to make Cross, calls for more than preaching him. something to gi ve to thei r mothers. and teaching. It demands the bearing Mrs. Aziz and her husband, the Rev . Later on, the Egyptian government of the Cross in daily life. This is to goon Fahim Aziz, dean of the Evangelical established a Mother's Day on March loving when love seems impossible, Seminary in Cairo, have three chil­ 21 , but our children still wanted to and working when no result yet dren-two of them sons . The oldest (Continued on next page) appears ." • New World Outlook • June 1979 [277) 37 ''All religions are free at the present time and KAREKIN I we live in peace together.''

(Continued from page 37) many villages. The church operates a s soon as one steps through reven celebrate it the old way." youth camp in Alexandria where the large, open door of the How Pressed into proving her versatility, families come for summer Bible study Armenian Orthodox Catholi- small A ago, the young woman, who also was and relaxation. cosate of Cilicia in Antelias, Lebanon, ra ising her own children at the time, How is it to be a minority Christian one senses the power of history. To the ty.10Y 1 produced Biblical dramas in the in a majority Muslim nation such as right the tall Cathedral of Saint Gregory a pea church. " It was a way of helping the Egypt? " We feel that we worship God the llluminator stands out boldly, as if "Tl older people, who couldn't read , to and that they do, too," Mrs. Aziz carved from a now vanished moun­ derna know the Bible stories." She also had a replied . " We don't feel a rivalry. In tain . A wide stone terrace spreads out the c choir. In on ly her second week at Egypt, all religions are free at the before it and across to the left an sirnpl Ba lyane, church members collected present time and we live in peace equally striking building, the Patriar­ learni enough money for a piano and sent to together. We like each other. Three­ chal Residence, cuts into view. This is Kar Cairo for it. " I'd had piano at school," fourths of our students at Ramses are where His Holiness, Coadjutor-Cath­ he cc M rs. Aziz explained. " My training Moslems." olicos Karekin II works. It is there, sionc course was a big help to me, both in Mrs. Aziz added that she didn't during the morning hours, that he ceren church work, and in bringing up my think the Islamic revolution in Iran will receives visitors. and · own children." Among her skills are affect Egypt. " Our government will not Karekin II was elected to his post, as Orthc writing for children. She has written a go that way, of an extreme Islamic head of his ancient church, over two his pt story for retarded children which is to state. The Shiites (a minority branch of years ago on May 22 , 1977. At the al l. T be published by a church publishing the Muslim faith) aren't as strong in time Lebanon was just coming out of will I company in Cairo. Egypt as they are in Iran . We are the first round of a civil war, and failun " Last year we had a big workshop happy. Christians are liked in Egypt." although uncertain, the future seemed "I on children's stories for International She recalled that some professors at a I ittle brighter than the previous farnil) Year of the Child," she said. " I insisted the Islamic Al Azhar University in twenty months. In his consecration first 1 on doing something for the retarded ." Cairo did Old Testament research in sermon the Catholicos said, " I feel it is cours1 Since her husband, who attended the Evangelical Seminary library and a primary task for me as for any the er Louisvi lle Seminary in the U.S., has had read her husband's book, " The religious leader to work for the consol­ nature been at the Evangelical Seminary, the Kingdom of God." idation of peace and the re-creation of is thE couple have lived on the campus and While missing her family, Mrs. Aziz that image of Lebanon which shined irnpor Mrs. Aziz was the first woman to has found much to enjoy in her year in forth as a source of joy to all the people Inc graduate from the seminary's evening the United States. There are shared within or outside ... " Since then, to a does school. Then, with her bachelor of dinners--"sometimes I cook Egyptian nation still bound in knots by the fear tion 1 theology degree, she taught Bible to food, then someone makes Chinese or of armed hostile political factions, eccle! Christian students at Ramses College. other kinds" -with fellow women these words have remained a goal. speak Besides all this, she has been active in students at her Teachers College dor­ Last October a week of heavy rene11 the women's organization of the Evan­ mitory. She's traveled to visit former shelling on the Armenian quarter of youn~ gelical Church. Presbyterian missionary friends and Bourj Hammoud in Beirut did heavy its tra1 "We have programs for women teachers and she's tutoring an Ameri­ damage to its community of approxi­ one 1 every month led by a woman. We can woman in Arabic. mately 80,000. (Armenians have offi­ Arme1 have a thanksgivi(lg day when we One thing she hasn't done was go to cially maintained their neutrality suppc collect money for the churches. We see the King Tut exhibit which was throughout the war and political lead­ traditi visit orphanages. We have a monthly open to sold-out crowds last winter ers have tirelessly sought for a com­ Karek magazine, edited by a woman. I used and spring in New York. "I saw it in the promise solution among the various dogm to write the Bible study in it. It also has Egyptian Museum in Cairo," she said warring parties) . That same month the churc a children's and youth section. Our with a smile, "though I understand that Armenian statue to its martyrs, many of semin women's group also is planning to here it is shown with many lights and is whom perished during the Turkish progr; build a home for elderly people in very appealing." massacres of 1915, was dynamited in choirr Cairo." When she returns to her homeland, nearby Bikfaye. There could not have organ W ith 25 ,000 members and 200 she says she hopes to not only find been a more effective target. The versi~ pastors, the Evangelical Church is the peace but also increased prosperity, as statue represented years of national and y1 thi rd largest Christian church in Egypt Egypt is able to divert resources from Christian suffering and hope at the andsc after the Coptic Orthodox and Catho- war into improving the lives of its same time. maint. 1ic . There are twenty-five congrega­ lion i! people. • The Trials of a Peace Seeker tions in Cairo and large congregations giving in other cities--Alexandria, Luxor, Ms. Myer is senior staff w riter for Interpre­ So during the last two years, since can no Minia, Assi ut and Sohag, as wel l as in tive Se rvices, Board of G lobal M inistries. his election, Karekin II has been living herita1 in a country filled with hatred and intact:

38 [278] New World Outlook • June 1979 Head of an Ancient Church in Lebanon Dickinson Miller

revenge. Clearly the end is not in sight. How does this quiet man, born in a small Syrian village some 47 years ago, respond? What does the trial of two years of civi I war do to the ideals of a peace seeker? "The leadership role has been more demanding than I imagined-both for the clergy and the laity," he says simply. I think this is what I have learned over the recent months." Karekin talks a great deal about what he calls the " people-oriented" mis­ sion of the church. For him, despite the ceremonious solemnity of his office and the liturgical formality of the Orthodox tradition, it is contact with his people that concerns him most of all. To a certain degree he feels this will be the mark of his success or failure in office. "I was brought up in a religious family and it was in the family where I first experienced Christian life. Of course we lived near the church and the church school. Christian life was a natural part of the daily routine ... It is the family. The family is most renewed. "We cannot tolerate seeing their leader for signs of strength. They important. " the ancient tradition become like a wonder what is going to happen next. In characteristic modesty Karekin II swamp. What we are aiming at is a Will everything be all right? Can we be does not mention his Oxford educa­ well-circulated lake." sure? tion or the other trappings of his Social Upheaval Sitting in the midst of his book-lined ecclesiastical office. More often he office, his gent le eyes probing speaks about the local projects of Still it is within the confines of social thoughtfully into the day's light, the renewal and his efforts to bring the upheaval that Karekin II must plan for answer would be a reassuring yes . But young Armenian community closer to such activity. A great deal of his time is outside somewhere in the distance the its tradition. In the past this has been spent organizing relief and recon­ ominous sound of a gunshot can be one of the main functions of the struction programs in coordination heard . It reminds one that peace is Armenian Orthodox Church; it has with other church and secular welfare even further beyond, and it is this supported the literary and scholarly agencies. The Central Armenian disturbing thought which rests heavily tradition of Armenian culture. When Committee for Social and Economic on Karekin's shoulders. For try as he Karekin II is not teaching courses in Rehabilitation in Lebanon, of which has, his people have suffered during dogmatic theology and Armenian the Catholicos is the President, has his term ofoffice. Life has been made church history, he is busy organizing overseen the repair of damaged more difficult and less comfortable. seminars and lectures in an extension schools, supplied tuition costs to " The spirit of endurance," he finally program for Sunday school teachers, children cut off from government answers. " You know this is a particu­ choirmasters, and various Christian subsidies suspended during the war, larly Armenian thing. Great nations organizations like the Armenian Uni­ and helped to fund house repairs and have come and gone, but we have versity Students Association. Tradition the purchase of emergency food sup­ endured. Somehow we have managed and youth are foremost in his thoughts plies. It is a difficult time for the to make it through ." and so is the need for trained leaders to minority Armenian community in Leb­ It is hard to think of a more human maintain such contacts. For him tradi­ anon. It is difficult not just physically, reply. • tion is empty without the new, life­ but spiritually as well. giving elements. He explains that one Karekin II says that the Armenians of cannot just preserve the Armenian Lebanon are here to stay. The 200-odd heritage by sheer keeping of the old thousand population, the majority of Dickinson Miller is an intern serving with intact. The old should be constantly which is Orthodox Armenian, look to th e Middle Eas t Council of Churches .

New World Outlook • June 1979 (279] 39 an one write about women's church work in the Middle East Ctoday without glancing at all the WOMEN'S miseries and the outcome of aggres­ Houda sion, oppression and war? Zacca In my country, Lebanon, one third CHURCH WORK of the population, roughly one mil­ lion, have been displaced at least once since 1975. Between 80,000 and 100,000 people were killed according to sources from different areas . Exact THE figures are not known; they will never Holn be known. Two hundred thousand 212 people are estimated to be wounded, mutilated, or physically injured. A Everything is needed . Nothing is 1he n enough . When you talk to people, pora1 they tell you, "We want back our regul whio homes, our dead sons, our husbands, with [ work. " And women end by asking for andf jobs, according to their capacities, and affair it is mostly in housework. expI< What can the Church do for women, newI as well as men and children, in thou Lebanon and in all the other Middle fai th Eastern countries where Christians and live? Pa St. Anthony the Great, one of the their churches and societies and de­ takes English for the benefit of Christians Profe Early Fathers of the Eastern Church, picting thei r needs accordingly. After abroad . Our second effort was direct­ Sc ho said, "I have prayed for you, that you, several travels in the region, meetin gs ed toward our neighbors. This was to Kier\ too, may be granted that great Spirit of and discussions, it was decided that find out women's status in civil law, ofth [ fire, whom I have received. If you wish the needs lie in three fields: women in which is affected by the Islamic law he c to receive Him, so that He dwells in church life, women in civil laws, (the Shari'a). Every church has, in the qu e~ you, first offer physical labors and women in development. Traditional­ Middle East, its own courts and its own humility of heart and , lifting your ly, women's work in the area was laws, but being minorities, Christians thoughts to heaven day and night, seek mostly in preparing yearly bazaars, have to abide by the Muslim law if any ~l his Spirit of fire with a righteous visiting the sick and helping the poor. problem arises in intermarriages, in­ bibli heart-and He will be given unto Some women's societies were also heritances, etc. Mostly, we found out hold! beco you .. .. Remain in prayer, seeking concerned in starti ng medical centers that women did not know where they theol most arduously with your whole and in teaching in Sunday schools. stood . A study on this topic is being fa ith heart-and you will be given. For this Very few women were highly educat­ prepared now and will be printed in Chri, Spirit resides in righteous hearts. And ed theological ly or cared to write any Arabic for the use of churches and Th when He is received, He will reveal to books. Christian women in the region . heo1 you the highest mysteries, will banish The Women's Program in the Mid­ Our third interest was women in and from you the fear of man or beast, and dle East Council of Churches named development, which we have already The heavenly joy will be yours day and six committee members in the region, started implementing by setting up desc night, so that you will be in his body who started also subcommittees for workshops in different areas, such as who like those who are already in the women in their churches. Women sewing, embroidery, iconography, genL virtu kingdom." · represented are Orthodox, Evan gel i­ typing, shorthand, flower arrange­ one " First offer physical labors and ments or whatever is useful for the cal , Anglican, Armenian, Syriac and Si1 humility of heart, lifting your thoughts Copts. local market. ist o to heaven day and night. And remain As we started this program we had to Needless to say, the monthly meet­ "Go in prayer." Physical labor and prayer assure our church leaders that our ings and lectures between women of li ves are what we can do to achieve main goa l was not creating a women's all the member churches deepen their plao serenity, happiness and the Spirit. That liberation movement, but to help ardent search for themselves in their WO r! was, and still is, the basic life of the women feel their presence in church faith . In all this we seek His face, of fa Middle East Council of Churches and life, hand in hand with men as also in because the goal for the Christian is muc all its departments and programs. It is society. union with God in Love. Love which as th also the aim of a Women's Program We deepened our consciousness in actually unites the soul to the powers Whi1 church life by studying our roots and of God as it seeks by the inward sense God started in 1977 in the search for a disp spiritual and social identity for Chris­ seeing how women appeared in the the One who is invisible. • God tian women in their churches and Old Testament, New Testament, H societies. canon law traditions and comparative Houda Zacca is director of the Women 's clari The program began by trying to liturgies. Our first book, recently Program of the Middle Eas t Council of tow discover the actual statu s of women in published, will be translated into Churches. ofm 40 (280) New World Outlook • June 1979 J make a point and to discredit opposing repressed people" (to keep the symmetry views he does injustice to his opponents. of the " r's"), or Dr. Manas Buthelezi , an Once he permits himself to suggest that African in South Africa, for "evangelizing philosophers of late have focused upon rac ist people." These perspectives, ap­ " meaning" out of their characteristic bent plied to the United States , would have to " thrash about" looki ng for something to brought more of an emphasis on the do. im portance of the social context and the This reader wishes it were poss ible for social issues within which the Christian Holmer to establish the personal and church must .seek not only to grow but to practical nature of theology without sug­ witness to the faith . gesting, as he seems at times to do, that Dr. Hunter seems to accept the " homo­ theology is an ind ividualistic enterprise geneous unit" princ i ple of Dr . THE GRAMMAR OF FAITH, by Paul L. with orly minimal ties to history. McGavran-which is the opposite of Holmer. New York 1978: Harper & Row, To the great credit of the author, magnetism for it believes that like attracts 212 pages, $10.00 however, theology emerges from these like. This involves classifying " the domi­ pages not as an interesting body of nant H.U.s (homogeneous units) of your A common theme of theology books is speculation to be carried on in academic visitors and new converts" and then the rupture between faith and our contem­ hal Is , but as the language of conviction and reaching out to similar people in your area . porary view of the world. Theologians belief of everyday people in their daily Th is principle has come under much regularly remind us of the secularism living. The language of theology is not the well-deserved criticism in many areas . I which marks our time and the infrequency arid proposition but the imaginative meta­ doubt Lord Soper would have anything to with which questions of God, faith, heaven phor and parable which is of practical do with it. One reason there are so many and hope are raised in the normal round of significance for the manner in which one " resistant" people in Britain today is that affairs. Often these theologians set out to lives life. If Holmer is able to focus they perceive the Church already operat­ explain these theological terms through theological discussion upon the task of ing too much on homogeneous li nes . new concepts or theories which are helping people to believe and to be more At another point Dr. Hunter lauds the thought to be both more faithful to historic faithful, then by that measure alone the Southern Baptists of Texas for commis­ faith and more credible to modern men book will be worth y of continuing acclaim sioning a thousand lay people to start a and women. and serious study. thousand churches in Braz il by 1983. Paul Holmer's The Grammar of Faith Neal F. Fisher Doubtless, as Dr. Hunter says, the Texas takes quite a different approach. Holmer, churches will grow as a by-product, but Professor of Theology at Yale Divi nity w hat about the churches in Braz il? Is such School, is an expert on the thought of Soren Dr. Fisher is a faculty member of the an invasion of North Americans the best Kierkegaard, and he reflects the influence Boston University School of Theology and sort of thing for Braz il? And what kind of of this 19th century Dan ish ph ilosopher as formerly was a staff member of BOGM's churches will those be in Braz il? The he outlines his own approach to the National Division. by-product-church growth in Texas--is question of faith today. in danger of becoming more important that The author's contention throughout the the product, the growth of a genuinely book is that theology is intensely personal THE CONTAGIOUS CONGREGATION, ind igeneous church in Brazil. and practical. We should come to the Frontiers in Evangelism and Church Despite these criticisms, I believe this biblical and theological tradition, he Growth, by George G. Hunter, Ill. Nash­ little book serves a definite need . Dr. holds, not to satisfy our curiosity but to ville, 1979: Abingdon Press, 151 pages, Hunter, who is Secretary for Evangelism for become more worthy. The purpose of $4.95. the United Methodist Board of Disciple­ theology is not to discover the "what" of ship, is someone whose life is committed faith but the " how" of becoming a This book puts evangelism prec isely to telling others the Good News. His Christian. where it be longs--not on the shoulders of enthusiasm comes through clearly. At one The student learns grammar in order that solitary individuals or television personali­ point he and I definitely part company. He he or she can incorporate nouns and ve rbs ties but on congregations which are alive to says he met a young person in an airport and syntax into effective communication. their mission and actively concerned to who was evangel izing for a non-Christian The rules of grammar are discovered by grow. Th is is not simply a plea that group. He told her that while she now describing the patterns followed by people Christians shou ld do more evangelizing fo und this religion satisfying there would who write or speak well. When grammar is but a detailed set of strategies which probably come a ti me when she wou Id find genuinely learned, it forms a part of the ordinary congregations should be it empty. When that time came , he said, if virtually subconscious patterns by which equipped to carry out. she wished she could telephone him­ one speaks and writes. The format of the book is bu i It around a collect. Now that's what I call commit- Similarly, to study the Bible or theology discussion of the thought of two men to ment. is to learn of the manner in which the word whom the book is dedicated-Donald C.E.B. " God" is used by those w ho live Godly Soper and Donald McGavran. Dr. Hunter lives. To be introduced to theology is to be is probably the only one who has ever AVAILABLE FOR YOUR NEXT placed in those contexts in which the thought of putting these widely divergent LOCAl. PROJECT OR PROMOTION words of faith come alive. When the terms personalities together. Lord Soper, the THE EXCITING This Is Not A Kit HALF SCALE of faith lose their significance it is r.ot so oft-controversial English socialist and much that we are bereft of their definitions street-comer evangelist, is a model for TIN LIZZIE as that we have lost the practice of I ife with " preevangelizing resistant people." Don­ 68 Inches Long which they are associated . Knowledge of ald McGavran, the California-based foun­ l H.P. Engine God requ ires that we align our wills, der of the Church Growth movement, is a 00 dispositions , and hearts to God. " To know model for " evangelizing receptive peo­ '689 God requires that we become 'Godly'." ple ." WRITE FOR OUR FREE BROCHURE Holmer's book is written with disarming Hunter's approach would have been Freeway Distributing Co. clarity and boldness. The reader will want greatly helped if he had added one or two Phone: 612/763-3204 to write exclamation points in the margins other models, suc h as, for instance, Box 936 • Alexandria, Minnesota 56308 of many pages. Occasionally in his zeal to Uruguay's Emilio Castro for " evangelizing

New World Outlook • June 1979 (281] 41 articles on Peace in the world. If the mothers want to do so meth ing for Peace they better organize the world over. Mrs. Ralph Hartley Resource Marathon, Iowa UPDATE ON INDUSTRIAL MISSION I have enjoyed New World Outlook from its inception as one of the best media fUIJ for staying in touch with U.S. church life, never more so than through the poignant LETTERS article by Jim Campbell and Betty Howit­ so n on the demise of the Industrial Missions (February issue). FORTY YEARS IN MISSION As a founder of the Puerto Rico Industrial Thank you for your stimulating maga­ Mission and later national staff person in zine on mission work around the world. the U.S. relating to the projects and the Since we spent 40 years in mission work ill-fated National Industrial Mission, I am our hearts will always be in it. deeply aware of the subtle corporate Thanks and God bless your good work. factors which undermined the mission Paul and Anne Winn efforts and to a large degree co-opted Grove City, Pa . them, in most cases against the better judgment of the staff. It would be interest­ VERY INFORMATIVE ing to know whether the Howitson survey appreciated reading the New World revealed any deeper evaluation or analy­ Outlook. The news items and articles are sis. Paradise and Faramelli who worked very informative. I especially appreciated together probably have the best insights the updates on work among our Pacific from the larger point of view. Nader came Islanders in the Pacific Southwest Confer­ and DIM, the oldest and best in so many ence and in the Salt Lake City region . ways, went. can Roy I. Sano On the other hand, the article fai Is to ecu Pacific School of Rel igion recognize successors, if not direct offspring Class Devotions of a Berkeley, California of the industrial mission model, one of the For Use with the 1979-80 most successful of which is surely the International Lessons FOR TH E UNITED NATIONS corporate responsibility movement in its Class devotions by Harold L. Fair I am enclosing a check for the World various forms. The basic issues are all still enhance and supplement the lessons of Outlook for another year. I am surprised to there as the Harrisb urg nuclear disaster has The ILA . $3.95, paper look through your last number fo r March graphically demonstrated, and the ques­ and I don't see one word about bringing tion still is posed , " Does the Church "A very helpful little book . .. ideal for peace to the world. We know that the explicitly address them in terms of mis­ its purpose."-DENVER POST United Nations was not even mentioned in sion?" the response or your magazine lately at all. (Rev .) Thomas M. Anthony The International Lesson And when it was first organized all the Director, National and World Program a magazines had articles in every edition. The Anglican Church of Canada Annual, f979-80 "11 We know that the League of Nations was Toronto, Ontario A Comprehensive Commentary on 1he not even ratified by the United States and WHAT ABOUT TOWN AND COUNTRY? the International Sunday School L.S the excuse was that it did or cou Id not work I have just been reading the annual Lessons WO out. And the reason was we never signed it. report for 1978 of New World Outlook. In The ILA celebrates its twenty-fifth But when the United Nations was orga­ the section under National Division (Parish year in print with this special silver ol nized we were the first to sign .• The Ministries) I find no mention of the office of anniversary edition. The step-by-step on magazines all had worked so hard to make town and country ministries. Have they lesson plans cover each Sunday from plis the organization work this time, then later done nothing in 1978? I hardly think so. September, 1979, through August, nu , discarded it just like they did the League of What about the conference that they had 1980. Edited by Horace R. Weaver. era Nations, although it has always carried on for fa rmers? While ethnic and language Lesson analysis by Charles M. Laymon. goi the children's UNICEF and some other ministries are important, so are town and $4.50, paper IQ th ings . Now they have the chance again to country ministries . Cli carry on with the United Nations. I have (Rev .) C. David Hogsett Yearbook of American job not seen anything in the magazines to Rensselaer, Indiana and Canadian Churches, pro make me think we are interested any more Ii in the U .N. 1979 ~O«'r eh.tird Now in its 64th year of publication, We know one time a lady by the name of 'Put«1te ha this popular reference includes a Dorothy Thompson wanted to organize the L 7ite l °" twet, statistical and historical section. Edited by mothers of the world for peace but it was Anlllble in th Constant H. Jacquet, Jr. . $12.95, paper turned down and did not get anywhere. I white Of bl.... &" tile or white le think it is past time for the women to I" round tile. Co "It offers a storehouse of organize for peace the world over. Why • Minimum order cu 60 tile. information. " -BOOKSTORE JOURNAL don't they wake up? As far as peace is •W• eho m•• rn photo pl-. concerned I don't even hear it mentioned. le ptint note We listen to the radio and T. V. but they ...... R don't even mention peace. Their topics are Chufdl BulietiM, Pmt Ce'* • Christ- C... FREE SA•LES AND in~ far removed . They can criticize a lot but ILLUSTRATED LITERATURE · Write: I that does not help. In taking the New PRESTON-HOPKINSON CO. ec, World Outlook I would like to see some Dept. NW, Appomattox, Virginia 24522 of 42 (282] New World Outlook• June 1979 THE llOYIMG FINGER WRITEStr

18 MISSION INTERNS RETURN TO THE U.S.

When Mark Harrison of Prince Georges County, Md. went to the southern Africa nation of Botswana to work for its counci l of churches, " I was immediatel y recog­ nized as a black American by my big hair," he said, patting his Afro. " But I was greeted as a soul brother come home." On the other hand Deborah Huntington of New York City recalls occasionally being taunted as an " imperialista" when she walked down the street in the Domini­ ca n Republic, where she worked with an ecumenical agency researching the impact Left to right, Miss ion Interns Ma rk Harriso n, Deborah Huntington, Norman Fong. of agribusiness on hunger. Whatever their reception abroad-and working with U .S. campus ministries, poverty and malnutrition in Th ird World for most it was favorable-the 18 M ission local churches , seminar groups and such countries and of the oppression of South Interns express enthusiasm about the ir organizations as Bread for the World and American Indians and other ind igenous program, an experiment of the World the Interfaith Center for Corporate Respon ­ peoples. Church and community volun­ Division of the Board of Global Ministries sibility. teers are struggl ing val iantly in every designed to foster Christian leadership and The Mission Intern program w as mod­ country to improve conditions, they re­ link groups at home and abroad in eled in part on the interdenominational ported: running soup kitchens in Chile, common mission. Frontier Intern program of work/stud y aiding refugees in southern Africa , orga­ " I didn't want to be a traditional abroad , according to Ruth Harris, a staff nizing slum dwellers in Hong Kong. But, as miss ionary, but th is program has been member of the World Divi sion who helped in the U.S., noted the Rev. El yn Macinnis, absolutely great! " beamed 26-year-old in itiate the program. " But we found that w ife of Peter, who worked with an Ms . Huntington. After 15 months abroad , the overseas experience of Frontier Interns anti-pollution citizens movement in Japan , she and her companions returned to the was often lost on their return to th is acti vists are a minority because " most U.S. early in 1979 to do education and country," she said . " The M ission Interns peop le feel helpless and hopeless to deal work here for a year. have the built-in ability to share with the with the la rge issues ." This first sizeable group of young (the church at home. " Stating they were " overw helmed but not oldest is 30) missionaries in some years is, A key way the Mission Intern s are defeated" by their experiences, the Interns on the whole, articulate and accom­ shari ng is through teach ing the 1979 agreed w ith Norman Fong from San plished . Four have attended seminary, a mission study, " Human Rights and the Francisco who had worked in Hong Kong : number have done graduate studies, sev­ International Order." A supplementary " We've seen a lot of suffering and known eral had fluency in languages even before resource for that stud y is a book they have pain. But we're a people of the Cross and going abroad (the-Rev . Peter Macinnis, the compiled, " Principalities and Powers and the Cross means not on ly death but life." son of missionary parents, speaks both People" (available for $2 .50 from the Echoing " trad itional" missionaries, the Chinese and Japanese). Some of them had Service Center). group acknowledged they had " gotten jobs before joining the Mission Intern At a human rights se minar th ey hosted more than they had gi ven " during the ir program ranging from teacher to Congres­ shortly after their return to the U.S. the overseas assignments . " That's certainly sional aide to church agency employees. Missi on Interns maintai ned that in most of true for me ," piped up Mr. Fong. " I met my Their assignments abroad and at home Asi a, Africa and Latin America, Presi dent w ife while working in a re settlement have generally dovetailed. For example, Carter's human rights policy has ' effected village in Hong Kong. " Larry Ekin , from Mattoon, Ill. , worked with little more than cos metic changes in Sa id Ed ith Robin son, who worked w ith th e Middle East Counci l of Churcnes in undemocratic regimes and is widely per­ the Student Christia n Movement in India Lebanon and the Ameri can Fri end s Service ceived as a sham. Th e prac tices of U.S. and and Paki stan , " My co mm itment to soci al Committee legal aid office in Jeru sal em; multinational corporations abroa d under­ justi ce and my faith have bee n strength­ currently he is providing leadership for the cut the rh etori c of ri ghts, they co ntend ed. ened . Our mi ssio n starts now," she added, mission study on th e Middle Ea st and Mark Harri so n sai d that mu ltinati onal as she head ed for Pittsburgh, there to se rving as a staff person for the Middle Ea st corporations buttress th e w hite suprema­ develop hunger ed ucat ion programs fo r Research and Information Proj ec t in W as h­ cist government of South Africa at the same yo uth as a member of the Unive rsity and ington, D.C. time the U. S. voices support fo r black Ci ty Ministri es tea m. Research on hunger and political and majority rule th ere. The W orld Division is evaluating the economic issues was undertaken by most Drawing on th eir observati ons, the M ission Intern program th is month (Ju ne). of the M iss ion Intern s, who are now Miss ion Inte rn s to ld movi ng stories of A seco nd intern program is tentativel y

New World Outlook • June 1979 [283] 43 scheduled for 1980, depending on the n assessment of the fi rst program and the Relf (QUI availabi lity of fund s (s upport for each lutio intern costs $7 ,500 a year). • hold -ELLEN C LARK Brist "U NPRECEDENTED OPPORTUNITY" ucts FOR CHRISTIAN CHINA WITNESS men Al per I Anglican Bishop K. H. Ting, head of the Unit Nanking Theological College, says that in !CCI Ch ina today " the opportunities for Chris­ infar tian w itness is unprecedented ." Tc He made the statement in a recent interview with the Rev . Eero Saarinen , a Unit Finn ish Lutheran pastor, who was touring !CCI 1 the People's Republic of China . A report of ati the interview was released here by the sion Information Service of the Lutheran World und1 Federation. Ang Bishop Ting said the theological college soul has now become the Center for Religious Ken! Studies of Nanking University. " The op­ Sou portunity for making a Christian w itness T among the intellectuals and academ ics is THOUSANDS Of CAMBODIANS SEEK SANCTUARY IN THAILAND qu quite unprecedented," he declared . " We ba~ are going to give lectures on Christianity to Kud Pai , Thailand-Cambodian civilians and soldiers cross the border into Thailand on an the students of philosophy and history. bike and foot on Apr. 22 , as they seek sanctuary from advancing Vietnamese forces and And in May we are going to give a lecture Cambodians loyal to the Vietnam-dominated regime of Heng Sam rin . to the whole University community on the Between 20 ,000 to 50,000 Cambod ian s have reportedl y entered into neutral Thailand subject: The Christian Reason for the recently-many of them only changing positions, while others seek temporary refuge or Existence of God. " replenish food stocks before reentering their homeland. Noting that he did not mean to imply Thai policy on the delicate political and military problems posed by the turn-about "that our non-Christian friends are so very refugees , requires that the situation be hand led by their own forces, without the assistance eager to listen to us, " Bishop Ting added of international organization and without foreign journalists and observers in the border that " for us to be part of the university gives area . (RNS) us a tremendous opportunity and responsi­ bility to witness. " UM BISHOP SUPPORTS Mr. Torres also urged the demonstrators aoo The Christian educator, who served on ANTI-NUCLEAR FORCES to " be open to God's strengthening, to M the staff of the World Council of Churches speak truth to power, and to call govern­ we in Geneva in the early 1950s, reported that More than 6,000 people including ments and churches out from under the res " some students and some teachers are clergy leaders participated in an anti-nu­ nuclear shroud that threatens our covenant ready to consider and inquire into the clear demonstration at Limerick, Pa. , w ith Christ. " I Co validity of the Christian faith ." demanding an immediate halt to the In his open letter, Bis hop Ault said that ac He noted that that afternoon he was nuclear power plant under co nstruction " for six days the health and safety of div planning to meet "with some of my student there . approximately three quarter mill ion peo­ lno friends about what St. Paul meant when he United Methodist Bishop James A. Ault ple were placed in jeopardy" following the sa id, 'The good that I want to do I fail to do of Eastern Pennsylvania, in an open letter accident at the Three Mi le Island reactor, th and that which I don't want to do I do."' addressed to President Carter and read at an installation similar to that under con­ wr to Bishop Ting commented that " what that the rally, recalled the recent accident at struction in Limerick. meant led St. Paul to acknowledge Christ Th ree Mile Island . He said " the Nuclear The United Methodist Church has ques­ ad crucified. I felt that this situation described Regulatory Commission was generally tioned the ab ility of the U.S. to safely by Paul is common to all-and Commu­ confused as to what to do." manage its growing nu clear power and :~ nists are no exception. I feel that my young Th e Rev . Robert Moore, a Lutheran wastes from it. A 1976 resolution adopted friends are willing to consider it and they minister and national secretary of the by the national general conference cal Is for in said they wanted to check some more. " Philadelphia-based Mobilization for Sur­ the federa l government to " discontinue its A Describing other work being carried on vival, declared that " To build a nuclear­ su pport of nuclear fission reactor research q at the theological college, the educator power plant is a sin , and to build a nuclear and development, and instead focus upon rnc said, " We are translating and going to use a weapon is a sin ." non-nuclear energy alternatives, suc h as new translation of the Bible. If there Inviti ng those present to join hand s, he so lar power." (RNS) weren't a cultural revolution that wouldn't led them in a resounding pledge, " We here SU INFANT FORMULA CRITICS have been possible. It is in the modern choose life that we and our children may rn EXPAND CONCERN TO U.S. Chinese language and is going to be have life." to printed r.orizontally, which is the present The Limerick rally, sponsored by the Critics of infant formula promotion in the to Chinese way." Keystone Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Phila­ Third World have turned their attention to Bishop Ting commented that joining delphia, reportedly drew the largest crowd its sale in the United States . th · Nanking University has given the college a to date in Pennsylvania for an anti-nuclear Preparation of the powdered formula in co great opportunity for Christian research demonstration. The open letter from Bish­ unsanitary conditions by poor fami I ies ca n and witness. " If we didn't join Nanking op Ault was read by Ray Torres , a lay lead to malnutrition and disease as much in University," he said , " we would be rather leader at Calvary United Methodist Ch urch an American ghetto or on an Ind ia n 0 isolated, having no opportunity to meet the here and a spokesma n for the Keystone reservation as in a Brazi lian slum , they to intellectuals." (RNS) Alliance. claim. in

44 [284] New World Outlook • June 1979 The Interfaith Center for Corporate proposal for the questionnaire project. hospital and legi slative policy are excel­ Responsibility, affiliated w ith the National " Because of the unhygienic conditions lent, implementing these recommenda­ Counci I of Churches; has sponsored reso­ that prevail, it is virtuall y impossible to tions will be extremely difficult because lutions through members before stock­ prepare a sterile formula and bottle-fed they go against entrenched hospital rou­ holders' meetings of Abbott Laboratories, infants often become malnourished, devel­ tines , traditional med ical education and Bristol-Myers and American Home Prod­ op diarrhea and malabsorption, and are economic interests that favor bottle-feed­ ucts Corp., this spring asking for establish­ plagued with respiratory infections. As a ing. ment of infant formula review committees. result of a paucity of medical facilities " The findings of this study will combine Abbott and Bristo l-Myers account for 90 many thousands of infants die of what are empirical d.ata on infant feeding practices per cent of the infant formula sales in the virtually completely preventable condi­ and the forces that shape them with United States, points out Leah Margulies, tions . sociological information about the condi­ ICCR staff member who coordinates the " To some degree, the same processes tions in which low-income Americans live. infa nt formula campaign . may be occurring in the U.S., but no one This powerful combination has the poten­ To determine infant formula use in the has taken a close look at the factors tial for moving both public opinion and United States , Miss Margulies said , the involved .... It is hypothesized that many policy makers in ways that med ical re­ ICCR and two other agencies of the of these families, because of limited search alone may not achieve. The study National Council of Churches commis­ education and restricted budgets and the will have implications for federal food sioned a study of 1,500 mothers of infants lack of access to adequate health care , may programs, health protection legislation, under the age of one in six areas: Los suffer a variety of health problems directly daily hospital practice, community-based Angeles, San Antonio, central Mississippi , associated with their socio-economic nutrition and medical education. It will south central North Carolina, eastern conditions, which in turn may affect their also provide new directions for urgently Kentucky, and Pine Ridge Reservation in infant feeding practices." needed research ." South Dakota . " This study is particularly timely," the (RNS ) The mothers were asked a broad range of proposal concludes. " In October 1978, questions about feeding practices, their the American Academy of Pediatrics is­ WOMEN'S DIVISION FIRES babies' health and care, and the economic sued a report recommendi ng that virtually HOMOSEXUAL STAFF MEMBER and health conditions of their families. every infant be exclusively brea st-fed for The Women's Division, by a vote of 40 The data are undergoing computer the first four to six months of life . Although to 13 (1 abstention), reversed itself and analysis at the Center for Disease Control, the report's recommendations directed at terminated the employment of Joan Clark a U.S. government agency in Atlanta, Ga . Results of the study are expected in June or July. The project has upset the Abbott firm , Help Them Catch Up. who, the ICCR charges , surreptitiously obtained a copy of the 15-page question­ lban children in Sarawak have a long way to go to catch up with naire and commissioned a research fi rm to the world . Their parents ha ve grown up in the jungle isolation of test it. . the Island of Borneo. but this generation must become educated "Si nce they did it in an unethical manner if the !bans are to take their rightful place in the affairs of the and without asking permission," Ms . youthful Malaysia federation. Margulies says , " we can only assume they were trying to find ways to discredit our Most !ban families cannot afford the school and hostel fees of research ." $25 a month for a child's secondary education. Needy !ban children. In response to a complaint, David 0 . • • • • • including Methodist pastors· sons and daughters. Cox, president of a division of Abbott, • •. could not attend high school without World acknowledged hiring National Analysts , a •• • Division scholarships. division of Booz Allen Applied Research , • • • •• Inc. , to conduct 40 test interviews using • • • • • •••• the church agency questionnaire. He • wrote that the questionnaire " seemed to us to be exceedingly complex and difficult to • administer, even assuming the use of fully • experienced and professional interview­ • ers. " He continued, ''In view of our legitimate • interest in the subject, we asked National • Analysts to assist us by examining the • • questionnaire to see how interviewers and • mothers could deal with the questionnaire • • itself in the field." • The ICCR claims that National Analysts • • suggested to Abbott executives that per­ • • mission be sought from the NCC ancl ICCR • • to use the questionnaire and was told not • • to . • • Critics of the use of infant formula claim • • that effects of its use in less developed • • • Clip this coupon • cou ntries of the world are well-document­ and mail with STREET ADDRESS • ed , but not in the United States . • • your check to : CITY STATE ZIP • " Women who are poor are likely to World Division • over-dilute the expensive formula in order • Room 1439 CHURCH ANNUAL CONFERENCE • to make it stretc h over more days than 4 75 Ri verside Dr. Tni· ur11tt..'i 1 M em0 11,~1 Cn11c1 Suoour t P109ram •S a oar1 o t rne worto w• de mm1stry o t • •e New York, NY 10027 fhp Bo.u n v1 G1 uea1 M 1n1~1•1es au w 11 n cn1 ltJ cait- onsr+tut•ons aoo1oved as Aovi\nce Soec•als e intended ," according to the NCC-ICCR •••••••••••••••• • • •••• • ••••••••• •• • New World Outlook • June 1979 [285] 45 of Dallas, Texas, a self-avowed homosexu­ mendation for termination." deep concern over the " Freedom of Th( al , April 27 in Cincinnati. The mood of the executive session, Religion Bill 1978" and appealed to the Afric< Her employment as a field staff member according to the officers, was " agonizing, Indian government to reject the bill now curre of the division ended May 1. She will searching, deliberative. We were probing being debated in Parliament. It negates the and I receive separation pay and maximum legalities, conscious of the constituency as fundamental constitutional right of. Ind ians devel benefits as provided by the United Meth­ well as the task of the leadership. There to profess and propagate their religion, the Bis ho odist Board of Global Ministries, of which was concern that the Women's Division board was told. projel the Women's Division is a part. and United Methodist Women continue to Grappling with the funding of a new progr The action of the division, taken in be , in the words of one director, 'the finest Africa program that would take advantage ence. closed session, was reported to the news platform the world has.' " of "exciting new opportunities" for church On media by the six officers of the division, In reply to a query, the officers said the growth and development on the continent, ly op who constitute its personnel committee. It attorney for the Board of Global Ministries the BGM proposed $200,000 be sought in petiti( was this group which had asked for and was called in to answer questions. The 1981 , $300,000 for 1982, $400,000 for convE received Ms. Clark's resignation on April personnel committee indicated it did not 1983 and $500,000 for 1984. The money move 22. The following day the division as a base its decision primarily on legal matters. would come from a proposed Emerging ad voe whole voted not to accept the resignation . Ms. Clark had told the personnel commit­ Mission Opportunity Fund . A key element federi Ms. Clark subsequently withdrew her tee the announcement of her homosexuali­ of the program is creation of a Church "iil·CI resignation in a letter to the personnel ty was " non-negotiable," the officers said. Growth and Development Committee with looki committee. The announcement came in a report on a the majority of members African United prob! On Apri I 27 the officers said their action four-month st udy leave which she sub­ Methodists. Up was based on the Discipline, which is " our mitted to the personnel committee before Po rt ia mandate." They agreed with Ms . Clark that the division convened April 20. Chu re her effectiveness with the constituency On her leave she studied th e chu rch's resolJ might be impaired by her announcement role in selected civil rights struggles during "Dec that she is a lesbian . 1960-68. She also explored " a series of mom! Another reason, given by President Mai programmatic possibilities for the ed uca­ towr.I Gray, was that " with the vicious attacks tion/advocacy work of the Women's Divi­ pos1t11 and publicity the division and the board sion and United Methodist Women. " conse have received , we did not feel we could ~eU withstand this action with the constituen­ PLIGHT OF ASIAN CHRISTIANS that cy." CONCERNS GLOBAL MINISTRIES Pro Women's D ivision staff executive Solidarity with the Christian minorities affir~ Theressa Hoover added, " It was a question in Paki sta n, in Ind ia and in South Korea in the whether it was more important to have the was expressed by the United Methodist natio\ division in a position where it could Board of Global Ministries (BGM) on the case strongly represent a broad range of justice final day of its spring meeting in Cincinnati F i~ issues including this one or whether to April 20-28. by th\ make a stand here and risk further effec­ Warning of " an ominous trend" in Korea tiveness." certain Asian countries, Bishop Roy C. liberj The officers' statement to the news Nichols of the Pittsburgh Area , a BGM the j media said, " We affirm Joan Clark as a officer, said legislation is proposed to miss person and share her pain. We deeply prohibit " re ligious propaganda" if govern­ Worl regret the resignation of two directors ment interprets it as an attempt to convert. Th following the vote. Both are good members The 175 directors of the largest admin­ lthni of the division and the board. " istrative unit in the 9.8 million-member missi The two directors who resigned are denomination applauded action by the the 1 Richard Cash of New York City and Susan National Christian Council of Pakistan. On We all speak it-understand it. On Wagar of Galesburg, Mich. March 20 it expressed " deep consterna­ Even the church uses it to com­ "leth The officers said they received a number tion" at the plight of Christians denied municate the Gospel. In this and 90 a"br of telegrams, many from Dallas, some jobs, political and civil rights and a place in other nations, United Methodist pro gr supportive of the original division ac tion. social institutions . The NCCP urged Presi­ World Service dollars speak to quad Referring to events si nee its vote on Apri I dent Mohammad Zia-ul-Hag " to give people through missions, evan­ Hun! consideration to the growing insecurity" of 23, the officers said they offered Ms. Clark gelism, education, worship, stew­ pnon an opportunity to resign again April the Christians and to take practical steps to 27. ardship, social action, minority con­ local They added, "When that option was ameliorate their sufferings . cerns and other forms of Christian HL unacceptable (to her), the personnel com­ In support of the basic human rights of witness. Each World Service dollar the t mittee informed Ms. Clark of its recom- Ind ian Christians, the BGM expressed speaks of your concern for a world curre desperately needing to hear the refug good news of Jesus Christ. lacki dom1 World Service Is agnc people serving people. OUll! iJOVe The July-August issue will have an article on San Antonio, Texas (i n preparation For more information Sir for the Convocation on Christian Mission), a piece on church vitality in Marxist on how the annual $24,980,000 IJ.S. Angola, and the second installment of John Hart's report from Puebla . There are World Service budget boar also articles on a Vietnamese deaconess, Christian education of the retarded , and "speaks" write: Hun1 the work of the United Methodist Committee on Relief in Bangladesh. Associate United Methodist A Communications editor Ellen Clark has a report on what has happened to Indochinese resettled by PIOV1 1200 Davia Street United Methodist churches. Evanston, Ill. 60201 Pilat of ir 11-$ 46 [286] New World Outlook • June 1979 The board ins isted that giving to the new Similarly, the board approved three levels It was reported to the board that : Africa program must be above and beyond of appropriation from its portion of World * the Rev . Robert Huston, head of EICD, current giving to various Africa projects Service, the church's basic benevolence had collapsed earl y Apri l 28 and been and the Black College Fund . It voted to fund : level 1-$11 ,600,000; level 11- taken to the hospital ; but his condition develop a budget and ask the Council of $11 ,800,000; level 111-$12,000,000. was sa id to be not critical; Bishops to help raise funds after the Final budgets will be approved at the * the final report of the Committee on projects has been cleared as a " special October meeting. Institutional Racism , to be made at the program" by the 1980 General Confer­ On recommendation of the Committee 1980 spring meeting, will evaluate ence . on Personnel , a seven percent salary each co.mponent's plans to eliminate On the domestic front, the BGM formal­ increase was voted fo r general staff and a racism ; ly opposed efforts of state legislatures to 2.5 percent increase for executive staff for * a boycott of Chiquita bananas has been petition Congress to call a constitutional 1980. called for by National Division in convention . Two forces are behind the Looking ahead , Treasurer Stephen F. support of striking United Farm Work­ move, said the resolution : " right to life" Brimigion said preliminary estimates by ers in Cal ifornia; advocates and proponents of a balanced the General Council on Finance and * 125 recipients of Crusade Scholarships federal budget. The move was termed Administration are that by 1984 the church from the United Methodist Church w ill "ill-conceived ... promoted by persons will have only a 14 percent increase in be brought together for the first time looking for easy solutions to complex World Service over the 1979 level. Infla­ ever to examine the mission of the problems." tion, he reminded , will be 14 percent by church in global context; Upon motion of Bishop Jack Tuell of the the end of this year. The church " can 't go * copies of a statement on " The Church Portland (Ore.) Area , a reference to the on strangli ng the mission arm, " he said . and Persons with Mental, Physical Chu rch-State issue was removed from the After a year's consideration the Ecu­ and/or Psychologically Handicapping resolu tion. Left standing were these words: menical and lnterreligious Co ncerns Divi­ Conditions" were distributed to board " Declaring the fetus a person from the sion (E ICD) recommended it become a members by Health and Welfare Min­ moment of conception would be , in effect, free-standing General Commission on istrie~ Division; to write into the Constitution a theological Christian Unity and lnterreligious Con­ * a church-wide mission study on elimi­ position which represents no national cerns, severing its relationsh ip to the BGM nation of institutional racism will be consensus. Various faith groups, including if General Conference concurs. The developed by Education and Cultiva­ the United Methodist Church, do not share change was proposed " for more effective tion Division for 1981 use ; that theology." and clear relationships to the entire church * a letter signed by 60 former members, Professor James E. Will of Evanston , Ill., in the raising of Christian unity commit­ including four former presidents, of the affirmed: " We are concerned not to have ments and practice. " Women's Division, had been received in the Constitution what is not a genuine A new Unit on Mission Personnel was affirming the integrity of the division's nat ional consensus. We've done that in the voted to go into effect in 1981 . Duties staff as " our partners in mission ." case of prohibition and learned better." mentioned incl uded recruitment, screen­ (Frances S. Smith, UMC) Fifteen new missionaries were approved ing, orientation, placement, evaluation, by the BGM for service in Malaysia, India, career development and termination. Korea, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone , However, the World Division felt it needed The cure for pollution Liberia and Nigeria. They will be added to " special responsibility for the care of lspeople. the roster of 1, 104 full- and part-time missionaries overseas." The matter was missionaries presently funded by the referred to the committee on Personnel in WortOOg together. World Division for overseas service . Mission . The BGM supported a proposal that the In the closing plenary Bishop D . Ethnic Minority Loca l Church be the sole Frederick Wertz, board president, cal led missional priority for the denomination in for a period of silence during which the 1981-84 quadrennium. directors were asked to pray " prayers of On recommendation of the United gratitude, appreciation and concern" for Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), those persons listed in a report of staff a "brief" was approved outlining a special cha nges. O ne was Joe W. Walker, assis­ program on World Hunger for the next tant general secretary of the Cultivation quadrennium. In the current quadrennium Section, Education and Cultivation, who Hunger has been one of three missional resigned after 10 years as head of the priorities along with the Ethnic Minority Advance. Local Church and Evangelism . Another of those listed was Joan Clark, a Hunger is "complex and multi-faceted" field staff member of the Women's Divi­ the brief said . There is need to continue sion and a self-avowed lesbian who was current programs of emergency response , terminated effective May 1. Earlier in the refugee ministries related to hunger, at­ session Mai Gray, president of the tacking root causes of hunger, combatting Women's Division, reported " for informa­ Our streets and countryside domestic hunger, training rural leaders in tion" that the division on April 27 termin­ have become dumping grounds agriculture and nutrition, and " educating ated Ms . Clark and would grant maximum for trash . But all across Ameri ca, ourselves on the nature of hungPr and salary be nefits provided by the board people are now recycling 8 mi llion poverty." policy manual. tons of it a year. Since 1977, 261 hunger projects in the Richard B. Bryant Jr. of Raleigh , N.C. , U.S. and abroad have been aided by the expressed his " distress" that the final For a brochure showing how _.._.._ _ board 's inter-divisional Committee on plenary had not been open to discussion you can participate in dozens ot projects like this, write Hunger, it was reported . on how the board as a whole might deal Kffll Amerte11 Be• utllul, Inc. A first draft of the 1980 budget, ap­ with the fear of homosexuals. He also 99 Park Avenue. proved here, sets three levels of appro­ voiced concern at the use of a hymn " with N.Y., N.Y. 10016. priations, each providing for varying levels totally masculine language" by a body that of income: level 1-$38,855,007; level says it is concern ed about issues affecting 11-$39,055,007; level 111-$39,255 ,007. women. A Public Service of Th is Maga21ne & The Ad ver tising Counci l New World Outlook • June 1979 (287) 47 A Timely Mission Study ''middle east mosaic''

Countries on the map from Egypt to Turkey and Iran are the focus. Three great religions-Judaism, Christianity and lsla~xert their influence in the Middle East. The study probes reality in view of the region's religious, cultural, economic and political mix.

BASIC BOOKS FOR ADULTS AND YOUTH A Sojourn in Mosaic.· By Robert A. Elfers. Two young persons journey through the Middle East, one on a mission to find the other. Encounters are set in Cairo, Beirut and Jerusalem. The narrative reveals much about the political scene and hazards of daily life. Christians are personified in ministry and witness. Many viewpoints are expressed through the characters. $2.95.

Conflict or Community: A Guide to the Middle East Mosaic.• By David H. Bowman. Guide for use of the Middle East study resources for children, youth and adults. $2.75.

SUPPLEMENTARY The World of Islam: By John B. Taylor. A noted Islamics authority depicts Islam through its historical roots and contemporary outreach. $3.95.

Peace, Justice and Reconciliation in the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Christian Perspective.* By Pratt, Baum, Burbidge, Dunphy, Langan, Oxtoby and Powles. From Canada comes this collective statement calling for new attitudes for the future. $2.75. AUDIOVISUALS

Many Yet One: The Church and the Churches in the Middle East.· Co FOR CHILDREN filmstrip with cassette and guidance, telling the story of the Christi Signpost/Middle East.• By Anne C. Stephens. Set of five story papers with presence in the Middle East. Churches, styles of worship and sense stories and games for older elementary boys and girls. Set in Egypt, The Holy mission are presented. $12. Land, Israel, Lebanon and Turkey. $2.50. Hope for Ufe:· 16mm. color documentary showing how Christi New Friends/New Places.· By Constance J. Tarasar. Set of four story papers through the Middle East Council of Churches and Church World Se for younger elementary children ; settings in Egypt, Israel and Lebanon . are helping people to help themselves. The Coptic Church is depict $2.50 Rental $15.00.

*Order from Service Center, 7820 Reading Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45237. **Order films from United Methodist Film Service, 1525 McGavock Street, Nashville, TN 37204.

1he United Methodist Church