Hotline 2002

Thank you, Mr Moderator. Peter Makari representing the United Church of Christ in the United States. I want to express our church’s gratitude to the United Reformed Church for your sincere expressions of support in the days following September 11th. Your iteration of partnership, which is surely manifested in multiple ways, was particularly appreciated at that time of tragedy in the US. My own responsibilities primarily include our church’s relationships in the Middle East and Europe. Since last autumn, I have been extremely engaged, speaking and teaching in our congregations and in other church settings about the Middle East, Islam and faith relations. If September 11th has had any positive result, it would suggest that it is the valuable learning opportunity it afforded our churches, prompting them to seek to understand these issues more deeply and engage with other faith committees more deliberately. Despite the general feelings of revenge and suspicion aroused among Americans toward Muslims and Middle Easterners, I am pleased to report to you that the sentiment in our churches, at least, is quite different. My United Church of Christ colleagues and I have found a sincere openness and indeed eagerness among our church members to hear alternative analyses of September 11th and discussion of the Islamic world and interfaith relations, that are quite at odds with the perspectives presented by the American media and the views expressed by the US government in prosecuting the “war on terror” indeed, my colleagues and I have consistently suggested that while September 11th was tragic, people throughout the world suffer their own September 11th's often on a daily basis and frequently as a direct or indirect result of US foreign policy. In an April pastoral letter, the United Church of Christ stated “Our church has a history of critiquing the ‘conventional wisdom’ of the day … In the wake of September 11th,… we would resist the temptation to solve the world’s problems by the use of the instruments of war. In a world in which the United States functions as sole superpower, we in the church are called to witness to the interdependence of all people; that in God’s eyes the life of every human being is precious”

In the context of the exceedingly close relationship between our governments in prosecuting provocative foreign policy, it is especially valuable for alternative perspectives to be voiced in the UK and in the US. Representing a US partner to the United Reformed Church I can say that we applaud your courage and forthrightness in expressing the views and recommendations contained in the proposed resolution 51, if passed the United Church of Christ will promise to do what it can to make this resolution available to our churches, just as the UCC stands prepared to cooperate in the spirit of partnership in the practical implementation of the resolution, according to your wishes. Thank You