Presbyterians say meeting in Middle East isn’t official
The Layman Online, December 2, 2005
After three delegations from the Presbyterian Church (USA) met with the leader of Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon, a denominational official has informed Jewish leaders that Presbyterians will develop guidelines for members traveling in troubled regions, according to today’s New York Times.
The latest meeting occurred in October and was reported by the Middle East Research Institute (MEMRI), a highly respected, non-partisan organization that translates Arabic media coverage in the region.
The Layman Online published a story about that meeting on Nov. 23, but the denominational press has made no mention of it.
The Times said Presbyterian leaders were “scrambling to maintain fragile friendships with Jewish groups” and “distancing themselves from a meeting in Lebanon between a Hezbollah commander and a Presbyterian delegation that included the denomination’s Chicago leader.”
The Times also said that the group was not officially representing the PCUSA, although the arrangements were made by the Rev. Nuhad Tomeh, whose work as the associate general secretary of Middle East Conference of Churches in Beirut is profiled on a PCUSA Web page. Tomeh is also the regional liaison for the PCUSA for Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and the Gulf.
The spokesman for the Presbyterian group was Robert Worley, a retired professor at the PCUSA’s McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.
According to MEMRI, Worley told Hezbollah’s Nabil Qaouk: “We do not wish to defend the U.S. administration. We all elected the Democratic Party against the Republican Party. Rest assured that we will return to the U.S. in order to continue our activity for peace, and we want to hear about the charity activities and the cultural and social activities organized by Hizbullah in south [Lebanon]. The Americans hear in the Western media that Hizbullah is a terrorist organization, and they do not hear any other opinion. They know nothing about the party’s concern for the people of the south. We have suffered much pressure on the part of Jewish organizations in the U.S. because [of our help in] divesting corporations working with Israel. We want Jerusalem to be a united city, just as we encouraged the Palestinians and the Jews to work for peace, and we demanded that our administration adheres to this position.”
Another member of the Presbyterian delegation was Rev. Robert Reynolds, Chicago’s executive presbyter. The Times reported that Reynolds said in a letter Thursday that he regretted attending the meeting because Hezbollah “used the group’s visit for political purposes.”
The article said Jay Rock, the PCUSA’s national coordinator for interfaith relations, promised Jewish leaders in a letter this week that “Presbyterians would develop guidelines for members traveling in troubled regions, saying those at the Hezbollah meeting should have made clear the church’s positions ‘against terrorism in any form, and for the security and vitality of Israel.'”
The U.S. State Department lists Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and says it is responsible for two bombings that killed 270 Americans.
News of the latest meeting of Presbyterians with Hezbollah’s leader has generated another avalanche of criticism from Jewish organizations, including a statement posted today by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
“Americans should be deeply troubled by PCUSA’s decision to permit ongoing contacts with Hezbollah, a terrorist organization in word and deed,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “It was disturbing enough that PCUSA officials met recently with Hezbollah’s Commander in Southern Lebanon. But to learn that future meetings would be sanctioned, even after Hezbollah launched unprovoked bloody attacks designed to kidnap Israelis, will only further embolden the forces of terrorism in the Holy Land, in Lebanon and around the world.”