Episcopal Press and News

Refugee Sunday, Sept. 17

Diocesan Press Service. August 7, 1967 [56-6]

What will happen to the one and a half million Palestinian refugees?

The fate of these people, some 200,000 of whom were made homeless by the recent Middle East conflict, is largely up to those who care, here in the United States and elsewhere. The Arab countries where these people find shelter do not have the resources to care for them and assimilate them. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, charged with the feeding, housing, welfare and education of these refugees, has a 1967 budget of only $39 million. This meant $30 per person per year before the recent crisis. UNWRA has also suffered material losses from the recent military conflict: vehicles destroyed, casualties among staff workers, and looted stockrooms. A radical shifting of local refugee populations has also added to UNWRA's burdens.

The World Council of Churches has issued an appeal for $2 million to aid these war victims and begin the work of rehabilitation. Churches in the United States have agreed to raise $1 million of this goal. The Episcopal Church's share in this is $100,000 to $150,000, with an additional $50,000 to meet the emergency needs of Anglican and Orthodox churches in the Holy Land.

The Presiding Bishop has asked that Sunday, Sept. 17, the opening day of General Convention, be observed as Refugee Sunday and that special offerings be taken to aid the victims of the Middle East crisis. Your contribution then will be your answer to the needs of these homeless people. Contributions can also be sent directly to the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, 815 Second Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10017 and marked for Palestinian refugees.