Episcopal Press and News

Browning Issues Easter Appeal

Episcopal News Service. April 14, 1988 [88068]

NEW YORK (DPS, Apr. 14) -- The Episcopal Church continues to respond to the concerns of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East and to the plight of all of the Palestinian people. Links between the Church in the United States and the Church in Jerusalem have grown closer as the confrontational situation between Israelis and the people of Gaza and the West Bank continues. Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning and the Rt. Rev. Samir Kafity, President-Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, have formed a close bond of concern for the safety of all of the people of the region -- Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

The Presiding Bishop has expressed his continuing concern for the region and its people in a number of concrete ways. In March he sent an observer team to Jerusalem -- a team which included his wife, who had previously visited the region with him -- to assess the situation. The Good Friday Offering, traditionally given to the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, took on a special significance in light of the events in the area and the findings of the Presiding Bishop's observer team. In fact, the Presiding Bishop was so moved by conditions in the region that is so central to three of the world's great religions that he made a special appeal at Easter (text follows) through the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief for the Diocese of Jerusalem and indicated his intention to continue to respond in an informed and constructive way to the problems of the region.

In his Jerusalem Appeal, Browning was especially firm in his resolve to help in a constructive and impartial way. "We cannot...allow ourselves to become judges of the situation. Rather we have to ask ourselves: what constructive role can the Christian community, notably the Episcopal Church, play in resolving this situation in a land which is part of our heritage as well?"