Episcopal Press and News
Lambeth Adopts Emergency Resolution on Middle East
Episcopal News Service. August 11, 1988 [88178]
CANTERBURY, England (DPS, Aug. 11) -- The Lambeth Conference has sought to encourage the peace process in the Middle East and address the issue of hostages by adopting a resolution on Aug. 2 entitled "Iran, Iraq and Lebanon" -- but only after a surprising revelation by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Responding to an informal question by a British reporter, Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie said that Archbishop David Penman of Melbourne (Australia) had visited Iran at his request in late July to look into the status of western hostages and to foster better relations between the Iranian and Australian governments. Another Anglican bishop, he said, John Brown of Cyprus and the Gulf, had gone to Lebanon at the end of July at his request to ask Lebanese Christian leaders to help locate four Iranian hostages believed held in Lebanon by Christian extremists.
The emergency resolution was brought before a plenary session of the Lambeth Conference on the same day press accounts of the Archbishop's revelation were published.
Adopted unanimously with minor amendments, the resolution "welcomes Iran's acceptance of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 598 to end the conflict in the Middle East and looks to Iraq to honor its commitment to do so"; condemns the use, sale and supply of chemical weapons; recognizes the grief and suffering of hostages, their families and all victims the civil war in Lebanon; and asks all nations to work toward the release of all hostages in Lebanon whatever their nationality."
Proposing the resolution was Bishop Robert Witcher of Long Island, who himself has discussed the plight of western hostages with Iranian officials in the United States.
In a news conference, Archbishop Runcie said he was responsible for initiating the emergency resolution on "the issue of peace or war in the Middle East." "It's a tradition at Lambeth Conference to react immediately to issues that are important," he said.
Archbishop Penman said that he thought western hostages held in Lebanon would probably be released before the end of the year, because American and Israeli elections are scheduled.
The Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations told reporters in New York that the visits of the two Anglican prelates were positive steps in the peace process.