Episcopal Press and News

NCC Launches New Mideast Relief Effort

Episcopal News Service. April 4, 1991 [91094C]

The National Council of Churches (NCC), in close cooperation with the Middle East Council of Churches, has launched the "Olive Branch Campaign" to help meet the humanitarian needs of those caught in the devastation and dislocation of the war in the Persian Gulf. The Church World Service (CWS), the NCC's relief arm, will carry out the emergency campaign, which includes a $1 million appeal for aid to survivors in Iraq and Kuwait and refugees in Jordan, the West Bank, and Gaza. "This is an extension of efforts begun last August [but] the appeal carries a clear message in terms of resurrection," said Daniel Chelliah of Episcopal Migration Ministries. The olive branch symbolism is especially fitting, said Dr. Lani Havens, executive director of the CWS, because it denotes "a response of peace and compassion -- life beginning again, reconstruction after devastation, [and] a divinely bestowed second chance."