Status Report: PJN'S OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDING BISHOP AND ALL BISHOPS OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

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STATUS REPORT: PJN'S OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDING BISHOP AND ALL BISHOPS OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Many of you on the PJN listserv are among the over 1000 endorsers who added their names or that of an Episcopal organization to the Open Letter. This is a deeply heartening response, stirring up hope that together we might raise an effective cry against the silence of our church in the face of genocide. Thank you for endorsing!

The Open Letter began when one of our PJN members wrote in August that “Israel is attempting, with the active support of the United States, to exterminate the Palestinians as a people, yet the church has been all but totally silent about this genocide.” In response PJN, mindful that the House of Bishops was meeting in the Dominican Republic from Sept. 9 through 15, composed an open letter asking for prayerful deliberation by the bishops, saying “We pray that the bishops will respond to these voices in the Church by naming the genocide and speaking out on this human tragedy.”

The Open Letter was submitted by PJN to the General Convention Office, with a request to forward it to all the bishops prior to the meeting. With no reply from that Office, PJN has no way of knowing whether the Letter was indeed forwarded. At the time of submission, endorsers numbered 419, including indi- vidual members of our church plus four organizations. Midway through the bishops’ meeting that number had grown to 995.

Some of the Letter’s endorsers sent copies to their diocesan bishops. A few received friendly but noncommittal responses, others received no response at all.

An ENS report on proceedings includes an opening message by Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe which referenced “humanitarian crises and conflicts world wide” among the challenges facing the church. But neither Gaza or genocide was named. “A Word to the Episcopal Church from the House of Bishops” reported that the bishops meeting “engaged in deep conversations concerning our voices as bishops in our respective dioceses as well as our collective voice as the bishops of The Episcopal Church. These conversations have been faithful and challenging and have revealed to us both the possibilities and limits that exist with regard to speaking with a shared voice as your bishops.” No common, prophetic voice was discovered by our bishops in the Dominican Republic.

Where does this leave us? During a 'Conversation with the Rev. Father Fadi Diab' on September 17, sponsored by the Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations, Fr. Diab, Rector of St. Andrew’s Church in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said Palestinian Christians will never forget or forgive the silence of the churches. Palestinians feel abandoned by the Western churches. In July, from the Carter Center in Atlanta, the Rev. Munther Isaac, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem said, “We Palestinians have every right to ask, ‘Can we truly be in fellowship with churches that are silent, or that deny our genocide? Can someone claim to stand in solidarity with us while refusing to say the word genocide?’”

Our Presiding Bishop and the House of Bishops, gathered in the Dominican Republic, refused to name genocide or recognize our complicity, through funding and silence, in this worst of crimes against humanity.

PJN Admin Group 

Cliff Cutler, Diocese of Pennsylvania

Rebecca Fadil, Diocese of Virginia

Tom Foster, Diocese of Rochester

Linda Gaither, Diocese of Central NY

Harry Gunkel, Diocese of West Texas