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In a dramatic change from the past, assembly sails through Middle East issues

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ST. LOUIS — It was close to midnight June 22 when J. Herbert Nelson, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) sounding solemn, announced from the podium of the 223rd General Assembly that he thought the commissioners had just experienced something never before seen in the history of the church. “Thirty-five minutes to deal with the Middle East,” said Nelson, the church’s stated clerk. The laughter from the assembly floor was colored by the memory of prior years when divisions over how the church should contribute to peacemaking efforts in Israel-Palestine spilled over from committee meetings onto the assembly floor and often seemed to overshadow much of the other business commissioners had to deal with. The contrast with the speed and ease of the assembly’s handling of Middle East issues this year might have been a little misleading. The committee that dealt with those issues had some weighty matters to sort through, but its members were able to come to a … [Read more...]

Tagged With: GA223 • Middle East

PC(USA) joins with Salvadoran church to combat plague of gang violence

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ST. LOUIS — Families who have suffered detention and separation from their children upon reaching the southern U.S. border have typically left behind a different, often deadly sort of trauma in their home countries in Central America. The 223rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is partnering with a Salvadoran church to help reduce levels of gang-related violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador that have led families to flee those countries in fear for their own and their children’s lives. On June 21, the assembly passed an overture from the Presbytery of the Pacific that makes the PC(USA) a partner in working for region-wide and country-specific changes in policy sought by the Reformed Calvinist Church of El Salvador (IRCES). The vote to approve was 463-45. Changes called for by the assembly would include: assignment of a mission partner to help develop a refugee and immigration advocacy network; ensuring that leaders from the region get heard by the … [Read more...]

Tagged With: GA223

General Assembly condemns the government for separating children from their families

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ST. LOUIS — Bart Smith, a teaching elder from De Cristo Presbytery, argued that “God’s people” should mince no words in calling out the federal government for separating children from their parents and detaining families in prison-like conditions. The 223rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) endorsed that line of thinking June 21 with a 484-34 vote for a resolution that calls for an immediate end to the government’s zero-tolerance policy toward families illegally entering the United States. The resolution also calls for federal authorities to promptly reunite parents and children who have been separated and to place families “under the care of the community,” rather than in detention. The assembly approved an amendment Smith offered that puts a sharper edge on the resolution as passed by its Committee on Peacemaking, Immigration, and International Issues. The amendment condemns an executive order, newly issued by President Trump, that would end the separation of … [Read more...]

Tagged With: GA223

Panel agrees PC(USA) should defend right to boycott over human rights

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  ST. LOUIS — In its final day of work, the Middle East Issues Committee sent forward what its advocates call a free-speech measure — one that could potentially set the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) at odds with legislation that has drawn strong support in Congress. On June 19, the committee endorsed a call for the church to resist federal and state efforts to levy penalties for boycotts, divestments or sanctions (BDS) aimed at human rights violations in Israel and Palestine. The measure (overture 12-01, from the Synod of the Covenant) describes legislation embodied in Senate Bill 720 and House Resolution 1697 as a looming threat that would impose civil and criminal penalties for nonviolent BDS actions. The overture passed on a 50-2 vote with some slight change of wording. Like other actions passed by the committee, it will go next before the plenary session of the denomination’s 223rd General Assembly. Referring to the defense of free speech, one advocate told … [Read more...]

Tagged With: GA223 • Israel/Palestine • Middle East

Middle East panel endorses call on congregations to support “grassroots” peacemaking efforts

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ST. LOUIS — The General Assembly’s Middle East Issues Committee sped smoothly through much of its agenda June 18. The only close votes were on a measure that calls on congregations to support grassroots peacemaking efforts and one that takes the RE/MAX real estate company to task for persisting in marketing property in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Grassroots peacemaking Before endorsing this commissioners’ resolution, committee members questioned what the term “grassroots” peacemaking really means and examined arguments against the resolution offered by several advisory groups within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). One of them, the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, accused the resolution’s authors of setting up “a false dichotomy between policy and grassroots action.” After deleting some other language that some members found puzzling, the Middle East panel voted 29-25 to send the measure forward to the General … [Read more...]

Tagged With: GA223

Human rights advocate claims death threat after speaking to General Assembly panel

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ST. LOUIS — Threats are nothing new for Bassem Eid. During his 26 years of investigating human rights abuses, he’s gotten a lot of them. He says he received another one on June 18, when he stepped outside a meeting room in the St. Louis Convention Center where he’d spoken in favor of a measure condemning both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for indoctrinating and exploiting children in ways that perpetuate violence and hatred. Eid, 60, is a rare sort of human rights activist — a Palestinian who speaks out as vehemently against Palestinian abuses as he does against those committed by Israelis. After speaking to a committee of the 223rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), he said, a young man approached him, accused him of being a Palestinian Zionist and told him in Arabic that he would kill him. “He said that he’s Palestinian,” gave a name and claimed he was a relative, Eid said. “I know the family, but I don’t know that that’s his real name,” he … [Read more...]

Tagged With: GA223 • Israel/Palestine

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