Terrorism is topic of UN Office seminar
Participants view Ground Zero from a Christian
perspective
by Evan Silverstein, Presbyterian News Service
[posted here 8-6-02]
NEW YORK CITY - 05-June-2002 - Forty-five Presbyterians from around the
world gathered here recently for a four-day seminar on global terrorism.
The May 2-5 event, Tackling Terrorism: Faith Talks in
the Aftermath of September 11th, sponsored by the Presbyterian United
Nations Office, gave participants an opportunity to visit Ground Zero in
Manhattan and to explore terrorism and its causes from a Christian
perspective.
Presbyterian ministers and lay people heard from
non-governmental leaders, including officials from Human Rights Watch
and the United Nations Association for the USA, and made a pilgrimage to
the site where suicidal terrorists slammed hijacked airliners into the
towers of the World Trade Center last September.
"Much has been said over the last six months
concerning terrorism, security, war and justice," said Leslie
Bethell, seminar program planner for the UN office, "but too few of
these discussions have taken place within the framework of Christian
love and peacemaking.
"It is our hope that by educating Presbyterian(s)
... about these issues in the context of Christian ethics, we will all
be able to gain a better understanding of the world around us and what
our response, as peacemakers, should be."
Participants also met with a representative of
Peaceful Tomorrows, an advocacy group founded by family members of
victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to seek effective non-violent responses
to terrorism.
One member of that group, the Rev. Myrna Bethke, a
United Methodist pastor from Freehold, NJ, shared her vision of a
non-violent future and called for solidarity among victims of terrorism
worldwide.
"For me, it's how do we address the systemic
causes of violence and terror and look for alternative ways to seek
solutions to our differences?" said Bethke, whose brother, Bill
Bethke, was killed in one of the Trade Center towers. "Rather than
just kind of the knee-jerk violent reaction."
After visiting Ground Zero, the group hung a chain of
paper "peace cranes" on a wrought-iron fence around St. Paul's
Chapel, one block from the site. The fence has become a shrine festooned
with visitors' signs, flags, T-shirts, candles, flowers and other
mementos.
In addition to the briefings on terrorism and
international cooperation in fighting it, participants attended
workshops led by General Assembly Council (GAC) staff members and other
church leaders on topics such as How to Make a Difference in the
Israeli/Palestinian Conflict and Dealing with Tough Topics (like
September 11th) in the Family.
"One of the most exciting parts of our work is
helping seminar participants explore ways in which they can take what
they have learned back to their congregations and communities,"
Bethell said.
The next Presbyterian UN Office seminar will focus on
the global AIDS pandemic. The program, co-sponsored by the AIDS Task
Team from the Worldwide Ministries Division, is scheduled for Oct. 24.
For details, contact the Presbyterian UN Office by mail at 777 United
Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017, by phone at (212) 697-4568, or by
email at seminars@presbyun.org;
or visit its Web site at www.pcusa.org/peacemaking/un
